According to the manual for the AWE 64 it has a speaker input under the CD inputs, see secton 1-2:

http://ccftp.creative.com/manualdn/Manuals/TS … 877/english.pdf

As for power supplies, if the connector from the PS fits your motherboard it should supply the necessary voltages as far as I know. If you need an older style AT powersupply you can get them from Frys:

http://shop2.outpost.com/product/3238001

Well, at least I don't have to worry about the PC speaker anymore...but where do I get a proper passthrough cable? The speaker connector is a 4-pin from the look of it, but the AWE64 passthrough connector only has 2 pins. I take it that it's time to learn how to make my own cables?

Anyway, let's focus a bit more on Win98SE virtualization under Win2000. I'm sure that at least one of you is packing a dual-core CPU that can be put to really good use in this manner.

Why bother with with Windows 98 in emulation on Windows 2000 when Windows 2000 itself can run pretty much all GDI/DirectDraw games that Windows 98 can?

Back in 1995-1999 I would run 95/NT4, 98/NT4 dual-boot. 9x for gaming and NT4 for internet surfing and work.

When Windows 2000 came out it was 98/2000 dual-boot until I had finished my 2000 compatibility testing and was happy that 2000 supported all of my games. By then XP was out so it was a 2000/XP dual-boot.
I pretty much stuck with that until Windows 2003 came out and then it was just Windows 2003 in a single-boot until Vista came out and then it was a 2003/Vista dual-boot.

Now Vista isn't as compatible as XP/2003 so a XP/Vista or 2003/Vista dual-boot is still a good idea for people really worried about compatibility.

In your case you should do a Windows 98/Windows 2000 dual-boot....but only if you plan on actually using Windows 2000 on that machine. If your not going to ever boot regularly into 2000 on that machine then there's not point in putting it on there.

The only ISA cards that use a -5V line are truly ancient 8-bit ISA devices. The only two I know of are the IBM 5.25" Diskette Drive Adapter than the Roland LAPC-I sound card.

Nah, most VGA cards and some sound cards need -5V for analog signal generation.

If you know where the hot side of a soldering iron is you can make the -5V of the -12V using an integrated voltage regulator.

I use Win2000 far more regularly than Win98SE for one particular reason: SMP support. (Oh, and my BP6 system is maxed out with 768 MB of PC-133 SDRAM, and I've been told that Win98SE trips and falls flat on its face in some cases if you go over 512 MB. Well, I've had a few "not enough memory" messages...)

As far as ISA goes, the only ISA card I currently use in the BP6 system is the AWE64 Gold. I plan to add an Interwave-based Gravis Ultrasound in the other slot(if I can find one). I may also take out the AWE64 Gold if an Aureal SQ2500 provides excellent SB16 emulation, and put either a Roland LAPC-I or a SCC-1 with CM-32 attached in its place. Do any Ultrasound or dedicated Roland Sound Canvas ISA cards use -5V?

(I know what you're thinking-that's a LOT of sound cards for one PC. However, I'd prefer to have total compatibility in what is mostly a legacy gaming machine, with another major use as an Internet terminal.)

Do any Ultrasound or dedicated Roland Sound Canvas ISA cards use -5V?

This is how you will know.

Interesting about the -5V and the SCC-1, I never realized that was something I needed to be concerned about. So what are the symptoms if your power supply doesn't give the needed -5v? I have my SCC-1 in a Soyo P4 ISA system with a pretty new (purchase in the last year) 450W power supply and haven't seen any issues that I'm aware of. Is it something that will just fry the card eventually? (I hope not)

As for Win98 and memory support, you shouldn't have any problem at 768MB with Win98. It theoritically supports up to 1GB but in principal the actual value is less since it needs to map some thing to the close to 1GB area. And even if it is a problem, you can limit the amount a RAM that Win98 sees to less via an entry in system.ini. I.E, I have 1GB ram in my Soyo but I only let Win98 see 768mb of that so I don't have problems.

I figured out some Win98SE RAM tricks over at TTLG. It's currently set to only see 512 MB. Apparently has something to do with how the 32-bit protected mode cache driver maps the memory addresses.

That image is also quite helpful...now I've got to look up some GUS and Roland ISA card pics that hopefully have a good view of the pinout.

jthieme wrote:

Interesting about the -5V and the SCC-1, I never realized that was something I needed to be concerned about. So what are the symptoms if your power supply doesn't give the needed -5v? I have my SCC-1 in a Soyo P4 ISA system with a pretty new (purchase in the last year) 450W power supply and haven't seen any issues that I'm aware of. Is it something that will just fry the card eventually? (I hope not)

I was not aware that the SCC-1 used -5v. Its manual states that it uses only +5v and+12v. The SCC-1 is a Roland GS midi card, the LAPC-I, which does require -5v, is the Roland MT-32 based card. Are you sure you aren't confusing the two?

Great Hierophant wrote:

I was not aware that the SCC-1 used -5v. Its manual states that it uses only +5v and+12v. The SCC-1 is a Roland GS midi card, the LAPC-I, which does require -5v, is the Roland MT-32 based card. Are you sure you aren't confusing the two?

Yes I was confusing the two. I don't have the LAPC card, just the SCC-1 and an external MT32. Thanks for clearing that up.