Which "Aztec Galaxy 2"? Aztech had many, many cards, with mulitple cards with the words "Galaxy" and "2" in them, from the Sound Galaxy NX II to the Sound Galaxy Nova 16 Extra II.

There are 4 generations of Aztech cards, each with different specs and installation requirements. In general, the 3rd and 4th are trouble-free and highly compatible with SBPro2 (and WSS, and bug-free MPU-401 UART MIDI), 1st is slightly more touchy (and noisy), but gives you Covox/DSS support as a bonus, and 2nd gen is basically one big bug, not working properly with SBPro. If you card is one of those, it could explain a lot...

So - the way to identify your card is by the FCC ID printed on it. Most Aztech cards have something like I38-MMSN824. Those last three digits tell you which it is (this is the Sound Galaxy Pro 16 II (second edition)). A few have different IDs, such as I38-NXPRO (the NX Pro) or I38-SN96116 (these are HP OEM cards). There's a good (but not fully complete) list here: https://ilovepa.ws/aztech-sound-cards/

dionb wrote on 2022-10-03, 22:20:

Which "Aztec Galaxy 2"? Aztech had many, many cards, with mulitple cards with the words "Galaxy" and "2" in them, from the Sound Galaxy NX II to the Sound Galaxy Nova 16 Extra II.

There are 4 generations of Aztech cards, each with different specs and installation requirements. In general, the 3rd and 4th are trouble-free and highly compatible with SBPro2 (and WSS, and bug-free MPU-401 UART MIDI), 1st is slightly more touchy (and noisy), but gives you Covox/DSS support as a bonus, and 2nd gen is basically one big bug, not working properly with SBPro. If you card is one of those, it could explain a lot...

So - the way to identify your card is by the FCC ID printed on it. Most Aztech cards have something like I38-MMSN824. Those last three digits tell you which it is (this is the Sound Galaxy Pro 16 II (second edition)). A few have different IDs, such as I38-NXPRO (the NX Pro) or I38-SN96116 (these are HP OEM cards). There's a good (but not fully complete) list here: https://ilovepa.ws/aztech-sound-cards/

Thanks for the info. I'll look for the FCC ID on the card. See if it is the Big Bad Buggy 2nd gen 😀
It's an ISA-card, so if I'm going to rplace it whit another it will be pricy i guess.
What is the most vesatile ISA-card to replace it with. The regular Soundblaster cards?

Some 1st generation cards were also speed sensitive amd doesn't run well in fast systems. For example, my Sound Galaxy Basic 16 (I38-MMSN810) exhibits strange behaviour in fast 486 systems and above.

Mentalbass wrote on 2022-10-04, 07:01:

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[...]

Thanks for the info. I'll look for the FCC ID on the card. See if it is the Big Bad Buggy 2nd gen 😀
It's an ISA-card, so if I'm going to rplace it whit another it will be pricy i guess.
What is the most vesatile ISA-card to replace it with. The regular Soundblaster cards?

One thing at a time...

We don't know what card you have yet, we don't know what the exact root cause of your problems is - so we really can't recommend any other card yet.

jesolo wrote on 2022-10-04, 08:03:

Some 1st generation cards were also speed sensitive amd doesn't run well in fast systems. For example, my Sound Galaxy Basic 16 (I38-MMSN810) exhibits strange behaviour in fast 486 systems and above.

Interesting. I've had mine in a P200MMX and didn't notice any issues there I wasn't seeing in a 486SX-33 (and then again my only problems were interop next to a Sound Blaster and Ultima 7 not giving digital audio). Still, something to bear in mind.

dionb wrote on 2022-10-04, 08:41:

One thing at a time... […]
Show full quote

Mentalbass wrote on 2022-10-04, 07:01:

[...] […]
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[...]

Thanks for the info. I'll look for the FCC ID on the card. See if it is the Big Bad Buggy 2nd gen 😀
It's an ISA-card, so if I'm going to rplace it whit another it will be pricy i guess.
What is the most vesatile ISA-card to replace it with. The regular Soundblaster cards?

