Chip 1997 April (Special)/Chip-Special_1997-04_cd.bin/orchid/sw32nt/read.me

Text File | 1995-09-23 | 9KB | 206 lines

NT Windows Sound System driver for SoundWave32

    Copyright (c) 1992-95 Microsoft Corporation
    Portions (c) 1993-95 Analog Devices, Inc.
    Portions (c) 1993-95 Orchid Technology
    Portions (c) 1995 Tom O'Hara

Notes on the copyrights:

    Microsoft developed the original Windows Sound System driver for NT.
    Analog Devices provided documentation on the Echo PSS Architecture.
    Orchid Technology provided source for their DSP loader.
    Tom O'Hara munged everything together.


Informal license:

This is a third-party driver that comes with no warrantees whatsoever.
It is available for "NO CHARGE" but "AS IS", so "You get what you pay for".


Formal license:

This program is free software, and you are free to redistribute it as long
as this license is included intact. This program is distributed in the hope
that it will be useful but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

                NO WARRANTY

        TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING AND DISTRIBUTION

  1. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN
OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS
TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE
PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

  2. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY REDISTRIBUTE THE
PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY
GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE
OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA
OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES
OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH
HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

            END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS


Technical Support (or lack thereof):

Neither I nor Orchid will be responsible for technical support of this driver.
It is provided mainly to fill a temporary gap in the SoundWave32 driver support
under Windows NT.


WARNING:

This is "beta" software that hasn't been tested on a wide range of computer systems.
If there is still a need for NT SoundWave32 driver support, there will eventually be
a "release" version (but still no-charge and as-is).


Benefits:

Provides support for the SoundWave32 card without requiring a warm boot into DOS.
Thus, this facilitates experimenting with different DMA/IRQ settings without having
to reboot NT (see installation below).

Can't beat the price.


Limitations:

This only supports the DSP's general MIDI emulation. In fact, the GENMID.LD file
is embedded in the driver.

The CD configuration support requires a warm boot after an initial boot. This is
because the (pseudo) SCSI miniport drivers are loaded before the sound drivers.
Thus during the cold boot, the CD interface emulation register hasn't been set.

Not all resource settings are reported to the system (eg, the IRQ for sound blaster
emulation).

This has not been fully tested under a wide range of systems and configurations.
Thus there is a distinct possibility of the dreaded blue screen of death.


Installation:

0. Copy the distribution files to a diskette or some directory and decompress if needed.
1. Run the Control Panel's (multimedia) Drivers applet.
2. Choose Add and then select "Unlisted or Updated Driver".
3. Specify the directory where you placed the files for this driver.
4. Choose OK to install "Windows Sound System for SoundWave32".
5. Configure the driver according to the Orchid SoundWave32 documentation.
   (The configuration dialog is similar to the Windows 3.1 version.)
   There will be a noticable delay once you press OK, since there are periodic delays
   inserted to ensure the DSP is ready. (I do plan to optimize these later.)
6. Ignore the SW32WSS.INI file for now.
   (It is only for advanced configuration as described below.)

NOTE: One big plus of this driver is that configuration changes can be tested without
having to boot into DOS, running SW32 /C, and then rebooting back into NT. In fact, you
don't even have to reboot NT since the changes take effect during the configuration dialog.
(The system says you must reboot before the changes take effect, but this is just being
overly conservative about drivers in general.) Naturally, don't have anything important
active during this testing and do reboot once the settings are finalized to be safe.


Advanced Options:

For complete control of the driver, several parameters can be specified in the registry.
Add them under the sw32wss\Parameters\Device0 key if needed. (Each parameter is optional.)

    Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\sw32wss\Parameters\Device0

    Value Name        Description
    SoundBlasterModePort    base address of both SoundWave32 & its SB emulation
                (either 0x220, 0x240, or 0x0 for autodetection)
    SoundBlasterIRQ        IRQ for SB emulation (defaults to 7)
    SoundBlasterDMA        DMA for SB emulation (should be 1)
    MidiPort        port for MPU401 emulation (defaults to 0x330)
    MidiIRQ            IRQ for MPU401 emulation (defaults to 0x5)
    CdInterfacePort        port for optional CD interface (defaults to 0x360)
    CdInterfaceIRQ        IRQ for optional CD interface (defaults to 0xC)

The file SW32WSS.INI is an example of how to configure these settings w/ REGINI. Since
REGINI is unfortunately just an add-on (eg, NT resource kit and SDK's), you might have
to manually set these yourself.

Also, note that there is currently no option to disable the game port, which will always
be active. (Even though there is no joystick driver readily available.)

The SoundBlasterModePort parameter is mainly used for NT resource reporting purposes.
As a special hack, the value 0x666 tells the driver not to report the sound blaster
emulation ports (eg, 0x240-0x25F) as in use. This allows the real sound blaster driver
to be installed at the same time in order to use its MPU401 support. (Make sure the
sndblst driver start-up parameter is set to automatic so that sw32wss loads first.) You
might get event log entries about adlib device conflicts, but the WSS one should work.


Problem Resolution:

If you hear weird screeches from the speakers, it's probably a DMA or IRQ conflict.
Try different possibilities for the WSS configuration. Unfortunately, not all resources
are reported to the system, so NT won't be able to detect some conflicts. This also
might be due to playing a Steve Vai recording; in this case, try a different sample.

If for some unforeseen reason, you encountered a blue screen when booting NT with
SW32WSS.SYS, do the following:

    1. Disable the SW32WSS.SYS driver using one of the following methods:

    -- Boot into a last known good configuration and set the startup option for
       SW32WSS.SYS to manual (via Control Panel's Devices applet).

    -or-

    -- Boot into a last known good configuration and delete the driver by running the
       Multimedia Drivers applet or by manually deleting the SW32WSS key from the
       registry (at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\sw32wss).

    -or-

    -- If worse comes to worse and you can't boot into NT at all, boot into DOS
       and delete the SW32WSS.SYS file from %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers.

    2. Review the configuration parameters closely. If there is something amiss, correct
       it, re-enable or reinstall the driver, and try booting again.

    3. Optional: Stop using the driver. Since there is no technical support, no one will
       be able to resolve the problem for you.


Comments, Complaints, etc.:

If you have any comments or complaints, please send mail them to one of the accounts
listed below. Note that I can't guarantee any feedback. This input will be used to refine
the "release" version, if there is a need for one. (Again, there would be no charge
for the final version.)

Also, if the driver does work out for you, please send a brief notification. This is
just to satisfy my curiosity of how useful the driver turns out to be.


The Third Party:

Tom O'Hara, currently of Las Cruces, NM.
CompuServe:    72603,340
Internet:    [e-mail]

Since I just started graduate school at NMSU, I will no longer have "copious free time"
for hacking multimedia drivers. However, I will try to find time during the holidays to
do some revisions for the initial "release" if needed.

If someone is interested in doing similar modifications to the SNDSYS source, I can send you
instructions on reproducing what I did (eg, 'diff' listings of the required changes).
Unfortunately, I cannot distribute the complete source due to NT DDK licensing restrictions.