SScorpio wrote on 2020-10-21, 23:53:

darry wrote on 2020-10-19, 06:20:

I think you might want to try setting one or both of these registry keys to 1 and rebooting . […]
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I think you might want to try setting one or both of these registry keys to 1 and rebooting .

; Turn on/off the Digital Out support
HKLM,"Software\Aureal\Vortex\AU8830\Customization","SupportDigitalOut",0x00010001,1,0,0,0 ; DWORD Value: 1 - on, 0 - off

; Set default state of Digital Out
HKLM,"Software\Aureal\Vortex\AU8830\ControlPanel","DigitalOutState",0x00010001,1,0,0,0

I ran into some issues with all the driver swapping and started getting a BSOD and it took a while to get a stable clean install again.

Neither of those keys existing, I created them both and I'm still seeing the Digital Out option in the control panel disabled.

The idea fro the registry entries came from the inf for this set of drivers https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-ca/drive … driverid=r20109 for the Voyetra Turtle Beach 64 Voice Montego II which is also based on the AU8830 .

They probably will not install directly on an MX300 , but by either force installing, or modding the .inf , you may be able to get them to install and maybe get Digital out working .

Good luck .

Has anyone populated the internal missing output header on the MX300? Looking at the board it looks to be missing some circuitry for this header.

Reviewing the linked page about the MX25, at the very bottom is a comment about the MX300 and that the reference 2048 drivers randomly for some hardware won't output SPDIF for all audio. The DVD Player will output over SPDIF, but other audio will not.

I looked through a bunch of other Aureal driver revisions for both reference and OEM drivers. I attempted to use the SQ2500 OEM which is a later driver than anything else but those caused a bluescreen at times, and the control panel had SPDIF disabled just like the 2048 drivers.

According to the Vogon's Driver page the 2015 drivers are recommended for DX 7.1+, while the last revision of the Diamond drivers are based off 2017. The Diamond OEM didn't have SPDIF anywhere in the control panel, but the 2015 reference did have a digital out tab and actually worked. I was able to hear MX300 generated MIDI over SPDIF.

So I successfully piped SPDIF audio out of the MX300 and into the digital CD input on a SB Live. Now I just need to figure out why the port that appears to go from a SB Live Drive to an external aux output card isn't taking SPDIF input. And I'll be able to live the A3D 2.0, EAX 2.0(edit), SB16 DOS dream.

EDIT: I found the solution to the SB Live Drive problem. By default, the Live Drive doesn't route the SPDIF Inputs to the additional header for the rear Digital IO board. There are some undocumented jumpers you can use to change the routing and make it work.

I found the needed information here:
An Advanced SB Live! Configuration

Good thing you got it working and thanks for sharing your solution!👍
Btw you mention you're getting A3D 2.0 + EAX 4.0; does the Live! support EAX 4.0 after all?

Doornkaat wrote on 2020-10-23, 10:33:

Good thing you got it working and thanks for sharing your solution!👍
Btw you mention you're getting A3D 2.0 + EAX 4.0; does the Live! support EAX 4.0 after all?

Doh, thanks for the catch. I've been looking at 98 cards too much and the 4.0 on an Audigy 2 was stuck in my head along with the A3D having EAX 2 and 3 wrappers. I'll have to do a bunch of A/B comparisons, but I still remember EAX sounding better on a Live vs the Wrapper a Vortex 2 uses. Though maybe I'll need to try Aureal wrapper EAX 3 vs native SB Live EAX 2.

SScorpio wrote on 2020-10-23, 11:39:

Doornkaat wrote on 2020-10-23, 10:33:

Good thing you got it working and thanks for sharing your solution!👍
Btw you mention you're getting A3D 2.0 + EAX 4.0; does the Live! support EAX 4.0 after all?

Doh, thanks for the catch. I've been looking at 98 cards too much and the 4.0 on an Audigy 2 was stuck in my head along with the A3D having EAX 2 and 3 wrappers. I'll have to do a bunch of A/B comparisons, but I still remember EAX sounding better on a Live vs the Wrapper a Vortex 2 uses. Though maybe I'll need to try Aureal wrapper EAX 3 vs native SB Live EAX 2.

I'm not very knowledgeable on sound cards so please excuse me for asking again: I always thought Aureal Vortex 1+2 drivers only supported EAX 1.0 in software and EAX 3/4/5 was only ever supported by Creative cards with no wrappers/emulation avaliable. I'm really not trying to be a dick here if that's another typo.
I've also never tried EAX on my Vortex2 cards and always read it's better to just use a Live!; they're pretty cheap and easily avaliable after all. 😁

Doornkaat wrote on 2020-10-23, 14:13:

I'm not very knowledgeable on sound cards so please excuse me for asking again: I always thought Aureal Vortex 1+2 drivers only supported EAX 1.0 in software and EAX 3/4/5 was only ever supported by Creative cards with no wrappers/emulation avaliable. I'm really not trying to be a dick here if that's another typo.
I've also never tried EAX on my Vortex2 cards and always read it's better to just use a Live!; they're pretty cheap and easily avaliable after all. 😁

You may be right, but EAX wrapper has a confusing name for 2.06, and 3.00. I do remember the Live supporting better EAX than the Vortex 2, and if it can only do EAX 2, it makes sense for the Vortex to only be able to do EAX 1, much like the Live can only do A3D 1.0.

http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/index.php?catid=42

SScorpio wrote on 2020-10-18, 22:14:

Has anyone successfully gotten SPDIF Out from the MX-300? The linked site above says pin 18 is SDIF out with pin 17 being a grou […]
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Has anyone successfully gotten SPDIF Out from the MX-300? The linked site above says pin 18 is SDIF out with pin 17 being a ground pin. I tried connecting these to the aux connectors of a SB Live Drive as well as the Digital CD SPDIF connector on the SB Live and I'm not getting data on either. In the Aureal settings, the Digital Out selector shows 48Hz but is disabled.

It is possible to enable the Digital Out/EQ tab in the Aureal control panel in other versions of the drivers, at least the ones I tried.
In the 2015 drivers the Digital Out/EQ tab shows by default in the Aureal control panel but in versions 2031, 2035, 2041 and 2048 you need to make a small change in the registry to bring the Digital Out/EQ tab into the control panel. See here: Aureal Vortex 2 (Diamond MX300) enabled SPDIF out in 2048 drivers but no sound in Win98, but OK in WinXP
Like you, I can get the digital sound using the 2015 driver version, for some reason even after bringing the Digital Out/EQ menu tab in the rest of the driver versions I can't get the digital sound out from the card. I tried, and still trying mixing drivers, .dll and .ini files (Forced Frankenstein Style) from all versions (ie.:2015 +2048 , 2015+2041...) into test sets but still not success getting the sound out. The question is WHY even with the Digital Out/EQ tab enabled in all drivers sets it only the 2015 version the one that outputs SPDIF digital sound and not the later driver versions.... I wonder if there latest drivers are coded to HW detect if the MX25 is present in order to HW enable SPDIF out (....??)