Hi guys! Does anyone have any experience using these sound cards with the windows x64 operating system and where to get the necessary drivers?
Your best bet is that it is build-in driver.
stef80 wrote on 2025-04-05, 16:16:Your best bet is that it is build-in driver.
The system does not issue a driver option for this card.
mockingbird wrote on 2022-07-01, 02:09:And Monkey Island Talkie Edition just shows a black screen unless I start it with text mode only, and then only the music plays in the back. Joe, can you please test with that?
Did you ever get to the bottom of this issue? I'm having the same issue on my system.
I have a Yamaha 7xx card providing Adlib/SB compatibility but Monkey Island Ultimate Talkie will only launch if I pass "t" for text only. I can get OPL music or external midi (MT32 by passing R1) but I cannot get it to run with voice over. I just get a black screen until I reset the machine...
Lostdotfish wrote on 2025-04-07, 14:14:I have a Yamaha 7xx card providing Adlib/SB compatibility but Monkey Island Ultimate Talkie will only launch if I pass "t" for text only. I can get OPL music or external midi (MT32 by passing R1) but I cannot get it to run with voice over. I just get a black screen until I reset the machine...
Use the Yamaha in SBLINK mode, it will work.
(Decommissioned:)
So I finally found a Solo 1 chip that works with ESSVOL. It’s an onboard chip from a very late SS7 board, Jetway J-530BF https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/jetway-j-530bf
Music is working in Doom 2 and Warcraft 2 (even ESS Enhanced Audio), however, I cannot get digital audio working. Anyone have any ideas what may be wrong?
I’ve modified ESSSOLO.INI (ESS Solo-1 easy(ish) setup with ESSOLO.INI (No Windows/ESSOLO.SYS Required!)) and tried 00, 01 and 02 on oC but ESSOLO always reports DMA Mode is SiS DDMA
0C: DDMA/TDMA/SB-Link (00 (DDMA), 01 (TDMA), 02 (SB-Link aka PC/PCI, set to this if using SB-Link connector on board))
zuldan wrote on 2025-04-29, 09:25:I’ve modified ESSSOLO.INI (ESS Solo-1 easy(ish) setup with ESSOLO.INI (No Windows/ESSOLO.SYS Required!)) and tried 00, 01 and 02 on oC but ESSOLO always reports DMA Mode is SiS DDMA
Did you set ESSOLO.INI to read-only after performing the modification?
In my case, this was necessary to keep the changes that I made, otherwise they would get overwritten. Here's the process that I used for getting SB-Link working on my card.
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-04-29, 09:30:zuldan wrote on 2025-04-29, 09:25:I’ve modified ESSSOLO.INI (ESS Solo-1 easy(ish) setup with ESSOLO.INI (No Windows/ESSOLO.SYS Required!)) and tried 00, 01 and 02 on oC but ESSOLO always reports DMA Mode is SiS DDMA
Did you set ESSOLO.INI to read-only after performing the modification?
In my case, this was necessary to keep the changes that I made, otherwise they would get overwritten. Here's the process that I used for getting SB-Link working on my card.
Hey Joseph, thanks for the quick reply. I didn’t set the file as read-only, however I opened it up again and my hex change to the file has remained. I can’t use a SB-Link cable because the Solo 1 is onboard. There are SB-Link pins but they don’t have a pin header soldered. Any other ideas?
zuldan wrote on 2025-04-29, 09:45:Hey Joseph, thanks for the quick reply. I didn’t set the file as read-only, however I opened it up again and my hex change to the file has remained. I can’t use a SB-Link cable because the Solo 1 is onboard. There are SB-Link pins but they don’t have a pin header soldered. Any other ideas?
Technically, on-board cards should allow for SB-Link mode to be used without any extra cables. Try it anyway and see how it goes.
Also, not sure if it matters, but I only got SB-Link to work with those specific drivers from Phil's website that I mentioned in the post linked above. Other driver versions didn't work for my card.
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-04-29, 09:49:Technically, on-board cards should allow for SB-Link mode to be used without any extra cables. Try it anyway and see how it goes.
