SOUND EXPRESSION 14.4VSp INSTALLATION TIPS ============================================ This document is arranged in the following sections: (A) - Hardware installation (B) - Replacing an existing sound card (C) - Configuring a CD-ROM drive with the Sound Expression (D) - Configuring Sound Blaster Compatibility (E) - Windows Sound System (F) - Configuring MIDI Section A - Hardware installation: -------------------------------------------- Before installing the Sound Expression, you first need to see what Com Port and IRQ settings are available in your system. You can do this by running the Comcheck software that is supplied with the Sound Expression. Comcheck will examine your system and recommend a suitable Com port and IRQ to set the modem portion of the Sound Expression to. Generally it is best to configure the modem on the Sound Expression to one of the following Com Port and IRQ settings. This should be based on the settings that are suggested by the Comcheck software. Com 1 - IRQ4 Com 2 - IRQ3 Com 3 - IRQ5 or 7 Com 4 - IRQ5 or 7 If the Comcheck software does not run properly on your system and either locks up or does not properly detect the existing hardware in your system, there are other diagnostic programs that can used to help you to determine what Com Port and IRQ settings are available in your system. MSD.EXE is one of these programs. The program MSD.EXE (Microsoft Diagnostics) is supplied with Windows and DOS version 6.x and above. Using this software, you can determine what settings are available in your system. You must run this software with the Sound Expression removed from your system. Start the software by typing MSD at a DOS prompt. MSD will examine your system and then bring you to a menu. From the menu, go to COM PORTS. Any Com Port that is available for the modem will have N/A (not active) under it. You need to choose the first available com port that is listed with N/A. This will be the Com Port that you will set on your Sound Expression. You should then leave the Com port section of MSD and go to IRQ STATUS. You will see a chart of all the IRQs in your system. The most important part of this chart is the column labeled DETECTED. Using the IRQs that are suggested above for the corresponding com port that you chose earlier, make sure the IRQ lists NO in the detected column. If not, then you will need to choose a different Com port and IRQ. Once you have determined which com port and IRQ to set the Sound Expression to, you will then need to set the jumpers on the board to correspond to these settings. Then you are ready to install the board. Section B - Replacing an existing sound card: --------------------------------------------------- If you are replacing an existing sound card with the Sound Expression, before installing the Drivers for the Sound Expression, you need to remove ALL drivers for the previous sound card. You can do this through the DRIVERS section of the Windows Control Panel. In the Driver section of the Windows control Panel, you should see the drivers for the previous sound card listed. You need to highlight the driver, by clicking on it with the mouse, and hit the delete button on your keyboard to remove the driver. With some sound cards, removing the drivers from Windows Control Panel is not enough. Most sound cards have a 386 Enhanced driver that loads in the SYSTEM.INI file and it must be removed manually by editing the SYSTEM.INI file. The name of the driver will vary with different brands of sound cards so it is difficult to determine exactly what driver to remove. It is best to contact the manufacturer of the sound card to find out exactly what the driver name is that needs to be removed. The following instruction explain how to remove this driver from the SYSTEM.INI file: 1. Edit the SYSTEM.INI file using NOTEPAD.EXE or any other file editor of your choice. 2. Search for the [386ENH] section of the SYSTEM.INI file. 3. In this section, you need to search for a line that reads something like this: device=VS?????.386 (?=driver name will vary) 4. You can remark this line out by placing a semicolon (;) in front of this line. Note: There are many other 386 enhanced drivers in this section of the SYSTEM.INI file and removing the wrong driver may cause Windows or one of your applications or devices to not run properly. If you are not sure about what driver to remove, either contact the sound cards manufacturer or Boca Research Technical Support for help in removing this driver. Section C - Configuring a CD-ROM drive with the Sound Expression: ---------------------------------------------------------- The Sound Expression supports several different types of CD-ROM drives. First you need to identify what type of CD-ROM drive you have and which CD-ROM connector to attach it to on the Sound Expression. Make sure your CD-ROM drive is connected to the correct port on the Sound Expression and pin one on the CD-ROM cable is lined up with the solid bar on the connector. Make sure that jumper J5 (or J6 on some boards) is in the Enabled position if you have an IDE CD-ROM drive. Once you have the drive properly connected, power your system on. Go to the SE1440 directory, in DOS, and run the CSACSET.EXE utility. Then go to the CD-ROM setup and make sure that the correct type of CD-ROM drive is selected and select the I/O address and IRQ which will be used by your CD- ROM drive (if applicable, depending on the type of drive you have). You can then install the CD-ROM driver that was supplied with your CD-ROM drive. During the driver installation, you may be asked what I/O address and IRQ the CD-ROM controller is set to. Make sure you enter the same settings that were set in the CSACSET.EXE utility for the CD-ROM drive. Note: In your CONFIG.SYS file, you need to make sure that the line "DEVICE=C:\SE1440\CSACMOD1.EXE" loads before the CD- ROM's driver. When configuring the Sound Expression for an IDE CD-ROM drive, the SE1440 will be setup as a secondary IDE controller using I/O