Problem is that the PAS 16/Studio is a more advanced PAS and PAS 16 and requires a faster CPU than a 5170 (6 or 8 mhz 286) has and better chipset/BIOS support.
In my PAS Studio manual it states under hardware requirements: 386SX or better and 2MB ram or better. That is not the software requirements but the hardware.
Now I have gotten the original PAS16 to work OK under a 286-12 but still there are some issues even at those CPU speeds and will never recommend it.
Currently own 6 PAS 16 variants and one PAS Thunderboard but am not an expert but can say you are trying to use a sound card not designed for your very early 286 platform.
A Creative SB PRO CT1350 may work better but you still may have issues with lack of CPU power when you fire up a game...just my experience.

Thanks, Horun - that certainly seems reasonable. In doing some prelim research, I saw plenty of references to systems being too fast for the PAS to function properly, but I never stopped to think about an AT being too slow. Guess it's time to look into an Adlib clone, unless I get lucky enough to stumble across an affordable CT1350 or similar.

Out of curiosity, do you have any thoughts on shoehorning something like a Vibra 16 into a 5170? I know I could pick one of those up inexpensively and there's almost nothing to configure, but I have no idea if I'd encounter a similar horsepower issue with something of that generation.

Thanks again!

Quick answer: No the Vibra chips are PnP and require a ICU/CTM or other software to enable the plug-n-play chip, will not work on 286.
You need a jumper set card or early EEPROM software type (like Aztech type that Packard Bell used). Just a quick answer...

Horun wrote on 2021-10-07, 03:03:

Quick answer: No the Vibra chips are PnP and require a ICU/CTM or other software to enable the plug-n-play chip, will not work on 286.
You need a jumper set card or early EEPROM software type (like Aztech type that Packard Bell used). Just a quick answer...

A vibra card will work fine in a 286. (Same as many other plug and play cards)

Use Unisound to configure it instead of ICM/CTCM.

If I remember correctly, the PAS16 needs -5V if I'am not mistaken. Do you have -5V?

It generates it's own -5v apparently: https://x86.fr/atx2at-smart-converter-negative-rails/

Thanks to everyone for the guidance. The card is usable enough right now for 8-bit applications that I'll probably just keep experimenting with it, but I'll also keep an eye out for alternative solutions.
The one thing I still can't understand about the PAS is that upon a fresh boot, it won't produce any in-game audio at all unless I first go into the diagnostic utility and play a test WAV - then it works in-game just as expected. Does anyone have any experience with this?

weriov wrote on 2021-10-08, 11:20:

The one thing I still can't understand about the PAS is that upon a fresh boot, it won't produce any in-game audio at all unless I first go into the diagnostic utility and play a test WAV - then it works in-game just as expected. Does anyone have any experience with this?

I have two of these cards [*] and at least one of them (possibly both), on cold boot, they have a tendency not to initialise correctly (I'm using the MVSOUND.SYS, not sure about the version) until I have rebooted a couple times. Maybe it needs to warm up or something like that, not really sure.

So, just to confirm, 8-bit sound is working in both SB and PAS mode? But 16-bit sound is still "distorted and gets stuck in loops"?

I'm also using the cards in a 386SX-20, so the speed issue mentioned earlier might also have something to do with it, maybe your system doesn't have enough throughput for 16-bit data at the rate it is playing back at. Maybe you can find a MOD player that supports PAS16 and use a super low playback frequency for 16-bit output, e.g. 11khz/16-bit, see what happens.

I guess you can't you test in a faster machine because you probably would already have tried that.

[*] 650-0060 (SCSI), 650-0042 (LMSI)

Correct (8-bit audio works in both PAS and SB modes, while 16-bit is still garbled and "loopy"), and correct (this is the only ISA machine I currently have, so I'm not able to test in a faster system). Not that having to run the diagnostic upon boot is a big deal - it's just a little puzzling to me.

As far as the 16-bit playback issue is concerned, I guess that's not really a big deal - I can't think of any opportunity I'd really have to play 16-bit audio on a 5170 anyway. More than anything, I'd just like to know for sure that it's being caused by system speed and not by something I'm doing wrong or mis-configuring. But based on your and Horun's comments, lack of processing power does seem to be the most likely culprit, and I'm absolutely fine with that.

For what it's worth, just pulled my 386SX out of the rack and hooked it up. I also have a PAS16 that is identified as a Studio (MVDIAG reports it as such). Card seemed to work on first boot. My version of MVSOUND.SYS is 2.24. Not sure which driver pack it came from but definitely downloaded from vogondrivers.

My config.sys looks like this:

1DEVICEHIGH=C:\DRIVER\MVSOUND.SYS B:388 D:5 Q:11 S:1,220,1,7 M:0 J:0

My autoexec.bat:

1SET BLASTER=A220 D1 I7 T3
2C:\DRIVER\PAS.EXE SET VOLUME TO 80
3C:\DRIVER\PAS.EXE SET FM TO 95

But yeah, probably a speed issue in your case.

weriov wrote on 2021-10-08, 22:58:

Correct (8-bit audio works in both PAS and SB modes, while 16-bit is still garbled and "loopy")

Well if you had a Creative CT1350 that is all you get too ! They are only 8bit audio....so no loss on that one using the MediaVision card !
Sometime in the future you will be glad you have that MV Studio card, do not get rid of it.
Is one of the best older sound card made IMHO, better than any early Creative until SB 16.... just my opinion 😀

canthearu wrote on 2021-10-07, 03:29:

A vibra card will work fine in a 286. (Same as many other plug and play cards)
Use Unisound to configure it instead of ICM/CTCM.

