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ISA XT Sound card list

Is this one an attempt at taking advantage of the popular misconception that a 16-bit sound card needs to have a 16-bit ISA bus connector? It uses a Vibra chip and claims to be "licensed by Creative Technology Ltd.", and as the seller wrote, "This card uses only the 8-bit ISA bus; it has 4 fingers on the AT portion but these are not connected to anything."

http://www.ebay.com/itm/130918500011
 
The 16-bit portion of the card is usually used for the CD-ROM interface and setting high DMA channels. Otherwise the card will work fine in an 8-bit slot, just set the low DMA and high DMA to the same value (usually channel 1).
 
vwestlife said:
Is this one an attempt at taking advantage of the popular misconception that a 16-bit sound card needs to have a 16-bit ISA bus connector? It uses a Vibra chip and claims to be "licensed by Creative Technology Ltd.", and as the seller wrote, "This card uses only the 8-bit ISA bus; it has 4 fingers on the AT portion but these are not connected to anything."

http://www.ebay.com/itm/130918500011
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Those late ViBRA boards use two 8-bit DMA channels for 16-bit digital audio. This method is not ideal, but it works for some programs.
 
njroadfan said:
The 16-bit portion of the card is usually used for the CD-ROM interface and setting high DMA channels. Otherwise the card will work fine in an 8-bit slot, just set the low DMA and high DMA to the same value (usually channel 1).
Click to expand...

yes early version of sound blaster 16 use 16 portion only for cd-rom interface
 
Trixter said:
Make sure you test games that actually have digital sound in them. What games were you testing? There are not many games that have digital sound in them that run on XTs. Here's a list of games that should work to some degree:


  • Prince of Persia
  • (the opening scenes of) Stellar 7 and Rise of the Dragon
  • Tongue of the Fatman (opening scene where you select the fighter, should say "Mondo welcomes you to the fight palace!")
  • 4-D Sports Boxing (digital drums in the music)
  • Stunt Driver (only playable if you have your NEC V20 in though, and set all detail to minimum)
  • Fire Hawk: Thexder II
  • Countdown
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Reviving an old thread, I just successfully installed a SB16 (CT1730 with Panasonic interface, no ASP/CSP chip) into the decidedly XT-class PS/2 Model 25. SB16 works great in Sierra games such as KQIV.

But I'm on a mission to see if I can get digital sound out of this guy, and so far Thexder 2 Fire Hawk is a no. Regular sound works but digital sounds are only a brief click (comparing with YouTube videos). Eventually, the game will fail out with a "parity error". (I could, of course, be reaching the limits of the Model 25 with this game.)

Adding SET BLASTER=A220 I2 D1 T6 to autoexec didn't make any difference. I suppose I could try IRQ9 (changing both the jumpers and SET BLASTER, of course). And I can give Prince of Persia a whirl. But curious if digital sound works for anyone else with this type of config?
 
pl212 said:
Reviving an old thread, I just successfully installed a SB16 (CT1730 with Panasonic interface, no ASP/CSP chip) into the decidedly XT-class PS/2 Model 25. SB16 works great in Sierra games such as KQIV.

But I'm on a mission to see if I can get digital sound out of this guy, and so far Thexder 2 Fire Hawk is a no. Regular sound works but digital sounds are only a brief click (comparing with YouTube videos). Eventually, the game will fail out with a "parity error". (I could, of course, be reaching the limits of the Model 25 with this game.)

Adding SET BLASTER=A220 I2 D1 T6 to autoexec didn't make any difference. I suppose I could try IRQ9 (changing both the jumpers and SET BLASTER, of course). And I can give Prince of Persia a whirl. But curious if digital sound works for anyone else with this type of config?
Click to expand...

Try setting your Sound Blaster and the SET BLASTER variable to IRQ7. That may fix Thexder 2 and probably some others.
 
Hey, thanks! After an unfortunate detour to IRQ5 by mistake (conflicts with HD...) I'm now getting full digital sound in Thexder 2! This must be one of the last games that's marginally playable on this class of hardware...
 
Dca2 said:
CT4170.zip
This little program will set up IRQ, DMA and I/O for a SB16 PnP card according to the BLASTER environment variable. So, the best way is to invoke it in the AUTOEXEC.BAT and position it *after* the 'BLASTER' environment. It wont stay in memory (non-TSR).
Click to expand...
Sorry to bump an old thread, but does anyone know if this driver could let you use an AWE32/AWE64 in an XT?
 
I just used it to put a Vibra 16 in my DTK DATA-1000 XT Turbo. I set blaster=a220 i7 d1 h2 and it works great. I only paid about $21 on eBay for the card, a CT2960. Much cheaper and easier to find than any of the older non-plug and play cards. I have tested it on Stellar7 in sound blaster mode and King's Quest IV using AdLib mode. My XT turbo sings now.
 
Dca2 said:
If DIAGNOSE.EXE or CTCM.EXE is the only barrier preventing your SB16 from working on a 8088 XT, then you might have another chance to try with my little program here:

CT4170.zip

The theory is that most of the jumper-free SB16 cards are PnP standard compliant. So, it's possible to write my own resource manager for SB16 card according to the well documented ISA PnP Specification.

This little program will set up IRQ, DMA and I/O for a SB16 PnP card according to the BLASTER environment variable. So, the best way is to invoke it in the AUTOEXEC.BAT and position it *after* the 'BLASTER' environment. It wont stay in memory (non-TSR). I've successfully put a SB16 Vibra (CT4170) working in my 8088 XT box (refer to this thread). Despite of its file name being CT4170.exe, I believe that it should work with other PnP SB card by Creative Labs. I would appreciate if more people could give it more tests and making it an useful tool. But be aware that only minority of SB16 PnP ISA cards are compatible with 8-bit ISA slot by hardware nature, if you are lucky to have one and bothered by running DIAGNOSE.EXE or CTCM.EXE on 8088, this program could be an work around.
Click to expand...

Does anyone have a working link for CT4170.zip?
 
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