VOGONS


First post, by Ozzuneoj

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Not trying to hijack this thread, but... I'm setting up my YMF719 card right now and I've run into a problem. I'm using the Audacian32 driver package from the Vogons Driver Archive and it seems to install properly and setupsa seems to be working as well, but when I try to test Descent or Nascar Racing in DOS mode (not in Windows), they detect the Microsoft Sound System (WSS?) and the IRQ is reported correctly, but when sounds play I get a high pitch squealing sound.

In Descent if I select SoundBlaster Pro it works fine (requires reversed stereo option).

Also, in Windows98 everything seems to be different... auto detection keeps finding an Adlib card at crazy addresses, and device manager shows the Yamaha card at a different address (240) than setupsa and the set blaster command (220). I'm going to attempt to force Windows to comply with DOS and the rest of the computer, but we'll see how that goes...

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 1 of 17, by PhilsComputerLab

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Ozzuneoj wrote:

Not trying to hijack this thread, but...

did it anyway 🤣

Here is your own thread!

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Reply 3 of 17, by Jolaes76

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A stab in the dark, but maybe you will have better luck with the earlier drivers. The latest ones from Yamaha's website, which are part of a Win 3.x package, did not work for me with an Audician32 on an IBM PS/1 system. Try other drivers as well.

"Ita in vita ut in lusu alae pessima iactura arte corrigenda est."

Reply 4 of 17, by Ozzuneoj

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Thanks for the tips (and the new thread). It is mostly working now using the audacian drivers from Vogons but I do have a couple of of issues. One, when I do the WSS sound test in the setupsa program there is an audible pop before the sound plays, every time. Is this normal?

Also, when the system shuts down (either with normal self shut down in Windows, or if I hold the power button) it makes a really crazy squelching sound through my speakers. What would cause this? It did it on two different speakers, so I know it isn't that. The card's output jumpers are set to line out mode.

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 5 of 17, by brostenen

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If the setup program makes funny quirks and you are having trouble saving the settings.
Then there is a "ini" or config file in the same directory. Just edit it with dos edit program. (I have done it earlier today)
It's the exact same thing as with creative cards. Just find the configuration/settings file and edit it.

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Reply 6 of 17, by carlostex

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Sharing IRQ between WSS and SB always worked fine for me, but nor the same DMA. Dyna Blaster would be one of the few games)actually the only one i can remember) that would crash for me if i shared DMA 1, for instance.

Reply 7 of 17, by Ozzuneoj

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carlostex wrote:

Sharing IRQ between WSS and SB always worked fine for me, but nor the same DMA. Dyna Blaster would be one of the few games)actually the only one i can remember) that would crash for me if i shared DMA 1, for instance.

Yeah, I currently have them both set to IRQ 5, with SB on DMA 1 and WSS on DMA 0. My MM401 is on IRQ7.

Anyone else ever experience the crazy squelching noise upon shutdown?

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 8 of 17, by brostenen

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Ozzuneoj wrote:

Anyone else ever experience the crazy squelching noise upon shutdown?

Not experienced anything like that.

Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....

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Reply 9 of 17, by Ozzuneoj

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I can see if I can record the sound somehow. It's very strange and VERY loud. It seems like an electrical thing to me... as vague as that sounds. Imagine a laser gun sound from an Atari 2600... that's what I hear when I turn off this system. Normally that would be cool, but in this case it is pretty obnoxious and a bit disconcerting. :p

The system is rather conventional without any really odd components that I can think of. The most unusual component would be the much newer power supply, which is a Seasonic 350ET with Active PFC. I can try another power supply just to see if it makes any difference.

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 10 of 17, by CkRtech

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Hey Ozzuneoj. I actually experienced that sound for the first time since installing a YMF719 to my system. I didn't really notice it previously because I run everything to a mixer and power down all audio stuff prior to shutting down the computer. I was on headphones and still had the mixer on when I shut down the computer.