Yeah I always forget about Unisound (probably because have never needed it)....

pan069 wrote on 2021-10-09, 00:13:

For what it's worth, just pulled my 386SX out of the rack and hooked it up. I also have a PAS16 that is identified as a Studio (MVDIAG reports it as such). Card seemed to work on first boot. My version of MVSOUND.SYS is 2.24.

Hmm can you zip that up and post it ? Maybe he needs an older version and I would like it to add to my MV library or drivers. Most of mine are v3.xx. Thanks

Horun wrote on 2021-10-09, 01:26:

pan069 wrote on 2021-10-09, 00:13:

For what it's worth, just pulled my 386SX out of the rack and hooked it up. I also have a PAS16 that is identified as a Studio (MVDIAG reports it as such). Card seemed to work on first boot. My version of MVSOUND.SYS is 2.24.

Hmm can you zip that up and post it ? Maybe he needs an older version and I would like it to add to my MV library or drivers. Most of mine are v3.xx. Thanks

Oops. Sorry, made a typo. Mine is 3.24... 😀

Horun wrote on 2021-10-09, 01:16:

Well if you had a Creative CT1350 that is all you get too ! They are only 8bit audio....so no loss on that one using the MediaVi […]
Show full quote

weriov wrote on 2021-10-08, 22:58:

Correct (8-bit audio works in both PAS and SB modes, while 16-bit is still garbled and "loopy")

Well if you had a Creative CT1350 that is all you get too ! They are only 8bit audio....so no loss on that one using the MediaVision card !
Sometime in the future you will be glad you have that MV Studio card, do not get rid of it.
Is one of the best older sound card made IMHO, better than any early Creative until SB 16.... just my opinion 😀

And in addition, the PAS16 has a built-in SB 1.5 (Thunderboard, actually), too making it comparable to the CT1350B.
The 1.5 level DSP is almost same as the one found in SB2.

However, there's one difference that I must mention for the sake of fairness.
The original SB1.0/SB1.5/SB1.0 cards do have the same volume ratio for DAC+FM combo.

See FM and PCM Volume Balance of SB Cards

Ironically, though, the 16-Bit cards do have feature rich mixers, so these balance levels can be recreated.

Jo22 wrote on 2021-10-09, 07:54:

However, there's one difference that I must mention for the sake of fairness. The original SB1.0/SB1.5/SB1.0 cards do have the s […]
Show full quote

However, there's one difference that I must mention for the sake of fairness.
The original SB1.0/SB1.5/SB1.0 cards do have the same volume ratio for DAC+FM combo.

See FM and PCM Volume Balance of SB Cards

Ironically, though, the 16-Bit cards do have feature rich mixers, so these balance levels can be recreated.

That's exactly what I ended up doing for the PAS16, see my autoexec.bat example shown earlier. 😀

But yeah, OP can just use his PAS16 as a glorified SB and ignore the PAS capabilities altogether.

pan069 wrote on 2021-10-09, 00:13:

For what it's worth, just pulled my 386SX out of the rack and hooked it up. I also have a PAS16 that is identified as a Studio ( […]
Show full quote

For what it's worth, just pulled my 386SX out of the rack and hooked it up. I also have a PAS16 that is identified as a Studio (MVDIAG reports it as such). Card seemed to work on first boot. My version of MVSOUND.SYS is 2.24. Not sure which driver pack it came from but definitely downloaded from vogondrivers.

My config.sys looks like this:

Copy code to clipboard

1DEVICEHIGH=C:\DRIVER\MVSOUND.SYS B:388 D:5 Q:11 S:1,220,1,7 M:0 J:0

My autoexec.bat:

Copy code to clipboard

1SET BLASTER=A220 D1 I7 T3
2C:\DRIVER\PAS.EXE SET VOLUME TO 80
3C:\DRIVER\PAS.EXE SET FM TO 95

But yeah, probably a speed issue in your case.

Good info ! From the Q&A troubleshoot portion of the manual it says you can set the SB audio level that way also. Example from page 99: PAS SET SB TO XX (where XX is 0 to 100)
Another thing it says there are issues with Quadtel and some Pheonix BIOS, and to place a /W in the MVSound statement after the D:# Q:# portion and prior to S: parameters. I do not remember reading those parts before ;p
The Mac PAS16 manual is at bitsavers but never found a PDF of the PC versions...

Thank you guys so much for all the additional info. Funny enough, I do have the Quadtel bios running on this machine, so I did a little poking around on the /W switch - it seems it's used to correct for an FM hanging-note issue that I haven't experienced (yet). As far as everything else - at this point, the card seems to be working just fine as a SB "clone" (as long as I initialize it manually upon boot), so I'll just keep using it that way and probably never be any the wiser!