Also, not sure if it matters, but I only got SB-Link to work with those specific drivers from Phil's website that I mentioned in the post linked above. Other driver versions didn't work for my card.
I agree onboard cards should do SB-Link internally.
I’ll try Phil’s drivers and see what happens.
I disabled the onboard Solo1 with a jumper and confirmed with ESSOLO.COM it was gone. I then installed a Solo 1 card in a PCI slot. Ran ESSOLO again and its also using SIS DDMA mode. I’m contemplating soldering on some pin headers for the SB-Link on the motherboard and see if I can get SB-Link mode going with a external card. Although, if I can’t change the mode to SB-Link with ESSOLO.INI then plugging in a cable probably won’t do much. I’ll set ESSOLO.INI to read only and see what happens.
From the Jetway J-530BF manual. Hmmm
zuldan wrote on 2025-04-29, 10:31:I’m contemplating soldering on some pin headers for the SB-Link on the motherboard and see if I can get SB-Link mode going with a external card. Although, if I can’t change the mode to SB-Link with ESSOLO.INI then plugging in a cable probably won’t do much. I’ll set ESSOLO.INI to read only and see what happens.
If you could and report back that would be awesome as I've never seen SB-Link work on anything other than Intel boards so far... It is news to me that an SiS 5595 board even exists with a header!
SB-Link with Yamaha cards is much easier to setup. Personally, I have never gotten ESS Solo's SB-Link working properly. There's a hacked essolo initialization utility floating around here which forces it, but IIRC, the card did not work properly for me even in PC/PCI mode.
(Decommissioned:)
mockingbird wrote on 2025-04-29, 13:35:zuldan wrote on 2025-04-29, 10:31:I’m contemplating soldering on some pin headers for the SB-Link on the motherboard and see if I can get SB-Link mode going with a external card. Although, if I can’t change the mode to SB-Link with ESSOLO.INI then plugging in a cable probably won’t do much. I’ll set ESSOLO.INI to read only and see what happens.
If you could and report back that would be awesome as I've never seen SB-Link work on anything other than Intel boards so far... It is news to me that an SiS 5595 board even exists with a header!
SB-Link with Yamaha cards is much easier to setup. Personally, I have never gotten ESS Solo's SB-Link working properly. There's a hacked essolo initialization utility floating around here which forces it, but IIRC, the card did not work properly for me even in PC/PCI mode.
I didn't end up needed to solder on the header to the board. See post below 😉
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-04-29, 09:49:zuldan wrote on 2025-04-29, 09:45:Hey Joseph, thanks for the quick reply. I didn’t set the file as read-only, however I opened it up again and my hex change to the file has remained. I can’t use a SB-Link cable because the Solo 1 is onboard. There are SB-Link pins but they don’t have a pin header soldered. Any other ideas?
Technically, on-board cards should allow for SB-Link mode to be used without any extra cables. Try it anyway and see how it goes.
Also, not sure if it matters, but I only got SB-Link to work with those specific drivers from Phil's website that I mentioned in the post linked above. Other driver versions didn't work for my card.
IT'S WORKING!! The motherboard manual wasn't lying, just a shame it didn't mention the BIOS setting that needed to be set.
Under Chipset Features in the BIOS there is an option called "PCI Delayed Transaction", enabling that fixed digital sound. Tested Doom 2, Duke 3D, Warcraft 2. All working great! I remember reading somewhere on Vogons that when a game sends through a sound request to the motherboard, it first goes to the PCI bus and if the PCI bus doesn't pick it up in time, it goes to the ISA bus. So maybe the BIOS setting has something to do with that?
It appears when ESSOLO initializes the card on a SIS chipset, the settings for DMA communication settings are ignored in ESSOLO.INI and "DMA Mode is SIS DDMA" is always used.
What a fantastic SS7 motherboard for DOS. I grabbed it for super cheap "For parts". It has some really bad capacitors on it. I replaced all of them and gave it a good wash. She booted up first time. Onboard AGP and Solo 1 (with ESSVOL support). Going to install a K6-2+ 570 and a PCI Banshee. Going to be a beast.
zuldan wrote on 2025-04-30, 06:22:IT'S WORKING!! The motherboard manual wasn't lying, just a shame it didn't mention the BIOS setting that needed to be set.
