I have found Adlib compatibility is not great with a ES1869 in DOS.I tried around 20 random old games and 6 of them had Adlib compatibility problems (so the amount is probably much higher). This is with clean boot and no TSRs loaded.
Games I tried that do not have sound when selecting Adlib:
Operation Wolf
Rastan
Puzznic
Bubble Bobble
Qix
Rambo 3

I swapped with a SB16 to test them and they all then produced sound in Adlib.

AvalonH wrote:

I have found Adlib compatibility is not great with a ES1869 in DOS.I tried around 20 random old games and 6 of them had Adlib c […]
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I have found Adlib compatibility is not great with a ES1869 in DOS.I tried around 20 random old games and 6 of them had Adlib compatibility problems (so the amount is probably much higher). This is with clean boot and no TSRs loaded.
Games I tried that do not have sound when selecting Adlib:
Operation Wolf
Rastan
Puzznic
Bubble Bobble
Qix
Rambo 3

I did reproduce this with Bubble Bobble and Operation wolf.

To be fair though, all 6 of these games are Taito Arcade ports made 1989 and 1990, probably all based on the same engine and libraries, so not exactly a random selection, and not really surprising if that 1 doesn't work, none of them will.

Of course, now I want to put the blasterboard into my XT clone system and play bubble bobble now I am speaking about it, but not home right now 😢

canthearu wrote:

I did reproduce this with Bubble Bobble and Operation wolf. […]
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AvalonH wrote:

I have found Adlib compatibility is not great with a ES1869 in DOS.I tried around 20 random old games and 6 of them had Adlib c […]
Show full quote

I have found Adlib compatibility is not great with a ES1869 in DOS.I tried around 20 random old games and 6 of them had Adlib compatibility problems (so the amount is probably much higher). This is with clean boot and no TSRs loaded.
Games I tried that do not have sound when selecting Adlib:
Operation Wolf
Rastan
Puzznic
Bubble Bobble
Qix
Rambo 3

I did reproduce this with Bubble Bobble and Operation wolf.

To be fair though, all 6 of these games are Taito Arcade ports made 1989 and 1990, probably all based on the same engine and libraries, so not exactly a random selection, and not really surprising if that 1 doesn't work, none of them will.

Of course, now I want to put the blasterboard into my XT clone system and play bubble bobble now I am speaking about it, but not home right now 😢

Did the other games work with adlib or did you just try the two?. I don't think the problem is specifically with Taito Arcade ports. I also tried Skyshark, Arkanoid II, and Renegade, other Taito arcade ports from 1988-1990 that only support adlib and they work fine.

Another problem I have found, if you load any of the above games, they disable the ESFM audio of the card.
No other game that was previously working will produce music in Adlib/Soundlbaster/OPl3 mode. At the same time the digital part of the card continues to work bulletproof with everything. The only way to fix this is reset the PC.
At first I though these games might be turning the synthesizer mixer volume to zero. Checking with essvol, that is not the case.

Sorry for the bump, I'm having issues with both and ES1868F and 1869, on descent 2 when running Test Redbook audio, there is no music coming from Cd-rom, obviously I have connected the cable.
Maybe it's dumb but could it be a issue that I did not install the drivers in dos? The other sound\music tests works fine.
If I swap the card with a CT2940 without drivers every test is completed without issues.

Nemo1985 wrote:

Sorry for the bump, I'm having issues with both and ES1868F and 1869, on descent 2 when running Test Redbook audio, there is no music coming from Cd-rom, obviously I have connected the cable.
Maybe it's dumb but could it be a issue that I did not install the drivers in dos? The other sound\music tests works fine.

Please show a picture your card.

If you have used the smaller (white) audio plug there are two different standards that are totally incompatible.

Have you looked at the mixer options to make sure the CD-ROM Audio In is not muted?

Thank you for the answer, those are my cards:
https://imgur.com/a/4XthMXk

I've tried every connector on the card the black and both the white, noone worked. 😢

What output do you get when you run ESSVOL.EXE?

appiah4 wrote:

What output do you get when you run ESSVOL.EXE?

Problem solved I had to raise the C setting volume in autoexec.bat

for the 1869 there is a specific driver for dos or I should use the 1868?

