Windows 95 AC'97 Drivers

[tsampikos]

Hello!

I have a question, and since I didn't find any answer for that I decided to ask here. As far as I know there are some AC'97 sound drivers for Windows 95. They have in common that they emulate the SB 16 sound. Does anybody know if there are any "normal" AC97 drivers for Windows 95, that do no not emulate SB16 but produce/support direct AC97 sound just like Windows 98 or Windows Millenium do? Thank you!

[submix8c]

Could you tell us what the SoundCard/Chip is? Realtek, Creative, etc and the type/model?

[tsampikos]

Oh, ok, I am talking about virtual machines. I have tried a trial version of Parallels Workstation. It emulates AC'97 sound. There is no SB16 emulation/support. On Windows 98 and Windows Me AC97 sound is working fine. But with windows 95 that's not the case. I can beautyfully set everything up. Network, SVGA etc. but no sound. I have found the realtek AC97 Drivers for windows 95, which install fine, the virtual sound card tray icon shows activity when a sound should be played, in device manager everything shows up right. But no actual sound is coming out from the speakers. I guess that this has to do with the SB16 emulation that AC97 makes in windows 95, which is not supported by Parallels Workstation. That's why I ask if there is a "real" AC97 driver, which doesn't emulate SB16, but runs directly just like in WIndows 98 or Millenium.

PS: The same problem doesn't occur with VMWare Player or Virtualbox, because both of these products do emulate SB16, so the AC97 drivers that emulate SB16 run fine. So the only solution would be a non-sb16 emulating AC97 sound driver for windows 95. Is there such a driver available?

[submix8c]

So, did you use the "special" Realtek AC97 driver?(from v2.2 Guide p125)

Note. If you are not satisfied with the quality of sound issued, a special AC'97 sound driver (page 77) is available for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000 guest OSes...

(p77)

Parallels Tools pack includes an AC'97 sound driver for those guest operating systems that do not contain standard AC'97 driver.

edit - I find that the v6 User's Guide doesn't include that information. To be honest, I'm not sure that anyone here uses Parallels since mostly we use "free" VM's.

I guess I should ask - which Drivers (from where) did you use?

Edited October 31, 2012 by submix8c

[tsampikos]

Hmmm....I will try that. Thanks. Although I am afraid that the driver will work only win WIndows 98/Me. That's why I asked if there is a "direct" AC97 driver for Windows 95. I have worked hard with several VM Platforms especially on WIndows 9x with success and I always try to find new alternatives to preserve the usability of Windows 9x. Any other suggestions are welcome too.

[submix8c]

It will be a VXD (Win95) and not a WDM (Win98 and up). It will depend on the Ven_Dev value that is detected. In Win95 it should show up as "unknown" in Device Manager after Initial Win95 Install and the actual values can be found in the Registry.

1 - In MS-DOS Prompt - Regedit

2 - go to Hkey_Local_Machine\Enum and under that either ISAPNP or PCI there should be maybe an "unknown"?

We need that VEN_DEV value to get the correct driver.

[tsampikos]

Thank you very much for your guide! Ok and when we find that value what is next to do? I mean after I navigate to this certain registry "unknown" value?

[submix8c]

If you install and find the VEN_DEV string, post it here and we'll assist in finding it.

FWIW, here may be what you can use...

[Realtek]
%ALCVIA_DEV3058.DeviceDesc%=ALCVIA, PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3058
%ALCVIA_DEV3059.DeviceDesc%=ALCAUD, PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3059
%ALCICH.DeviceDesc%=ALCAUD, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2415
%ALCICH.DeviceDesc%=ALCAUD, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2445
%ALCICH.DeviceDesc%=ALCAUD, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24C5
%ALCICH.DeviceDesc%=ALCAUD, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2425
%ALCICH.DeviceDesc%=ALCAUD, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_7195
%ALCSIS.DeviceDesc%=ALCAUD, PCI\VEN_1039&DEV_7012
%ALCVIA_DEV3058.DeviceDesc%=ALCVIA, PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3058&CC_0401
%ALCVIA_DEV3059.DeviceDesc%=ALCAUD, PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3059&CC_0401
%ALCICH.DeviceDesc%=ALCAUD, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2415&CC_0401
%ALCICH.DeviceDesc%=ALCAUD, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2445&CC_0401
%ALCICH.DeviceDesc%=ALCAUD, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24C5&CC_0401
%ALCICH.DeviceDesc%=ALCAUD, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2425&CC_0401
%ALCICH.DeviceDesc%=ALCAUD, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_7195&CC_0401
%ALCSIS.DeviceDesc%=ALCAUD, PCI\VEN_1039&DEV_7012&CC_0401
%ALCAUD_SB.DeviceDesc%=ALCSB, VIRTUAL\ALC_SBEmulation

edit - Can I assume you got your driver from here? (latest version)

Edited October 31, 2012 by submix8c

[tsampikos]

Yes that's the Driver, but I can't remember if i downloaded it from there. There is also a newer version of this, the 4.06. And there is alsi the 3.81 version, but I haven't tried this one. I will make a Windows 95 install, and then report back here. Thank you!

[SomeGuy]

I've used the Windows 95 "ac97" drivers from here: http://support.advantech.com.tw/support/DownloadSRDetail.aspx?SR_ID=1-AQHM0&Doc_Source=Download

on Windows 95 under Virtualbox before. Don't know about Parallels.

[tsampikos]

Thanks for sharing! Does this Driver Emulate SB16 sound or is it direct AC97 sound? You can check this in the device manager section.

Meanwhile I have opened the parallels 2.2 exe using universal extractor. Although the manual states clear that there is a WIn9x-OS2 sound driver, there is only an OS/2 Folder in the Parallels tools ISO to find....

Edited November 2, 2012 by tsampikos

[jholt5638]

Hate to bump a old thread but I just wanted to say because of the drivers linked here and modifying the INF I was finally able to get sound out of my Dell Latitude D510 which was the only thing that I was dual booting with XP. So thanks