One thing at a time...

We don't know what card you have yet, we don't know what the exact root cause of your problems is - so we really can't recommend any other card yet.

jesolo wrote on 2022-10-04, 08:03:

Some 1st generation cards were also speed sensitive amd doesn't run well in fast systems. For example, my Sound Galaxy Basic 16 (I38-MMSN810) exhibits strange behaviour in fast 486 systems and above.

Interesting. I've had mine in a P200MMX and didn't notice any issues there I wasn't seeing in a 486SX-33 (and then again my only problems were interop next to a Sound Blaster and Ultima 7 not giving digital audio). Still, something to bear in mind.

This is the card:

When running Chasm The Rift it tells me at startup a SB Pro at the settings.

But ingame no sound at all (Checked volume ingame, speakers (Output) , other games like Doom, Rott, Duke 3D, SImcity etc produce sound. Even win3.11)
My autoexec.bat looks like this:

I found this on another post about MMSN822:

jesolo wrote on 2019-01-08, 09:20:

Here's a link to Aztech Labs' FTP support site (it contains the drivers for most of their own Sound Galaxy range of sound cards) […]
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Here's a link to Aztech Labs' FTP support site (it contains the drivers for most of their own Sound Galaxy range of sound cards)
The large zip file on Vogonsdrivers contains all of these drivers as well.
ftp://ftp.aztech.com/support/DOWNLOAD/sg/

However, I've attached the drivers for model I38-MMSN822. I've confirmed it works, since I have one myself.
Pro16II (I38-MMSN822).zip
I just wish to point out that this particular model (and all models based on the AZT-1605 chipset) is not Sound Blaster Pro II compatible in terms of it's DAC (i.e., digitized voice and sounds) and therefore can only generate these sounds in mono (ultimately, it is "identified" as a Sound Blaster 2.0)
It does, however, have an OPL3 FM synthesis chip. So, FM sounds can be generated in stereo, provided that the applicable application supports it.

I used these drivers.
And as Jesolo points out, I think Chasm seeing it as an SBProII-card, thesound won't work.
I can't get these games to look for normal SB.

Not familiar with that game's setup but, sometimes there is a configuration file that you can edit to overwrite the settings.

You can also try (in your Autoexec.bat file) to change the sound card type from T4 to T3.

jesolo wrote on 2022-10-04, 12:50:

Not familiar with that game's setup but, sometimes there is a configuration file that you can edit to overwrite the settings.

You can also try (in your Autoexec.bat file) to change the sound card type from T4 to T3.

Chasm can't be setup, it detects all hardware when game starts.
Yes going to change Soundcard type tot t3! See what it does.

That's second gen alright. Relevant quote here:

The AZT1605-U05 DSP version reports 2.x which causes software to detect only a Sound Blaster 2.0 and play back only mono digitized sound effects. This is because the DSP version of a SB Pro is at least 3.01.

Games that let you configure stuff manually should work correctly, games that autodetect (mainly the onder ones) won't. If they follow the BLASTER variable, you can influence them. If not, not.

I have that specific card in my 'todo' pile of recently acquired stuff. If I have time later this week I might see if I can reproduce this behaviour and fiddle about to fix or work around it. Supposedly the card should have good WSS support - that might be a start. Also not familiar with Chasm or Chaos Engine, but that can soon be rectified.

dionb wrote on 2022-10-04, 14:33:

That's second gen alright. Relevant quote here: […]
Show full quote

That's second gen alright. Relevant quote here:

The AZT1605-U05 DSP version reports 2.x which causes software to detect only a Sound Blaster 2.0 and play back only mono digitized sound effects. This is because the DSP version of a SB Pro is at least 3.01.

Games that let you configure stuff manually should work correctly, games that autodetect (mainly the onder ones) won't. If they follow the BLASTER variable, you can influence them. If not, not.

I have that specific card in my 'todo' pile of recently acquired stuff. If I have time later this week I might see if I can reproduce this behaviour and fiddle about to fix or work around it. Supposedly the card should have good WSS support - that might be a start. Also not familiar with Chasm or Chaos Engine, but that can soon be rectified.

