Just wanna leave a message of appreciation here for this.
Also I hope that @jazefox is doing better and things have gotten better for him and his family.
Wish you all a happy new year and all the best for the year to come.

Greetings!
Is there a source code available for this software? Would save my precious time if I could skip the reverse engineering process 😀 I just need to do some modifications for myself, since I need to set a custom IRQ for ESS 1868F's onboard IDE interface - I could obviosly just patch in the byte for the IO address I'm using, but it would be much nicer to make it configurable via BLASTER variable

Feliksas wrote on 2024-01-02, 13:35:

Greetings!
Is there a source code available for this software?

JazeFox has said, on more than one occasion, that he has not released, and does not intend to release, the UNISOUND source code.

i'm having an issue using the /nopnp switch with an ess es688 (no es968) on an nec versa p laptop (pentium 75mhz p54c, no pci bus). sometimes unisound detects the card and, when successful, works flawlessly. other times it detects an 'oak oti601, opti 82c928' and every once in a while it detects no card at all. for the time being i have switched back to the stock ess drivers; however, initialization takes forever while unisound is almost instantaneous in comparison. is there any way of getting this fixed?

I noticed an issue as of the latest UNISOUND when using it with my AWE64 Gold + SIMMconn (32MB).

If I just run UNISOUND on system startup, the detected amount of AWE memory shown by UNISOUND would be either 0K or some random small amounts.

My SIMMconn is fine, however, as DIAGNOSE can properly see I have 28MB RAM available, and could successfully pass tests.

After running DIAGNOSE at least once (no need to test), UNISOUND would correctly see 28MB during its init output. Does UNISOUND actually initialize AWE memory during configuration?

LSS10999 wrote on 2024-02-25, 08:06:

I noticed an issue as of the latest UNISOUND when using it with my AWE64 Gold + SIMMconn (32MB). […]
Show full quote

I noticed an issue as of the latest UNISOUND when using it with my AWE64 Gold + SIMMconn (32MB).

If I just run UNISOUND on system startup, the detected amount of AWE memory shown by UNISOUND would be either 0K or some random small amounts.

My SIMMconn is fine, however, as DIAGNOSE can properly see I have 28MB RAM available, and could successfully pass tests.

After running DIAGNOSE at least once (no need to test), UNISOUND would correctly see 28MB during its init output. Does UNISOUND actually initialize AWE memory during configuration?

This has also happened to me on a CT4520 card. The first time I initialized it with UNISOUND it detected 32KB of RAM.

A few reboots later it detected as 256KB. A few reboots later it would detect 512KB reliably. I have no idea what the issue was, it might be card related as well, possibly some failing capacitors etc?

appiah4 wrote on 2024-02-28, 06:40:

This has also happened to me on a CT4520 card. The first time I initialized it with UNISOUND it detected 32KB of RAM.

A few reboots later it detected as 256KB. A few reboots later it would detect 512KB reliably. I have no idea what the issue was, it might be card related as well, possibly some failing capacitors etc?

I think the AWE RAM issue only happens when initializing the card with UNISOUND right after the system powers on. However, DIAGNOSE can always recognize all the RAM in my case, and after that UNISOUND can also correctly detect it.

Does DIAGNOSE always detect your card's RAM correctly? I don't think it's a hardware issue unless DIAGNOSE is also getting it wrong...

i have ct4520 unisound always detect 28671 ram

LSS10999 wrote on 2024-02-28, 08:40:

appiah4 wrote on 2024-02-28, 06:40:

This has also happened to me on a CT4520 card. The first time I initialized it with UNISOUND it detected 32KB of RAM.

A few reboots later it detected as 256KB. A few reboots later it would detect 512KB reliably. I have no idea what the issue was, it might be card related as well, possibly some failing capacitors etc?

I think the AWE RAM issue only happens when initializing the card with UNISOUND right after the system powers on. However, DIAGNOSE can always recognize all the RAM in my case, and after that UNISOUND can also correctly detect it.

Does DIAGNOSE always detect your card's RAM correctly? I don't think it's a hardware issue unless DIAGNOSE is also getting it wrong...

DIAGNOSE always finds the RAM just fine.

Hi!

New member here!

