AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

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CryptidWorks
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AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by CryptidWorks »

I was trying to test out the Soundblaster AWE32 to see if it fairs any better than the PCI-128 in anything I'm having issues with and neither windows 95 or 98 seem to register the device being installed when I select it. There's no PCI audio device in the Hardware manager and the SB utilities don't find a card either.
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omarsis81
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by omarsis81 »

Works here
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MiraiMiracle
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by MiraiMiracle »

omarsis81 wrote: Wed 04 Mar, 2020 2:25 pmWorks here
Insert your Windows 95 CD.
"You cannot escape my Persona!"
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omarsis81
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by omarsis81 »

sounds ok
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omarsis81
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by omarsis81 »

maybe you have a bad BIOS dump
JosepMa
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by JosepMa »

It definitely will not show under PCI audio, because it is an ISA card, not a PCI card.
Also, if you don't have the audio ROM, it will not work. Configure an SB16 in that case.
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CryptidWorks
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by CryptidWorks »

You see, on my end I get absolutely nothing showing up under video, sound, and game controllers for the AWE32 and no detection at start-up and I've got the newest bios I could find that were updated 8 months ago

Image

Soundblaster 16 is not showing up either. Only thing I get to work is the Gen 5 PCI cards.
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CryptidWorks
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by CryptidWorks »

Upon checking I do have Awe32.raw in my rom folder
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CryptidWorks
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by CryptidWorks »

SB16 not showing up in Windows 95 either

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CryptidWorks
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by CryptidWorks »

Update:

Fixed with a new copy of PCEM V15 and fresh install of Windows 98SE. Something is apparently not right with my old copy that was updated from V14 with a directory merge.
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CryptidWorks
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by CryptidWorks »

Update: issue isolated. Installing drivers for PC-128 keeps the system from recolonizing any other soundcards. Don't know if this real behavior for Windows 98 or a PCEM issue.
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leilei
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by leilei »

It's real behavior for non-PnP ("Plug 'n play") SB cards. If you didn't have the card in at Windows setup time, you'll have to add them manually through the Add New Hardware control panel applet (Automatically or not), and PCem doesn't emulate any later (>1994) variant of ISA Sound Blasters
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CryptidWorks
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by CryptidWorks »

leilei wrote: Thu 05 Mar, 2020 3:09 pm It's real behavior for non-PnP ("Plug 'n play") SB cards. If you didn't have the card in at Windows setup time, you'll have to add them manually through the Add New Hardware control panel applet (Automatically or not), and PCem doesn't emulate any later (>1994) variant of ISA Sound Blasters
Now I'm kind of wondering if there's any reason to use the PCI cards in PCEM the first place. So far the AWE32 doesn't have any loss in quality and seems to suffer far less audio glitches than the PCI-128 or Enrique.
JosepMa
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by JosepMa »

Each card is useful for the software it is intended to be used with.

Oldest soundblaster or adlib cards are mostly for DOS based games that specifically use those.
Newer SB16 is the all-compatible soundcard for newer DOS and Windows.
AWE32 is specifically useful if the software uses it to play music, or on Windows if you play MIDI or games that have MIDI that is targeted for AWE32 or General Midi.
GUS is also interesting for specific DOS software that can use GUS.
GUS on Windows might be good for MIDI, (back in the days, people used the GUS patches for an alternative software MIDI player named timidity)

But once you're on Windows and you don't need the specific AWE32 characteristics, then the PCI-128 is a good 48Khz soundcard with software MIDI emulation. (AWE32 uses Soundfont bank, PCI128 uses a different bank format, but you had up to 8MB banks with the drivers CD).

One note to know about AWE32 is that the MIDI and its 32 channels are always running, even if not playing audio, so it adds to CPU usage. (And the reverb, chorus and equalization were never fully emulated, they just "may work")
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CryptidWorks
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by CryptidWorks »

JosepMa wrote: Thu 05 Mar, 2020 10:14 pm Each card is useful for the software it is intended to be used with.