I admire your task at hand.
To battle and go full head on with this somewhat qwerky but fine soundcard 😀
Haven't tried the autoexec blaster T-setting.

Mentalbass wrote on 2022-10-04, 15:03:

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I admire your task at hand.
To battle and go full head on with this somewhat qwerky but fine soundcard 😀
Haven't tried the autoexec blaster T-setting.

I'm spoilt. I have a lot of perfectly working good sound cards. They get sort of boring after a while. Oddball cards are much more interesting. If I get frustrated I can always give up and go back to my default system (which has a perfectly good 4th gen Aztech card for AdLib, SBPro2, WSS and bug-free MPU-401 MIDI in it).

No promises though, life is pretty busy round here and I might not get round to it. But it's about time I played around with that card and a few others I collected and didn't had time to do anything with.

dionb wrote on 2022-10-04, 08:41:

jesolo wrote on 2022-10-04, 08:03:

Some 1st generation cards were also speed sensitive amd doesn't run well in fast systems. For example, my Sound Galaxy Basic 16 (I38-MMSN810) exhibits strange behaviour in fast 486 systems and above.

Interesting. I've had mine in a P200MMX and didn't notice any issues there I wasn't seeing in a 486SX-33 (and then again my only problems were interop next to a Sound Blaster and Ultima 7 not giving digital audio). Still, something to bear in mind.

Yes, I wrote a note many years ago of problems I experienced in my late generation 486 motherboard when enabling certain BIOS features (that improves memory timings and other cache timings).
I never investigated it further and just assumed it was a speed sensitive issue. My model is one of the early revisions and it is possible it was addressed with a later revision . I would love to get my hands on a later revision of the I38-MMSN810 sound card since I really like that particular Aztech sound card.

jesolo wrote on 2022-10-04, 18:16:

[...]

Yes, I wrote a note many years ago of problems I experienced in my late generation 486 motherboard when enabling certain BIOS features (that improves memory timings and other cache timings).
I never investigated it further and just assumed it was a speed sensitive issue. My model is one of the early revisions and it is possible it was addressed with a later revision . I would love to get my hands on a later revision of the I38-MMSN810 sound card since I really like that particular Aztech sound card.

In terms of feature set it's about the ultimate Aztech card - insane they chose to call that of all their cards 'basic'. Also, it might be subjective, but I have the distinct impression it is much less noisy than the NXPro, despite being 1st gen as well.
(now, if I ever *really* have some time to spare, I would like to do some spectrum analysis of the outputs of pretty much all my sound cards, particularly the low-end ones usually ignored by such efforts - just not sure I'll have time before my retirement, which is still a few decades off)

dionb wrote on 2022-10-04, 18:23:

jesolo wrote on 2022-10-04, 18:16:

[...]

Yes, I wrote a note many years ago of problems I experienced in my late generation 486 motherboard when enabling certain BIOS features (that improves memory timings and other cache timings).
I never investigated it further and just assumed it was a speed sensitive issue. My model is one of the early revisions and it is possible it was addressed with a later revision . I would love to get my hands on a later revision of the I38-MMSN810 sound card since I really like that particular Aztech sound card.

In terms of feature set it's about the ultimate Aztech card - insane they chose to call that of all their cards 'basic'. Also, it might be subjective, but I have the distinct impression it is much less noisy than the NXPro, despite being 1st gen as well.
(now, if I ever *really* have some time to spare, I would like to do some spectrum analysis of the outputs of pretty much all my sound cards, particularly the low-end ones usually ignored by such efforts - just not sure I'll have time before my retirement, which is still a few decades off)

On your last point, that sounds like a good idea and would definitely provide more insight into the sound characteristics of these different sound cards.

