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SB 16 on XT

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evildragon

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Just wondering, has anyone tried using a SoundBlaster 16 on an XT's 8-bit bus? I was thinking about putting my SB16 (or Vibra), into my Model 25...
 
evildragon said:
Just wondering, has anyone tried using a SoundBlaster 16 on an XT's 8-bit bus? I was thinking about putting my SB16 (or Vibra), into my Model 25...
Click to expand...

It won't work, I've tried TONS of 16 bit cards on the XT, and so far I have yet to find one that works other than the Creative Labs CT-1600 SoundBlaster Pro 2 (and even then, the CD-ROM interface doesn't work as that's what the 16 bit portion is used for).
 
ouch, that stinks... the only other 16-bit card i've found to work was an Oak Technologies VGA card, and an ATI VGA Wonder (both cards physically have the same shape, but different components)...
 
I've got a fair number of 16 bit VGA cards that work in an 8-bit slot (they usually need a switch flipped or a jumper changed to work) and I have an Intel 8/16 LAN card which is a 16 bit ISA card but can be configured to work in an 8-bit slot.

I've read where people have stated the 16 bit cards that have serial/parallel/floppy/IDE functions will partially work in an 8 bit slot (the IDE won't work at all, the serial/parallel ports will work and while the floppy may work, there is no BIOS on the card so only the floppy drives that are in the compuer's BIOS will work. I have never tried this, so it's just hearsay for now.)
 
Mad-Mike said:
It won't work, I've tried TONS of 16 bit cards on the XT, and so far I have yet to find one that works other than the Creative Labs CT-1600 SoundBlaster Pro 2 (and even then, the CD-ROM interface doesn't work as that's what the 16 bit portion is used for).
Click to expand...

I see no reason why the CD-Interface of the Sound Blaster Pro 2 would not work in an 8-bit bus. The only reason why the Pro 2 uses the 16-bit connector is for utilizing extra IRQ and DMA channels. None of the other pins are connected.
 
Since no one was sure of it, I just tried it, and the SB 16 does infact work on an XT's 8-bit bus, including 16-bit sound..

But, it's CD-ROM controller, Panasonic, will not work, not that I cared for that thing anyway..
 
Great Hierophant said:
I see no reason why the CD-Interface of the Sound Blaster Pro 2 would not work in an 8-bit bus. The only reason why the Pro 2 uses the 16-bit connector is for utilizing extra IRQ and DMA channels. None of the other pins are connected.
Click to expand...

Hence why the CD-ROM controller does'nt work on the 16 bit variant of the CT-1600 (I've seen an 8-bit version before too), possibly because the CD-ROM uses those extra 16-bit channels instead of the 8-bit ones.
 
oh, and when running SB-16 on an XT, DO NOT FORGET to make the high DMA the same as the low DMA..

I thought my Model 25 died on me, giving me all sorts of parity checks and stuff, then I found out what was causing it, high DMA conflicts..

the download, sbbasic.exe thinks it should be HDMA 5, make it 1, it seems to work best.. (of course, make LDMA 1)
 
Hey, great find! You deserve some sort of reward for discovering something so interesting. I honestly didn't think that the SB16 would work in an 8-bit bus slot. I never had a chance to try it out, because after I upgraded my 486 I traded my SB16 for something else. However, I recently bought two more, so I'll have to give it a shot later.

However, I think I'll stick with my SB 2.0. I don't think many games than run on the XT would be able to use the SB16 anyway. Now what I'd really like is a SB1.5 with CMS chips or a Gameblaster.....
 
Tomorrow I will be trying the Vibra 16.. If my research serves me right, the same exact drivers should work..

What is the Vibra 16 anyway? Is it just a newer and better SB 16?
 
Random Google results suggest that (a sound card based on) Vibra 16 was manufactured by Reply Technologies, based on the SB16 chipset. When it comes to later SB32, it says the Vibra chipset doesn't support analog bass/treble control and generates less noise than the old SB16. If I recall correctly, Creative Labs bought the whole line of Vibra sound cards somewhere in the mid 90's, and Vibra 128 probably was the last (compatible with SB128 ) before they moved on to the Live! series.
 
I just found out the Vibra 16 will NOT work in an XT-style machine... It actually crashes the HD from loading, when it loads MixerSet.exe.. Possibly this is because it is plug and play, and the XT's are not...

SoundBlaster 16 (works): CT2770

Vibra 16 (fails): CT2800
 
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Dumb question maybe, but the origional Sound Blaster is an 8-bit card, I know it's mono and kinda sucks, but is there any real advantage to getting a SB Pro or SB 16 instead? Is there much in the way of software to make use of them? :)
 
well, here are some of the benefits of me using my SB16 in my XT:

Stereo Sound
Cleaner Filtered Audio
Less Hiss (Noise)
Audio Passthrough from my old computer, and with trebble and bass controls...
 
How many games that would run OK on an XT would take advantage of a Soundblaster 16? I have an 8 bit ISA soundblaster, if I ever get an old 8088 I will test it out. Also have a spare SB Pro 2.0.
 
Don't know about games, but I usually use audio software, MIDI music (I utilize the FM synthesizer in a reprommed fasion, thus no cheesy sounds...)

as for digital sample stuff, I can't think of any reason for that..

I mainly wanted the OPL3...
 
There was a game (it's been a *long* time, I want to say Treasure Cove?) that I ran on the XT, when I had EGA and an origional SB card, and it actually had pretty good graphics and sound. The game was probably intended to be played on a faster machine and was a little on the easy side because the XT was slow. It's also supposed to be more of a kids educational game but was still kinda fun.

Anyway, I'll have to try a SB16 in the XT I guess, I never figured it would work :) What's a good setup for a Mod player? Will the SB work well for that?
 
009491kittendangerous02rc3.jpg


Hope that helps ;)

P.S.
In my 8mhz V30 with soundblaster i can get nearly a 11025hz playback with that program :)
 

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