Oldest soundblaster or adlib cards are mostly for DOS based games that specifically use those.
Newer SB16 is the all-compatible soundcard for newer DOS and Windows.
AWE32 is specifically useful if the software uses it to play music, or on Windows if you play MIDI or games that have MIDI that is targeted for AWE32 or General Midi.
GUS is also interesting for specific DOS software that can use GUS.
GUS on Windows might be good for MIDI, (back in the days, people used the GUS patches for an alternative software MIDI player named timidity)

But once you're on Windows and you don't need the specific AWE32 characteristics, then the PCI-128 is a good 48Khz soundcard with software MIDI emulation. (AWE32 uses Soundfont bank, PCI128 uses a different bank format, but you had up to 8MB banks with the drivers CD).

One note to know about AWE32 is that the MIDI and its 32 channels are always running, even if not playing audio, so it adds to CPU usage. (And the reverb, chorus and equalization were never fully emulated, they just "may work")
To bad the PCI-128 does shit like this in PCEM that the AWE32 doesn't

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX6K-5b6Qyo
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leilei
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by leilei »

The PCI 128's a budget card and is pretty much a proto-SBLive, since Creative bought up Ensoniq for their PCI sound tech to create the Live (and all the later cards like Audigy, X-Fi etc), AudioPCI's a stopgap solution and a very popular common OEM card of choice. Early SBLive drivers had the same DOS TSRs with the bad fake FM 'emulation' even.

AudioPCI 128 does have driver advantages like A3D 1.0 and EAX 1.0 support, and being AC'97 compliant. Some games will still be fussy about it though as it doesn't support a lot of voices. A good place to try out the PCI128's A3D is to immerse yourself in a room with chickens in Outlaws (an early A3D-marketed game)

There's also the earlier ES1370 / AudioPCI 64 which PCem doesn't currently emulate, which had driver advantages of DOS drivers supporting the Soundscape (which only a handful of mid-90s dos games recognize). There's other differences like 44khz, etc.





....and yes, I do have a soft spot for the AudioPCI approximating FM sound. It's one notable thing it can't do well, and it's also worthy of preserving. There's very very much a point of emulating the PCI128 even if the DOS compatibility isn't that great (but still, better than early MonsterSounds as far as early PCI sound goes)
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CryptidWorks
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Re: AWE32 Won't Show Up In 9x.

Post by CryptidWorks »

leilei wrote: Fri 06 Mar, 2020 1:06 am The PCI 128's a budget card and is pretty much a proto-SBLive, since Creative bought up Ensoniq for their PCI sound tech to create the Live (and all the later cards like Audigy, X-Fi etc), AudioPCI's a stopgap solution and a very popular common OEM card of choice. Early SBLive drivers had the same DOS TSRs with the bad fake FM 'emulation' even.

AudioPCI 128 does have driver advantages like A3D 1.0 and EAX 1.0 support, and being AC'97 compliant. Some games will still be fussy about it though as it doesn't support a lot of voices. A good place to try out the PCI128's A3D is to immerse yourself in a room with chickens in Outlaws (an early A3D-marketed game)

There's also the earlier ES1370 / AudioPCI 64 which PCem doesn't currently emulate, which had driver advantages of DOS drivers supporting the Soundscape (which only a handful of mid-90s dos games recognize). There's other differences like 44khz, etc.





....and yes, I do have a soft spot for the AudioPCI approximating FM sound. It's one notable thing it can't do well, and it's also worthy of preserving. There's very very much a point of emulating the PCI128 even if the DOS compatibility isn't that great (but still, better than early MonsterSounds as far as early PCI sound goes)
I'm not saying it doesn't well when it works, but when there's emulation issues with the current version that result in some games just completely going haywire it seems to problematic to use over the AWE32 that doesn't glitch out.
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