Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 16:51:40 -0400 (EDT) From: drifter@stratos.net To: freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: More SB16 woes Message-ID: <199806262051.QAA00528@stratos.net>
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Doug, I took your advice about using DRQ 5 for sbxvi0, and at first it worked adequately. Most MIDI and WAV files played properly, though RealAudio in 16bit mode was never even close. Unfortunately my success was short lived. As it turned out, some random MIDI files, when played through the MIDI to WAV converter `timidity', knocked my SB16 out of commission. The result is loud white noise coming through my speakers. Furthermore, from that point on, when I played anything else through /dev/dsp, I still got white noise. No messages from the sound driver (Voxware) appeared on the root console, either. I tried a simple reboot, but that didn't work. Completely shutting down my computer and restarting also didn't work. I still got the white noise. Then, I tried booting under Windows95 and running a few test MIDI and WAV files. That seemed to work, as a warm boot to FreeBSD made the sound work again. I began playing some MIDI files again through `timidity', but after a while, the same problem happened again. I went through the same Win95 reboot, sound check, and warm boot to FreeBSD, and got it working again. Then, another MIDI file knocked the SB16 card out again. This time, though, the previously mentioned methods did not work. Furthermore, despite having the "proper" DRQ 5 setting, I once again got those DMA/IRQ timeouts. Then, I re-compiled the kernel, reconfiguring it so that I don't have to manually boot into -c config to set "drq sbxvi0 5," and things seemed to work again. Then, once again, a midi file started giving me white noise. Any way, strangely, randomly trying different timidity files, the sound card all of a sudden would correct itself and play fine. On several occasions, I would play a tune and get white noise, and I just kept playing and eventually it corrected itself. But then it went bad again, and I think I can't get it to work this time. To make a long story short, it appears that the Voxware sound driver with SB is unreliable, making any serious attempt to incorporate sound on my desktop mute. I doubt its a hardware problem, since this is my second SB16, and am not likely to believe lightning strikes twice. In fact, I'm beginning to suspect there was nothing wrong with the first SB card. I know Luigi isn't a big fan of SB16, and I'm sure there is a good reason for it. But it is not "physically damaged" in such a way that it can't be made to work, and I cannot responsibly just keep buying expensive hardware every time someone declares it brain-damaged, validly or not. So its either this SB16 or bust. I don't know if there's anything anybody can do about this conundrum of mine. Any help would be appreciated, but if not, at least I offer this as informational testimony to not buying a SB :) -Rob PS: I realize my postings are a bit long, but I just want to give as much detail as I can... To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-multimedia" in the body of the message
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