Where'd the wavetable go?

[Hyper]

I recently installed new audio drivers for my Intel PD440FX motherboard (alright, enough snickering. It's old, but it works). This board is a Pentium II with built-in Yahama sound device and hardware wavetable. I'm running Win98se on 128MB ram.
The problem now is, the hardware wavetable seems to have flown the coop. I can no longer select it for playback (control panel, multimedia, midi tab) because it's not there as an option. The driver set I just downloaded from Intel's site says it supports the WT, but I think the driver never got installed.

I'm not an audiophile, and don't often use the MIDI devices. However, I have lost the capability to play more than one audio stream. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif I used to be able to listen to 2 different audio programs (i.e. Musicmatch playing internet radio, and .wav sound effects in games or sound from media player), now Windows gives me the 'no audio device available because it's busy' error popup.

What have I screwed up, and how can I fix it? BTW, Intel no longer actively supports the mboard as of last March (rotten timing).

Thanks!
Hyper

[mjc]

Try uninstalling the updated drvier and reinstalling the original...sometimes in order to "fix" a problem some comapnies disable certain features of device, althoug disabling the hardware wavetable does seem a little farfetched to me I guess it is possible...

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Gun Control...hitting what you aim at!

[Hyper]

OK, I reinstalled the previous drivers. Unfortunately, that didn't work. The hardware WT still doesn't appear as it used to.

After further playing around, I discovered that I can, in my current broken configuration, play more than 1 audio stream, as long as one is MIDI. This isn't surprising, since most any sound card handles wav and midi differently.

The other things I have discovered (now that I'm looking for such things and not taking them for granted):
The audio (volume control) mixer shows that MusicMatch is using the wave device now, therefore I now get the 'no music device available' error. Because I used to be able to play wav-based sounds (e.g. game effects, mpg w/ sound) while using MusicMatch, I'm thinking MM was using the hardware WT for playback. I'm no sound card expert but is that a reasonable assumption?
Alternatively, how can I get MM to use the midi function of the sound 'card' for playback, freeing the wav device?

Hyper


Listen...smell something?

[Hyper]

oops, double posted.

[This message has been edited by Hyper (edited 08-03-2001).]

[mjc]

What are your options under multimedia (control panel) audio properties playback devices?


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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Gun Control...hitting what you aim at!

[Hyper]

OPL3-SA Playback (the Yamaha sound hardware on the board)
game compatible device (soundblaster emulation???)
voice modem wave #00 line
voice modem wave #00 handset

Just those 4, plus the 'use any device' option. Recording options are the same.

[mjc]

Ok, boot up into safe mode and go to device manager and see what is listed under the sound section...you should probably remove all the devices found there, reboot and let Windows reinstall everything...have the updated drivers handy just in case Windows asks for them...

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

Gun Control...hitting what you aim at!

[Hyper]

Thanks, mjc for all the help. Safe mode probably would have worked, but here's what I did.

My video started acting funny yesterday -- it would appear to display only 256 colors when 16 bit (64K) was selected. It first happened after a reboot trying to fix the audio problem, and continued to be that way after a cold boot, and playing with the video properties. A friend said there might be something wrong with the registry...

Long story short, I reinstalled Win98, and BOTH problems went away http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif The hardware wavetable is back, the video works right, I can use multiple sound devices/programs the way I want to and could before.

My suspicion is the 'new' audio device drivers are incompatible with Windows 98. This is based on the fact that 98 never asks for the driver file from the diskette, though the install directions for the drivers indicate win 95 won't recognize the hardware and will require a driver from disk. I guess what has been said about 98 being better at plug-n-play is correct -- better driver support.

Now I just need to find out if there are drivers for 98 with the same functions (e.g. sim 3D sound) as the old drivers have. Any suggestions on where to look?


Thanks again!!
Hyper

[This message has been edited by Hyper (edited 08-05-2001).]