I bought this card recently for my 286 - Aopen IPLAW35, based on Crystal's 4237b chip:

I added Unisound to Autoexec.bat, with particular configurations specified for 4237 cards in the documentation.

When rebooting, I get to here, after which my computer hangs (and will not reboot even on ctrl-alt-del):

* This happens both when I run SET BLASTER before running unisound.com, and when I REM the SET BLASTER line (as per the image above).

* I have gone through CheckIt Pro System Information thoroughly, to make sure that there aren't any IRQ conflicts or somesuch.

Please help me, dear people of Vogons!

boggit wrote on 2024-03-01, 19:19:

When rebooting, I get to here, after which my computer hangs (and will not reboot even on ctrl-alt-del):

Please help me, dear people of Vogons!

Welcome to the forum! Hopefully you'll find that it's a useful, welcoming place, as many of us do.

Only JazeFox could tell you for sure (and he seems otherwise occupied lately), but it looks like you have an invalid combination of options. I am not familiar with his code, so I can't say if that would be the cause of what you're seeing, but let's start with a simpler approach. First, remove the line that runs UNISOUND from your AUTOEXEC.BAT for now.

Then, from the command line, use only UNISOUND /CL. The purpose of that is simply to list the ISA Plug and Play cards that it finds. We first want to know if it is able to identify your Crystal-based card at all. If that works (please post a screenshot of what you see), then we will be able to work on figuring out the rest of the options that you need.

the aopen iplaw35 is the exact card i'm running right now in my kt133a system. it works flawlessly with unisound simply using:
set blaster=a220 i5 d1 t4
unisound.com

maybe try removing the rem from in front of your set blaster line?

640K!enough wrote on 2024-03-02, 22:39:

Welcome to the forum! Hopefully you'll find that it's a useful, welcoming place, as many of us do.

Thank you! I'm sure I will!

640K!enough wrote on 2024-03-02, 22:39:

Then, from the command line, use only UNISOUND /CL. The purpose of that is simply to list the ISA Plug and Play cards that it finds. We first want to know if it is able to identify your Crystal-based card at all. If that works (please post a screenshot of what you see), then we will be able to work on figuring out the rest of the options that you need.

Doing that also makes my computer freeze, to a point where even ctrl-alt-del won't restart it, at this point:

stanwebber wrote on 2024-03-03, 13:46:

the aopen iplaw35 is the exact card i'm running right now in my kt133a system. it works flawlessly with unisound simply using: s […]
Show full quote

the aopen iplaw35 is the exact card i'm running right now in my kt133a system. it works flawlessly with unisound simply using:
set blaster=a220 i5 d1 t4
unisound.com

maybe try removing the rem from in front of your set blaster line?

Hi and thank you for replying! As I said, I've tried both with the set blaster line and without it (ie by adding REM first), without difference.

The mere act of starting unisound, with or without parameters, is enough to freeze my computer to a point where I have to power cycle.

boggit wrote on 2024-03-03, 19:20:

Thank you! I'm sure I will! […]
Show full quote

640K!enough wrote on 2024-03-02, 22:39:

Welcome to the forum! Hopefully you'll find that it's a useful, welcoming place, as many of us do.

Thank you! I'm sure I will!

640K!enough wrote on 2024-03-02, 22:39:

Then, from the command line, use only UNISOUND /CL. The purpose of that is simply to list the ISA Plug and Play cards that it finds. We first want to know if it is able to identify your Crystal-based card at all. If that works (please post a screenshot of what you see), then we will be able to work on figuring out the rest of the options that you need.

Doing that also makes my computer freeze, to a point where even ctrl-alt-del won't restart it, at this point:

stanwebber wrote on 2024-03-03, 13:46:

the aopen iplaw35 is the exact card i'm running right now in my kt133a system. it works flawlessly with unisound simply using: s […]
Show full quote

the aopen iplaw35 is the exact card i'm running right now in my kt133a system. it works flawlessly with unisound simply using:
set blaster=a220 i5 d1 t4
unisound.com

maybe try removing the rem from in front of your set blaster line?

Hi and thank you for replying! As I said, I've tried both with the set blaster line and without it (ie by adding REM first), without difference.

The mere act of starting unisound, with or without parameters, is enough to freeze my computer to a point where I have to power cycle.

Have you tried the card with the original AOpen drivers?

