Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-06-16, 20:07:

640K!enough wrote on 2021-06-16, 18:51:

The original Microsoft WSS board used an Analog Devices part, which was still at 534H, but other functionality was exposed at the other four I/O addresses (530H-533H). Some controllers reproduce that whole set-up (I think OPTi/MediaChips controllers do), whereas the Crystal controllers are only WSS CODEC compatible.

That's some very Interesting info. Considering that an Analog Devices chip powered the original Windows Sound System card, it makes sense that other sound cards that have their chips on-board would have the best WSS compatibility.

And yes, OPTi did often use Analog Devices chips on their cards, which is likely why their WSS compatibility tends to be top notch.

AFAIK the Crystal chips works as good as the analog chips as WSS CODECs. Both of them behave the same, and are used to implement addresses 534-537 on WSS-like cards. The more important compatibility issue is, as 640K!enough already mentioned, the four ports below that, on 530-533. The original WSS cards used these ports to configure DMA and IRQ of the card. Some games try to detect DMA and IRQ settings by reading these ports. This fails on a lot of sound cards that use their own configuration mechanism instead of the WSS one, no matter whether they use an AD1848 or CS4231 as CODEC.

mkarcher wrote on 2021-06-16, 21:50:

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-06-16, 20:07:

640K!enough wrote on 2021-06-16, 18:51:

The original Microsoft WSS board used an Analog Devices part, which was still at 534H, but other functionality was exposed at the other four I/O addresses (530H-533H). Some controllers reproduce that whole set-up (I think OPTi/MediaChips controllers do), whereas the Crystal controllers are only WSS CODEC compatible.

That's some very Interesting info. Considering that an Analog Devices chip powered the original Windows Sound System card, it makes sense that other sound cards that have their chips on-board would have the best WSS compatibility.

And yes, OPTi did often use Analog Devices chips on their cards, which is likely why their WSS compatibility tends to be top notch.

AFAIK the Crystal chips works as good as the analog chips as WSS CODECs. Both of them behave the same, and are used to implement addresses 534-537 on WSS-like cards. The more important compatibility issue is, as 640K!enough already mentioned, the four ports below that, on 530-533. The original WSS cards used these ports to configure DMA and IRQ of the card. Some games try to detect DMA and IRQ settings by reading these ports. This fails on a lot of sound cards that use their own configuration mechanism instead of the WSS one, no matter whether they use an AD1848 or CS4231 as CODEC.

I don't know how to do it, but that seems like something that could be fixed with a TSR? Or just by crystal themselves but too late for that.

Trawling through the internet, and I've found nothing about Sound Galaxy cards and Miles WSS mode.
Looks like it's a dead end, and I have to stick with SBP mode when Miles is involved.

mothergoose729 wrote on 2021-06-16, 21:53:

I don't know how to do it, but that seems like something that could be fixed with a TSR? Or just by crystal themselves but too late for that.

It could be fixed with EMM386-based virtualization, similar to the EMM386-assisted sound blaster emulation provided with many PCI sound cards. It can't be fixed by crystal, though, because the ports 530-533 that most likely cause the incompatibility are not handled by the Crystal (or Analog Devices) chip at all.