Chip 1997 April (Special)/Chip-Special_1997-04_cd.bin/orchid/sw32w95/read.me

Text File | 1996-01-21 | 10KB | 220 lines

Win95 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) 1995-96 Tom O'Hara

Notes on the copyrights:

    Microsoft developed the original Windows Sound System driver.
    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 (in the spirit of GNU):

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 gap in the SoundWave32 driver support under Windows 95.


WARNING:

This is "beta" software that hasn't been tested on a wide range of computer systems.
Also, chances are there'll never be a "release" version.


Benefits:

Provides support for the SoundWave32 card without requiring SW32.EXE, the DSP loader
and configuration utility that gets run from AUTOEXEC.BAT.

Better integration with Windows 95 (compared to using the old SW32 drivers).

The CD volume control doesn't suffer from amnesia.

Can't beat the price.


Similarities:

Both SW32.386/SW32.DRV & SW32WSS.VXD/SW32WSS.DRV are 32-bit/16-bit hybrid drivers, since
Windows 95 maintained the Windows 3.1 multimedia architecture for compatibility purposes.
Therefore this Win95 driver is no more 32-bit than the Win31 version.

Limitations:

No support, period.

Designed for standard SoundWave32 card. (Probably won't work for SoundWave32 PRO, etc.)

Configuration is a little slow, and not all resource settings are reported to the system
(eg, the IRQ for sound blaster mode).

This has not been fully tested under a wide range of systems and configurations.
Thus there is a possibility of system hangup.

The Mixer doesn't support MIDI volume control. (This is because the Windows Sound System
only supports an OPL3).

The SoundWave32-specific part of the configuration utility is somewhat old-fashioned
(eg, ComboBoxes instead of the newer ListView controls).

The Sound Blaster Emulation feature has been disabled due to technical problems (ie, bugs)
and since it interferes with the DSP initialization. Sound Blaster Emulation virtualizes
the SB registers and makes them inaccessible to all user-mode applications, including
SW32WSS.DRV. Since the SB registers overlap with the SoundWave32 configuration registers,
the port signatures in the latter are no longer detected and the driver thus cannot load
the DSP code. NOTE: This Sound Blaster Emulation is different from the sound blaster mode
of the SoundWave32 card. Therefore, most Sound Blaster applications should still work.

The kernel-mode driver SW32WSS.VXD always loads a hardcoded version of GENMID.LD. The
user-mode driver SW32WSS.DRV later loads in your preference. Due to differences between
the SoundWave32 chipset and the Windows Sound System, the DSP inadvertently gets reset
during the WSS initialization. This problem is worked-around by having SW32WSS.DRV reload
the DSP code even if your preference matches the built-in version.


Installation:

0.  (Optional) Close any applications which have write access to important data
    (eg, your to-do list).

1.  Place the uncompressed distribution files in a directory separate from your system files
    (or on a diskette).

2.  Uninstall the Orchid Windows 3.1 SoundWave32 drivers if in use. Likewise, uninstall the
    Win95 Windows Sound System Compatible drivers if you were using them.

3.  Invoke the Add New Hardware applet in the Control Panel. Skip the automatic search and
    select the 'Sound, video and game controllers' hardware type. When the listing of
    manufacturers and models comes up, press the Have Disk button. Specify the location
    where you placed the distribution files in step 1.

4.  There should now just be the choice 'Windows Sound System for SoundWave32'. Proceed with
    the default choices until you press Finish. Although it says you must reboot, you can
    continue with the configuration in step 6 without rebooting if you wish. But make sure
    you don't have any open documents, etc. if you bypass the reboot.

    NOTE: Windows might next report that it detected a new device 'Sound Blaster Emulation'.
    This is for an internal driver as in MSSNDSYS. It has been disabled by default since
    it interferes with the DSP loading in SW32WSS.DRV, as described above in Limitations.

5.  (Optional) Reboot your computer.

6.  Go into the Device Manager. For example right click on My Computer, select the
    Properties command, and then select the Device Manager tab. Open the TreeView branch
    for 'Sound, video and game controllers', and then double-click on the subentry for
    'Windows Sound System for SoundWave32'.

7.  Select the Resources tab to configure the Windows Sound System options (described
    in the SoundWave32 manual).

8.  Select the SoundWave32 tab to configure the SoundWave32-specific options (eg, MIDI
    support), which are described in the SoundWave32 manual.

9.  Accept the configure changes. Again, it will tell you to reboot, but you don't have
    to unless you like waiting for Windows 95 to boot up.

    NOTE: If you have to change one of the Resource settings, Windows will issue a warning
    about the negative effect of manual changes on Plug n' Play. This situation is inevitable
    since the SoundWave32 is a legacy device.

10. Install the Ad Lib OPL2 compatible driver (MSOPL) that came with Windows 95:
    Add New Hardware | Next | No | Sound, video and game controllers | Ad Lib's OPL2

    NOTE: MSOPL and MSMPU401 (below) must be installed after SW32WSS, which initializes the
    hardware enabling the OPL and MPU emulation. Since multimedia driver load order is
    based on installation order, reinstall MSOPL if you ever reinstall SW32WSS.

11. (Optional) Install the MPU-401 compatible driver (MSMPU401) that came with Windows 95:
    Add New Hardware | Next | No | Sound, video and game controllers | Microsoft's MPU-401

    NOTE: Here you might have to reconfigure the MPU-401 after rebooting.

12. (Optional) Now reboot to play things safe.


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 Win95 won't be able to detect some conflicts. For instance,
I used to have intermittent problems with wave samples playing (loud hisses or screeches).
This was resolved by switching from DMA 1 to DMA 0 for WSS.

If for some unforeseen reason, you encountered a system hang-up:

    Reboot Windows 95 using safe-mode and either remove or disable the driver via
    the Device Manager. Then reboot and go into the Device Manager to check whether
    any of the SoundWave32 settings might conflict with other devices. Print off
    a system summary to get a listing of the I/O port, IRQ, and DMA usage. Then
    reinstall or reenable the SoundWave32 with a different configuration.


Comments, Complaints, etc.:

If you have any comments or complaints, please mail them to one of the accounts listed
below. Note that I can't guarantee any feedback, but this input will be used to refine
the future versions.

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,
Las Cruces, NM.

e-mail:
    Internet:    [e-mail]    (preferred)
    CompuServe:    72603,340

Since I'm now in graduate school at NMSU, I will no longer have "copious free time" for
hacking multimedia drivers.

If someone is interested in doing similar modifications to the MSSNDSYS 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 Win95 DDK licensing restrictions.