I put the ESS1868 ina 486 mb, Asus PVI-486SP3 with PnP bios.
I'm having issue with CD-ROM audio, to check if it works fine, can I run cdplayer with an audio cd in it?
Because it works fine, I can hear the music, but when I try the descent 2 Redbook test it doesn't work, no digital music.
But on the socket 7 machine it was working fine after setting the cdrom audio.
Furthermore if I change the volume level on my speakers it simply doesn't change, again I tested on another computer and the volume works fine.
Can it be a issue with jumpers of the ESS1868?
Here is a picture of actual settings: https://imgur.com/a/tfJaVpu

I was always wondering whether it's possible to connect a HDD to the IDE port on the ES1868F? Or it supports only CD drive?

An HDD can work off the soundcard, but you need special software to get it going. The easiest way is probably the XT-IDE BIOS (AT Version), because it supports tertiary and quaternary IDE channels...unlike most system BIOSes which at most support secondary.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

An HDD can work off the soundcard, but you need special software to get it going. The easiest way is probably the XT-IDE BIOS (AT Version), because it supports tertiary and quaternary IDE channels...unlike most system BIOSes which at most support secondary.

IDE on ESS carda can work as secondary or even primary.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

An HDD can work off the soundcard, but you need special software to get it going. The easiest way is probably the XT-IDE BIOS (AT Version), because it supports tertiary and quaternary IDE channels...unlike most system BIOSes which at most support secondary.

This is a BIOS for an IDE controller? If so, than it does not work for me as I have only one ISA slot, which is occupied by ESS card.

appiah4 wrote:

IDE on ESS carda can work as secondary or even primary.

But does it support HDDs?

It's IDE, so yes, it supports every IDE device. But the BIOS won't see it, because 1. it's not a primary/secondary IDE channel, and 2. the IDE port has no resources assigned at that time of POST at all.

IDE on ESS cards can work as secondary or even primary.

Sorry, but that is complete nonsense. The IDE port has nothing to do with the ESS chip itself, so such a general statement can never be true in the first place. Whether the IDE port can be primary or secondary depends on how the card manufacturer designed the IDE circuitry. I only know a single ESS-based card that has an IDE port which can be set to primary, and that is the Formosa SC1630. Normally, the port is tertiary to not collide with the existing IDE channels.

derSammler wrote:

It's IDE, so yes, it supports every IDE device. But the BIOS won't see it, because 1. it's not a primary/secondary IDE channel, and 2. the IDE port has no resources assigned at that time of POST at all.

Do I understand correctly, that the HDD connected to the sound card will be accessible in Windows(95,98), but not in DOS? Or it's just not bootable, but can be seen in DOS as well?

derSammler wrote:

IDE on ESS cards can work as secondary or even primary.

Sorry, but that is complete nonsense. The IDE port has nothing to do with the ESS chip itself, so such a general statement can never be true in the first place. Whether the IDE port can be primary or secondary depends on how the card manufacturer designed the IDE circuitry. I only know a single ESS-based card that has an IDE port which can be set to primary, and that is the Formosa SC1630. Normally, the port is tertiary to not collide with the existing IDE channels.

*sigh*

It can work as pri or sec. It depends on the card.

Bondi wrote:

derSammler wrote:

It's IDE, so yes, it supports every IDE device. But the BIOS won't see it, because 1. it's not a primary/secondary IDE channel, and 2. the IDE port has no resources assigned at that time of POST at all.

Do I understand correctly, that the HDD connected to the sound card will be accessible in Windows(95,98), but not in DOS? Or it's just not bootable, but can be seen in DOS as well?

It all depends on what channel the sound card ide controller runs on and what boot options the BIOS supports.

Are there any windows 98 se drivers around or should I use the ones provided with windows?
Thanks.

Hope asking a related question a couple months later is OK (no need to start another topic), but does not having duplex on the ES1868F cards matter if you only use them for gaming? Google says this that Duplex is mostly for how you can't record and play sound at the same time, but digging deeper it seems to also be for not being able to send another signal for a sound when the card is already making a sound? Can that possibly be right?

Just making sure I'm not crippling my setup by using the 1868F's over the 1869F's which are full-duplex (1868F's were way cheaper if I wanted to not have them ship from overseas).

Last, I'm seeing some "FC" models instead of "F" - any notable difference?

Duplex is playback and recording at the same time, mainly needed for voice chat and the like. There's half-duplex and full-duplex. The ES1868 supports full-duplex, it can do playback and recording in CD-quality at the same time. Who told you the ES1868 does not support duplex? Almost every sound card, apart from FM-only cards and some very old ones, can do at least half-duplex.

but digging deeper it seems to also be for not being able to send another signal for a sound when the card is already making a sound?

That's normal and true for 99% of all ISA sound cards. That's why games have to do mixing in software. Only cards like the GUS can play multiple channels in hardware.