I assume you are running powered speakers? Do you shut off all of your audio equipment prior to shutting off the computer? I would recommend bringing up audio powered equipment after turning on the computer, and powering audio off prior to shutting down the computer. That way, you don't have to worry about odd signals/sounds going through amps/speakers when you power your computer on/off.

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Reply 11 of 17, by Ozzuneoj

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CkRtech wrote:

Hey Ozzuneoj. I actually experienced that sound for the first time since installing a YMF719 to my system. I didn't really notice it previously because I run everything to a mixer and power down all audio stuff prior to shutting down the computer. I was on headphones and still had the mixer on when I shut down the computer.

I assume you are running powered speakers? Do you shut off all of your audio equipment prior to shutting off the computer? I would recommend bringing up audio powered equipment after turning on the computer, and powering audio off prior to shutting down the computer. That way, you don't have to worry about odd signals/sounds going through amps/speakers when you power your computer on/off.

My mini amp actually doesn't power off. Its always on. Lame I know... but it was cheap and sounds good otherwise.

I've had computers make a slight click or pop at a low volume when turned off, but this makes a long drawn out Atari game noise that lasts a couple seconds.

Out of curiosity, can you post the full specs of your system that does this, including the power supply make\model, motherboard, drives, etc.

Considering I have NEVER heard a computer do this the 30 years I've been alive, and yet two of us have had it happen with the same sound card, I'm inclined to think it is the card... but since it has become quite a popular and thoroughly tested card in recent years, I'd expect more people to have complained about this. So, my guess is that it is a compatibility issue with the card and some other component, or possibly a BIOS setting.

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 12 of 17, by CkRtech

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Even if you can't power up, can you just drop your volume to 0 prior to shutdown?

I just powered up and shutdown with the speakers on (low volume, of course). The sound mine makes is not even half a second and sounds similar to what you describe in terms of pitch - like an Atari laser sound or something. The power supply is a bit overkill - Seasonic 450 watt (Pentium MMX 200 on i430FX mobo). I had an SB16 in it (noise blaster) until I started working different sound cards over to see how well things sounded. I too tried out the YMF719 after all the talk here on vogons.

It is possible that changing capacitors would help your situation <shrug>. It could also be just how the card powers down (don't have the problem with other cards). I am not concerned about my situation because I power all audio down prior to computer. I suppose if you wanted (and this is probably a bit annoying), you could experiment a bit and lower all of your volumes in the mixer prior to shutdown to see if it is actually something outputting a little extra sound from your mixer at the time power is cut. If so, you could create a batch file for setting your volumes to 0 prior to shutdown. If not, the circuit is going to output that noise regardless.

Although I appreciate the quieter noise level and general improvement in tracker-style sound having switched from the SB16, I am not all that impressed with the YMF719 so far.

Displaced Gamers (YouTube) - DOS Gaming Aspect Ratio - 320x200 || The History of 240p || Dithering on the Sega Genesis with Composite Video

Reply 13 of 17, by Ozzuneoj

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CkRtech wrote:
Even if you can't power up, can you just drop your volume to 0 prior to shutdown? […]
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Even if you can't power up, can you just drop your volume to 0 prior to shutdown?

I just powered up and shutdown with the speakers on (low volume, of course). The sound mine makes is not even half a second and sounds similar to what you describe in terms of pitch - like an Atari laser sound or something. The power supply is a bit overkill - Seasonic 450 watt (Pentium MMX 200 on i430FX mobo). I had an SB16 in it (noise blaster) until I started working different sound cards over to see how well things sounded. I too tried out the YMF719 after all the talk here on vogons.

It is possible that changing capacitors would help your situation <shrug>. It could also be just how the card powers down (don't have the problem with other cards). I am not concerned about my situation because I power all audio down prior to computer. I suppose if you wanted (and this is probably a bit annoying), you could experiment a bit and lower all of your volumes in the mixer prior to shutdown to see if it is actually something outputting a little extra sound from your mixer at the time power is cut. If so, you could create a batch file for setting your volumes to 0 prior to shutdown. If not, the circuit is going to output that noise regardless.