address 170 and IRQ 15. If you already have a secondary IDE controller in your system and you install the Sound Expression with IDE enabled, you will have a conflict. You must either use your existing secondary IDE controller for the CD-ROM drive and disable IDE on the Sound Expression using jumper J5 (or J6 on some boards) or disable your existing secondary controller and use the Sound Expression instead. If you get the error "YOUR CD-ROM DRIVE IS NOT AVAILABLE" when trying to play audio CDs, then Windows CD-Audio driver is not installed. The CD-Audio driver is supplied by Microsoft with Windows, but is not installed by default. To install the Windows CD-Audio driver, first go to Windows Control Panel and into DRIVERS. If you do not see the [MCI] CD-Audio driver listed, click on the Add button. You will then get a list of drivers which will include the [MCI] CD-Audio driver. You must then Add this driver and you will be prompted to put in your Windows disk to load the driver If you are still not getting sound when playing audio CDs and you do not get any errors, just no sound, then the problem is with the CD- audio cable that connects between your CD-ROM drive and the Sound Expression. The cable may not be pinned out the same as the connector on the Sound Expression. The CD AUDIO connector pin-outs for the SE1440 are as follows: PIN 1 2 3 4 ---------------------------------------------- SONY/IDE L G x R Panasonic x R G L Mitsumi R G L x x R - Right speaker L - Left speaker G - Ground Section D - Configuring Sound Blaster Compatibility: ------------------------------------------------------- Sound Blaster compatibility allows the Sound Expression to be used with DOS programs and DOS games that support a Sound Blaster compatible sound card. The Sound Blaster compatibility on the Sound Expression is configured using the CSACSET.EXE utility. When configuring the settings for SB (SoundBlaster) compatibility in CSACSET, the setting will be saved in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file in a SET BLASTER line. If you are having problems running the Sound Expression with DOS video games that are Soundblaster compatible there are a couple of things to look for. Most video games function better with the sound card using the lower interrupts, such as IRQ 5, 7, and 9. The recommended interrupt for the Sound Expression DOS with games is IRQ7. The reason why IRQ7 is chosen is because the normal default of IRQ5 is notorious for conflicting with many other peripherals in a computer. With games like DOOM, DOOM2, HERETIC, DESCENT, etc. they are very sensitive when it comes to addressing. For sound, they function best with IRQ 5 and 7, mixing 3 sounds at a time. Although you can mix more sounds sometimes and still hear them clearly. You will have received less problems from cards also set to I/O address 220, instead of 240, but both will work. If you have these settings chosen, run the game and hear music without FX sound, then the common problem with that is the DMA address. It is best to use DMA channel 1 for FX sounds. If it is set to DMA 1 and there is still no FX sound check for another device occupying that DMA channel or attempt to place it on DMA3. When playing across modems, the modem MUST be on a standard com port and IRQ setting. The games will NOT function if the modem is set to a non-standard IRQ setting. The card should be configure to either Com1 and IRQ4 or Com2 and IRQ3. Theses are standard com port and IRQ settings. Make sure that the modems are also set to 9600bps. If there is no Boca modem choice in the set up, then choose either the Hayes 14.4 or the Zoom 14.4 those will also usually work as long as they are set up for 9600bps. Section E - Windows Sound System: --------------------------------------------------------- Windows Sound System (WSS) allows you to play wave files and other types of sounds in Windows. If you are having problems playing wave files, you should check the Windows Sound System (WSS) settings in Windows Control Panel. Go to Windows Control Panel and into DRIVERS. The Windows Sound System driver for the Sound Expression is labeled: CS31BA11 Business Audio, WSS 2.0 Enhanced. You can change the hardware settings for WSS by first highlighting this driver and click on the Setup button. You will then get a list of the Hardware settings for WSS. You need to make sure there are no conflicts with these settings. These setting cannot be used by any other devices in your system. If you are having problems getting Compressed Wave file to play, make sure the following MICROSOFT supplied drivers are installed in DRIVERS section of the Windows Control Panel: 1. MS-PCM 2. MS-ADPCM 3. IMAADPCM-ACM The actual files that must be on the C:\ drive are as follows: C:\Windows\System\MSACM.ACM & C:\Windows\System\MSADPCM.ACM If all this is good, then the problem may be with your system’s motherboard. Some motherboards will not play compressed WAV files using an 8-bit DMA (0, 1, 2, 3). These motherboards must have a 16-bit DMA like 5, 6, or 7. Unfortunately, the SE1440 does not have an option for DMA channels 5, 6, or 7. Section F - Configuring MIDI: -------------------------------------------------------- If you are having problems playing MIDI files, first make sure the Crystal OPL3 MIDI Driver is installed properly in the DRIVERS sections of the Windows Control Panel. You need to make sure there are no conflicts the settings for this driver. These setting cannot be used by any other devices in your system. The problems could also be with the MIDI Mapper. Open the MIDI Mapper from the main Control Panel screen (not from the DRIVERS section). Make sure the name is SE1440 FM 1-10 (or 1-16). If that is correct, go to Edit and make sure all the channels are set for Yamaha OPL3 Synth under Port Name. Also make sure all the ports are marked Active. If you add a WaveTable card to the Sound Expression, you must go into the MIDI Mapper from Windows Control and change the name to MPU-401 1-16.