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iBase MB865 Motherboard - 2 ISA Slots - Pentium 4 socket 775 - Windows 98 - Soundblaster Configuration

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budghiss

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Jun 15, 2024
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Hi, and thanks in advance for looking at this thread. As the title states, it's an industrial board w/ 2 ISA slots. From what I understand, it can do DMA and should be able to take a ISA sound card. I currently have a Soundblaster 1740, which I set to IRQ 5, DMA 1,5 via jumpers. In the BIOS of the motherboard, I am able to turn off Plugn'Play, and assign 'Legacy ISA' to IRQ 5 and DMA 1,5. I also have ACPI turned on, which honestly I can't find a definitive answer on. I load the chipset drivers w/ 'Direct Memory Access Controller' and 'LPC Interface Controller' working properly. This board uses the Intel ICH5 / 865 chipset. I can't get Win98 to recognize the card, including if I force it to search for it. I can't get this card working on this board on this OS. Any insight on what I'm doing wrong or any pointers would be greatly appreciated...
 
What you can try is to turn Plug-and-Play on again and install XP. If that works out fine then you know that this board/card combination works out fine.
Have you checked if this SB needs a driver for W98?
 
Hi, thanks for the reply. So after further researching this, it looks like these industrial boards with a 'LPC Interface Controller' can't do sound - from what I understand, sound cards don't work with them. Bummer. I'd be open to hear from someone who is familiar with this, but it looks like this is a 'no go.'
 
To be honest, I never heard of LPC until now. But as far as I understood, it can handle ISA, including memory access, I/O and DMA. So regarding your remark "from what I understand, sound cards don't work with them", you should come with proof.
Do you have a printer port? If not, can your ISA bus handle one? I have a little box marked "Sound Key" containing a LPT-DAC interface and a floppy with software or drivers. Very simple but it is a way to create sound. I never was interested in the technical side of sound but I can image that there are better sound cards that don't need DMA, i.e. only need I/O. I hope this gives you some ideas.
 
Honestly, I have heard mixed reviews about these industrial boards. I don't know where I saw it, but I did read posts about these industrial boards not working with sound. I have pretty much tried every conceivable option in the BIOS, and I can't get DOS or Win98 to recognize a Creative sound card (legacy & PNP). I have tried an ISA PNP Network card and other ISA PNP sound cards to no avail. I do have a printer port, and I have it disabled in the BIOS. I know the ISA slot is getting -12V & -5V because I have a ISA post card that tests for that. I will test under WinXP and Linux, but my outlook is grim - it's like the BIOS settings aren't taking place. Thanks for the reply...
 
Many of those industrial P4 motherboards don't do DMA at all, or do it in a way that is compatible with old sound cards. They're designed for industrial control cards and those are real time I/O, they don't need DMA.

I have one of those industrial P4 boards and DMA doesn't work on it. I tried my AWE64 and a SB16 and neither card worked with it.
 
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