Although I appreciate the quieter noise level and general improvement in tracker-style sound having switched from the SB16, I am not all that impressed with the YMF719 so far.

Interesting... we're both using overkill Seasonic power supplies. If yours is a newer Active-PFC type (mine is a 350ET) that could be possible lead. As for just turning down the volume, I can, but the other quirk of this mini amp is that it is a digital volume dial. It just keeps rotating and there is no volume indicator, and in fact most of the time it isn't silent when turned all the way down. Had I known this, I wouldn't have purchased it. Still, for $35 it has a high build quality and plenty of power (its a TDA7492 based amp)... just annoying to use for someone like me that prefers reliable, manual, analog controls.

Honestly, while the noise is annoying, I'm more concerned about what is causing it. If something electrical is doing it, it can't be healthy for the sound card or the rest of the computer. Whatever it is, its causing an astronomical amount of non-random noise to make its way to the line-out on my sound card.

As for the card itself, I haven't gotten to do a whole lot with it yet, but I haven't honestly noticed anything that it is doing better than my CT2940 (with real OPL3). I'm using a separate card for MPU401, as mentioned, so the main benefit (non-buggy MPU401) is lost right there.

I don't like that the mixer\setup program is quirky, but it does give a lot of options and its possible to avoid the quirks somewhat by just editing the config file manually.

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 14 of 17, by Ozzuneoj

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Anyone ever had problems using one of these in WSS mode in games?

I keep having strange issues. For example, testing digital sound in Nascar Racing setup with WSS selected as the output device works. Then, if I try to make the program play any other audio, it doesn't work. Only WSS works. OPL3 music works if I play it first, but after playing the digital WSS test, OPL3 is silent, and so is the input from my external midi modules (they are getting a signal, my system simply isn't playing the audio). And if I try switching to "Sound Blaster 8 Stereo" mode it will actually lock up the computer if I've previously played the WSS test.

If I reboot, enter the setup program and select SB8 Stereo from the start, it plays fine (despite the program warning that it isn't compatible) and I can play any variation of the other modes without issue.

I'm using the audician 32 drivers from Vogons.

Also, this was done in a DOS environment before Windows 98SE loads (disabled GUI).

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 15 of 17, by Jolaes76

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My Audician32 also makes this "peeeeeeeeewhhhh (pause) hrrrrr" on a ps/1 system which has a proprietary PSU (the form factor is at least, but it is also a weak one compared to other AT power supplies). But now we revealed the sacred 3rd taboo deficiency of ymf 71x ISA cards and this shall raise the wrath of all orthodox Yamaha believers (Pray that JamesF is not reading this 😀

"Ita in vita ut in lusu alae pessima iactura arte corrigenda est."

Reply 16 of 17, by James-F

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Ozzuneoj wrote:

Anyone ever had problems using one of these in WSS mode in games?

YMF71x WSS puts the card in exclusive mode, all other SB part are turned off, so you have to use the WSS mixer (setupsa.exe) to adjust the OPL3 and Line-In volumes.
Some games access the OPL3 using address 220 which only the SB uses, therefor it will be inaccessible in WSS mode; only port 388 will be available in WSS mode for OPL3.

Jolaes76 wrote:

My Audician32 also makes this "peeeeeeeeewhhhh (pause) hrrrrr" on a ps/1 system

Well than you have some PSU signal leaking to ground and making thinking noises.
On my AT system the YMF71x is absolutely dead silent.

And yes, the YMF71x is not perfect. 😀
1. It has the SB master volume problem where you have to set it to 1 for the sliders to work.
2. It has the Wavetable audio return reversed, but that can be modified if you're skilled at soldering.
3. It has no Lowpass filtering to the SB part out of the box, that too can be modified.
4. It has the extra-byte stereo reversal, where the original SBPro doesn't.


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