(refer)

Shreddoc wrote on 2024-03-03, 20:31:

Have you tried the card with the original AOpen drivers?

(refer)

Yes I have, and I found them through that very thread as well (one of the first and only relevant hits when I googled around for information about the card). I could install the drivers, but rebooting after having the setup configure my autoexec.bat and config.sys also resulted in freeze/hang.

This is certainly strange. Just so we know what we're dealing with, is the system generally stable otherwise? What is the speed of the 80286? Do you have another machine in which you can try the sound card, and does it work there?

Since nothing else has worked, maybe you can try the latest release of ORPHINIT, which I wrote for the Orpheus line of cards, also based on the CS4237. It isn't likely to get the card running directly, but we are more interested in seeing how far it gets, and what it says when searching for the card. If you decide to try it, you would want to use ORPHINIT /VD and show us what it says before failing. Maybe if I can see that, it will give us a few hints about what is going on.

640K!enough wrote on 2024-03-03, 23:29:

This is certainly strange. Just so we know what we're dealing with, is the system generally stable otherwise?

Yes, I'd say so. The CMOS/RTC battery is not working great, but apart from having to re-enter all BIOS configuration basically each time I boot up the computer, it works excellently.

640K!enough wrote on 2024-03-03, 23:29:

What is the speed of the 80286?

Nominally 16 mhz, but in reality probably faster than that. Both CheckIt Pro and Norton System Information gives me benchmark values closer to a low end 386.

640K!enough wrote on 2024-03-03, 23:29:

Do you have another machine in which you can try the sound card, and does it work there?

I have an XT (with a NEC V20 rather than an 8088) but to be honest, I haven't even tried using the card in that. I'll do that after work today, just for the hell of it. Other than that, I have nothing to try it in.

640K!enough wrote on 2024-03-03, 23:29:

Since nothing else has worked, maybe you can try the latest release of ORPHINIT, which I wrote for the Orpheus line of cards, also based on the CS4237. It isn't likely to get the card running directly, but we are more interested in seeing how far it gets, and what it says when searching for the card. If you decide to try it, you would want to use ORPHINIT /VD and show us what it says before failing. Maybe if I can see that, it will give us a few hints about what is going on.

Aight, I will try that after work today!

Low-end 386 is usually slower than a 286 clock for clock, if we are talking about386SX, but this is OT. However, it is possible, that your system is "too fast". I'd check the ISA bus clock, some cards get wild if they get overclocked.

scorp wrote on 2024-03-04, 11:12:

Low-end 386 is usually slower than a 286 clock for clock, if we are talking about386SX, but this is OT. However, it is possible, that your system is "too fast". I'd check the ISA bus clock, some cards get wild if they get overclocked.

How do I do that? And is it really possible that a 286 mobo is too fast for a plug-and-play Windows 95/Pentium era soundcard?

I'm not sure if that is what you are refering to, but I've tried running both Unisound and the original Aopen drivers with "Fast I/O bus speed" (and "0 wait state option", for that matter) turned on as well as turned off in CMOS Setup (as per picture below). It didn't seem to make any difference.

boggit wrote on 2024-03-04, 12:33:

How do I do that? And is it really possible that a 286 mobo is too fast for a plug-and-play Windows 95/Pentium era soundcard? […]
Show full quote

scorp wrote on 2024-03-04, 11:12:

Low-end 386 is usually slower than a 286 clock for clock, if we are talking about386SX, but this is OT. However, it is possible, that your system is "too fast". I'd check the ISA bus clock, some cards get wild if they get overclocked.

How do I do that? And is it really possible that a 286 mobo is too fast for a plug-and-play Windows 95/Pentium era soundcard?

I'm not sure if that is what you are refering to, but I've tried running both Unisound and the original Aopen drivers with "Fast I/O bus speed" (and "0 wait state option", for that matter) turned on as well as turned off in CMOS Setup (as per picture below). It didn't seem to make any difference.

EDIT: Another strange thing (or maybe not strange, my understanding of computer hardware is rather limited) is that I cannot get the game port on the soundcard to work either. My joystick, which I have used without issues when connected to GoldStar I/O cards, doesn't work with it, and neither CheckIt Pro nor Norton System Information gives me any indication that the system even recognizes the port.