Under Chipset Features in the BIOS there is an option called "PCI Delayed Transaction", enabling that fixed digital sound. Tested Doom 2, Duke 3D, Warcraft 2. All working great! I remember reading somewhere on Vogons that when a game sends through a sound request to the motherboard, it first goes to the PCI bus and if the PCI bus doesn't pick it up in time, it goes to the ISA bus. So maybe the BIOS setting has something to do with that?
Glad you got it working! And yeah, I think I also had to enable that setting to get SB-Link running.
It appears when ESSOLO initializes the card on a SIS chipset, the settings for DMA communication settings are ignored in ESSOLO.INI and "DMA Mode is SIS DDMA" is always used.
Interesting, I wasn't aware of this. I wonder if compatibility is better than normal DDMA or TDMA modes. If you want to test it, try running Prehistorik and Dyna Blaster. For me, both games failed to work with DDMA on the Solo-1 while running perfectly with SB-Link. See this post for more details.
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-04-30, 06:37:Interesting, I wasn't aware of this. I wonder if compatibility is better than normal DDMA or TDMA modes. If you want to test it, try running Prehistorik and Dyna Blaster. For me, both games failed to work with DDMA on the Solo-1 while running perfectly with SB-Link. See this post for more details.
Do I have to configure the sound before running the game? Running the game without doing anything gives me no audio output.
zuldan wrote on 2025-04-30, 06:54:Do I have to configure the sound before running the game? Running the game without doing anything gives me no audio output.
Dyna Blaster is speed sensitive, so you may have to turn off both caches to get it to run. I don't think there's any configuration for that game.
As for Prehistorik, you need to delete the existing GRAWAGA.CFG file. After that, the game will ask you to select a sound card. Also, you may need to copy a version of CT-VOICE.DRV into the game's folder. Can't remember which specific version was needed, but one from this thread should work.
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-04-30, 07:01:zuldan wrote on 2025-04-30, 06:54:Do I have to configure the sound before running the game? Running the game without doing anything gives me no audio output.
Dyna Blaster is speed sensitive, so you may have to turn off both caches to get it to run. I don't think there's any configuration for that game.
As for Prehistorik, you need to delete the existing GRAWAGA.CFG file. After that, the game will ask you to select a sound card. Also, you may need to copy a version of CT-VOICE.DRV into the game's folder. Can't remember which specific version was needed, but one from this thread should work.
I set Prehistorik to Sound Blaster but then complained about "ct-voice.drv not detected" not being detected. I tried Adlib and it's working fine. Is there a trick to get Sound Blaster working or am I supposed to use Adlib?
Feel like a noob, never played this game before.
zuldan wrote on 2025-04-30, 07:09:I set Prehistorik to Sound Blaster but then complained about "ct-voice.drv not detected" not being detected. I tried Adlib and it's working fine. Is there a trick to get Sound Blaster working or am I supposed to use Adlib?
Feel like a noob, never played this game before.
No worries, it does take some effort to get that game running.
Check the thread that I linked to and find a version of CT-VOICE.DRV that shipped with SBPro cards. It should be in one of the attachments in the first post. Then copy that file to the Prehistorik folder and it should run with Sound Blaster selected.
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-04-30, 07:40:No worries, it does take some effort to get that game running.
Check the thread that I linked to and find a version of CT-VOICE.DRV that shipped with SBPro cards. It should be in one of the attachments in the first post. Then copy that file to the Prehistorik folder and it should run with Sound Blaster selected.
Ok this seems to be a lot more complicated than I thought. I haven’t had time yet to read the whole post but I did quickly try a CT-VOICE.DRV version and it couldn’t detect the Solo 1. I think there are another 15 or so versions to try. Not sure how they expected kids to do this back in the day. Out of 120 DOS games I’ve got installed, this is the most complicated 🤣