Not sure if I mentioned this before but, my I38-MMSN810 model has a very "soft" or "muffled" sound output. It's almost like the treble is turned all the way down. I have to crank it up almost all the way in the software mixer to obtain a more "clear" sound output. Unfortunately, some games and demo software seems to reset the settings from time to time. Not sure if your model exhibits the same behaviour. Otherwise, as you've stated, it's a very nice all round sound card (despite lacking an MPU-401 UART MIDI interface). Was also my first sound card 😊

jesolo wrote on 2022-10-05, 08:29:

dionb wrote on 2022-10-04, 18:23:

jesolo wrote on 2022-10-04, 18:16:

[...]

Yes, I wrote a note many years ago of problems I experienced in my late generation 486 motherboard when enabling certain BIOS features (that improves memory timings and other cache timings).
I never investigated it further and just assumed it was a speed sensitive issue. My model is one of the early revisions and it is possible it was addressed with a later revision . I would love to get my hands on a later revision of the I38-MMSN810 sound card since I really like that particular Aztech sound card.

In terms of feature set it's about the ultimate Aztech card - insane they chose to call that of all their cards 'basic'. Also, it might be subjective, but I have the distinct impression it is much less noisy than the NXPro, despite being 1st gen as well.
(now, if I ever *really* have some time to spare, I would like to do some spectrum analysis of the outputs of pretty much all my sound cards, particularly the low-end ones usually ignored by such efforts - just not sure I'll have time before my retirement, which is still a few decades off)

On your last point, that sounds like a good idea and would definitely provide more insight into the sound characteristics of these different sound cards.

Not sure if I mentioned this before but, my I38-MMSN810 model has a very "soft" or "muffled" sound output. It's almost like the treble is turned all the way down. I have to crank it up almost all the way in the software mixer to obtain a more "clear" sound output. Unfortunately, some games and demo software seems to reset the settings from time to time. Not sure if your model exhibits the same behaviour. Otherwise, as you've stated, it's a very nice all round sound card (despite lacking an MPU-401 UART MIDI interface). Was also my first sound card 😊

Could this be condensators, or other components deteriorating? I'd like to think this oldschool stuff as unbreakable and robust but it will fail eventually 🙁
I've got a p3 with 2x monster3d cards SLI. The day these fail is the day i will stay in bed and cry 😢

Mentalbass wrote on 2022-10-05, 19:42:

Could this be condensators, or other components deteriorating? I'd like to think this oldschool stuff as unbreakable and robust but it will fail eventually 🙁
I've got a p3 with 2x monster3d cards SLI. The day these fail is the day i will stay in bed and cry 😢

It's possible but, I don't just want to replace capacitors just for the sake of replacing them. It could just be a characteristic of that particular model - hoping far someone with the same model could perhaps confirm this for me.

So I'd try to replace the Galaxy for an Sb16 ct2290. Seemed fine at first but after reboot is randomly give me an irq error. After replacing jumpers, diagnosing (it tells me, even after fault at boot, it's all good, no ingame sound btw..) and fiddling with bios (making sure irq 5 was legacy) i'd removed it.
The MMSN822 went back in.
Instead of the suggested blaster setting by galaxy install i'd used SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 H5 T4.....
And left SET GALAXY out.

Chasm gave me sound!
All games seem to find it now.

Are these the right lines for autoexec?:
SET GALAXY=A220 I5 D1 K10 P530 T6
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 H5 T4

Previously you had IRQ 7 in your BLASTER variable, now IRQ 5. If you had an incorrect IRQ selected, that could explain why music (which only uses the base address) worked but digital audio (which needs the interrupt) did not.

Big question is what you actually selected when configuring the card.

dionb wrote on 2022-10-09, 22:48:

Previously you had IRQ 7 in your BLASTER variable, now IRQ 5. If you had an incorrect IRQ selected, that could explain why music (which only uses the base address) worked but digital audio (which needs the interrupt) did not.

Big question is what you actually selected when configuring the card.

The only thing thats changed when placing Aztech card back is position on motherboard . Instead of first isa-slot i placed it in last.
During configuration it selected irq 5.
Not sure why it didn't use irq 7 beforehand.
Also (during the testing of sb16) in bios i placed irq's on 'legacy'.