plug in some speakers or headphones

Davros wrote:

plug in some speakers or headphones

Thanks very much for your advice! 🤣
Actually, I did change headphones, to see if they were faulty, but they were OK.

I'm having the same problem with my SBAWE32 CT3980. Digital sound effects work but FM synthesis is not working, or soimetimes, I need to crank up the volume to max, and even then, I can only hear a very low hint of the music.

Haven't found out the solution yet. Temporarily using my SB 32 PnP CT3600.

Malik wrote:

I'm having the same problem with my SBAWE32 CT3980. Digital sound effects work but FM synthesis is not working, or soimetimes, I need to crank up the volume to max, and even then, I can only hear a very low hint of the music.

Haven't found out the solution yet. Temporarily using my SB 32 PnP CT3600.

That's really interesting. Have you always had this problem with your CT3980? I have tried my CT3980 in a couple of mobos, but I get the same problem.
I do have another CT3980. That card works fine - no problems.

Nope. I remember it was working well before. Haven't tried on other mobos yet, though.

Malik wrote:

Nope. I remember it was working well before. Haven't tried on other mobos yet, though.

I'm just guessing here - but could it be a PSU issue? I mean, something to do with the lack of a -5v rail?

I've been testing this CT3980 in the system which has the -5v rail. Something to do with this particular model, perhaps? Defective chips?
And I haven't tried the card with newer drivers/pnp versions.

Malik wrote:

I've been testing this CT3980 in the system which has the -5v rail. Something to do with this particular model, perhaps? Defective chips?
And I haven't tried the card with newer drivers/pnp versions.

Can I just confirm something please? You say that the CT3980 once worked OK, but now it does not work OK. Have there been any hardware changes between the time it once worked OK, and the time that it now does not work?

I was thinking that perhaps it could be related to CPU speed? The system I tried my "defective" CT3980 in had a P3 600mhz CPU in it. Perhaps I need to try an older slower system, such as a Pentium1 based system.

Are there multiple jacks on the back? If you're using headphones you may want to see if one of the jacks is a pre-amplified output.

Also, what does the Win98 mixer show for volume and mute status for the different things?

HunterZ wrote:

Are there multiple jacks on the back? If you're using headphones you may want to see if one of the jacks is a pre-amplified output.

Also, what does the Win98 mixer show for volume and mute status for the different things?

I've just set up the CT3980 in a different mobo - this time it's an older socket 7 / Pentium1 board. And this time, I'm using a pair of powered multimedia speakers rather than passive headphones. I'm testing the CT3980 inside Windows 98. As before, everything seems OK with resources + driver, and also the sound effects are OK, but as before the FM and AWEffects do not produce any sound.

I've checked the win98 mixer, and the only noteworthy thing is that the MIDI Balance has a greyed out / disabled Mute checkbox, which does not have a tick in it.

As far as I can remember, nothing was changed before the problem appeared. The system I use this card is in my Socket 5 motherboard with a P133. I have also made sure there are no resource conflicts. I have tested this card with multiple speaker sets (all powered), including my AV receiver, using both the line-out and speaker out jacks, and have crossed checked the volume setting in the dos mixer.

I just retested my CT3980, and it's completely silent now. Before, I was able to get effects working but no music. Now, I can't get any sound from the card. I replaced it with a CT3990, and used the same HDD with the same PnP settings, and that card works OK, so I think the first card, the 3980, is broken in some way.

Also, I bought some 30-pin SIMMs, which were advertised as 8MB each. I was quite excited by this, because it would be nice to have an AWE32 with 16MB of RAM on board. Unfortunately, the seller seems to be confused, because they only register as 2MB (for a pair of sticks) using diagnose.exe. Visually, they also look like 1MB sticks.

Question: I believe it's possible to have as much as 28MB onboard an AWE32. I guess this means 2 sticks of 16MB (32MB), and the 4MB left over (32-28=4) is not available to the card. But as 30-pin SIMMs are quite rare these, especially 16MB sticks, is it possible to get a 30-pin to 72-pin memory stick "converter"? It's easy to get hold of a couple of sticks of 72-pin RAM. If I could slot these 72-pin sticks in to a converter, then attach the converter to the AWE32's SIMM slot(s), that would allow me to get the maximum amount of RAM onboard the AWE32.

Any ideas please people?

How about this: http://simmconn.tripod.com/ ?

elianda wrote:

How about this: http://simmconn.tripod.com/ ?

That product looks very interesting. However, it is designed for an AWE64. I am hoping to find some kind of similar product, for the AWE32. The AWE32 accepts two 30-pin SIMMs. 30-pin SIMMs, especially 16MB sticks, are rare. But 72-pin SIMMs can still be obtained. I would like to find some kind of "converter" which would accept a 72-pin SIMM (or a pair of them), and then attach this converter on to the 30-pin SIMM slots on the AWE32.

I managed to get a pair of 16MB 30-pin SIMMS just for this card. But the card is showing some problem..

Tried the same card on another socket 7 motherboard. Same problem. No FM sounds. Sound effects - ok. Guess the chip or the transmitting circuit went kaput.

Do the AWE cards have actual OPL chips?

HunterZ wrote:

Do the AWE cards have actual OPL chips?

I've just had a closer look at this CT3980 AWE32 card, and there's a chip on it that says: CT1747 OPL

It depends on the model. A very few come with a real OPL3, some have it integrated into the CT1747 chip. Later variants have the CQM chip instead.