Two soundcards?

P

Pete

New member
I bought a PC with a ESS soundcard. I also bought the DMAN 2044 multitrack soundcard.

After I set up the hardware my ESS does not work anymore. In the device manager it only says that the device is either not working properly, or there is a driver problem. I have updated drivers, but this does not seem to solve the problem at all.

Question: do I need two soundcards, and can I use them simultaneously? I mean it work before I installed the DMAN, so what is the real problem now.

Pleas help me quick.
 
I will bet a nickle you have an IRQ conflict. You need to peek at the setup in the system setting in control panel. You will probably need to reassign a few settings. or just yank the old soundcard.
 
Thanks for that. Yes I also thought about that possibility and tried some new settings out, but after about 3 or 4 attemps, I was getting frustrated, cause I want to make music, not playing around in the control panel all night long.

Anyway, I'll try again later to see if I can resolve the conflict. Any idea which IRQ might be the most suitable? I see there's a lot of settings that is available, but it doesn't work at all.

Thanks again for the help.
 
If an IRQ is available, and the soundcard can use it then it should work. Simply make a list of all the IRQ-using equipment in your system and find out what IRQ each uses. A while back someone was trying to get three soundblasters working simultaneously on one PC. I don't think it actually worked completely.... something about poor synchronization of playback on the different
cards.

[This message has been edited by drstawl (edited 01-23-2000).]
 
You got it drstawl, all sound card must be able to share some kind of common sync, much like electricity on different circuits needing a common ground to prevent ground loops.

Quality sound cards provide some kind of connection on the board to sync them to other sound cards that support the particular type of sync that will be used.

There are probably many other issues involved. All that I know is that the sound cards all must be able to sync from a common source to work properly.

Ed
 
I had the IRQ problem befor as well when I got all excited about installing a few cards. But as the case was I ended up with the damn sync issue too. Some such bother about "silicon" or whatnot. Bottom line turned out that two or more cards just were not the plan.
 
I couldn't get an ISA card to work with my Dman 2044 and BH6 motherboard, so I spent $15 on a Yamaha PCI with its cheesy synth. Some cards won't let you manually set the IRQ, but by trying different slots on the motherboard, you stand a good chance of getting it to work. The Yamaha finally worked on the third slot tried. My computer guru calls this method, "Plug and Pray."
 
One thing I really hate about installing a card is not having all the information about it. Does that motherboard really divvy up available IRQs to specific expansion slots or was it merely the act of yanking and reinstalling the card with a system boot inbetween that eventually made it work? If you don't know, and I sure don't, which is why I'm asking, the process you describe is much like chanting MS error messages, clasping the severed extremities of dead animals while sticking pins in a Bill Gates doll. Don't forget the chicken blood.
 
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