Audio driver for Realtek HD Audio Hardware? [Testing thread]

[deomsh]

@MrMateczko: For Ethernet there are many factory-made NDIS2-drivers. 

In case of HDA it would be nice if there exists a universal 16-bits driver, with non-ISA motherboards in case of Win3.x audio is much more difficult to get. Such an universal driver could be tried on Win9x too,  without the "not really convenient" issues you described. Maybe take a look at the Linux ALSA project, how convenient programming their universal driver is.

Watler adjusted his Win3.x driver for all chipsets/ motherboards he could obtain, but there was virtually no interest in his driver. The first version I tested (in Windows 3.1 on my motherboard) had no configuration options. When I asked him for help, I had to test more than twenty versions before I became sound. But he too made configuration options in HDACFG.INI and made startup codec-programming possible with HDAICOUT.HDA, both  (almost) on a user level.

I had the simple-minded idea to use this driver as 16-bits driver in Windows 98 SE about a year ago, and all in all it satisfies my needs. Still there are some stability and other issues, but I can live with them.

"HDA Sound" should be usable with every program compatible with Wave Out or Direct Sound. In case of Direct Sound: with Software Emulation only. Hardware related Audio Accelaration is out of the question. As far I know in that case (minimal?) a WDM-driver is needed.

I have used "HDA Sound", apart from System Sounds, with various Windows 3.1 VfW/ WAV/ Audio-CD/ MP3 and MIDI-to-wave players. In Windows 98se: Sound Recorder, various Microsoft Multimedia players, Foobar, WinAmp (16-bit output only, max 48khz; I assume two-channel - I am using headphones), MPC, MPC-HC, MPC-BE, KMplayer and POTplayer.

BTW: did you read UCyborg's report about VirtualBox in this tread? As long no one is trying, there will be no new "success"-stories.

Edited April 8, 2019 by deomsh
Typo's, corrections, additions

[rloew]

I installed it on my M5A97 system, which includes my RAM Limitation Patch of course. It ran fine. No Volume Control Icon and no response from the Volume Control Tool. I did not experiment with the settings.

Be aware that partially uninstalling it can cause VFAT BSODs on Boot.

[deomsh]

@rloew: So a "successtory"?

Good to hear that your RAM Limitation Patch is not conflicting, as I expected (if using HDATSR).

Did you need HDAICOUT.HDA, or was the driver running out-of-the-box?

Your motherboard has codec ALC887, according to the datasheet you will have to set VolumeWidget=$0C in HDACFG.INI. The Volume Control program has to be started manually, it's not included in my INF-file.

Personally I do not use it, in Win9x I use the volume slider from the (multimedia)  application.

Regarding uninstall: HDA2.DLL can be disabled with a semicolon in SYSTEM.INI and manually deleted AFTER reboot. HDATSR can be removed from AUTOEXEC.BAT and deleted in %Windir%.

My INF-file comes with an uninstall procedure ( Control Panel -> Software). After reboot the entrances in SYSTEM.INI and AUTOEXEC.BAT and all files directly related to HDA2.DLL should be removed (HDAICOUT.HDA has to be added if needed, so this file and the corresponding logfile HDAICIN.TXT will remain, but will do no harm). Only the entrance "High Definition Audio Controller" has to be deleted manually, but can be left too. I searched and experimented a lot, but I could not find a way to delete it by means of an entrance in an INF-file.

I added the entrance in Device Manager -> System Devices only as information that the generic VEN/ DEV is accepted. The entrance is not needed since the driver is loaded by SYSTEM.INI (loading HDA2.DLL is not even logged by BOOTLOG.TXT).

[UCyborg]

On 4/2/2019 at 12:18 AM, deomsh said:

Choppy audio with this driver can be an IRQ-issue (is told me). So try to change the IRQ from the "High Definition Audio Controller" to a free one, if that's a simple configuration issue. 

Nope, no IRQ conflicts.

BTW, QEMU can also emulate Intel HDA, but I haven't tried it yet. Both VirtualBox and QEMU are open-source.

[deomsh]

@UCyborg: Thank you. 

I never used QEMU, but if you like to try....  More results are always of interest.

Can you tell what version of VirtualBox you are using? I'd like to see your HDACFG.INI too. I always can take a look in the data sheets.

Regarding IRQ's: maybe it was'nt clear what I ment. I am not a native speaker, sorry for my poor English. I did not ment an IRQ-conflict, but IRQ-sharing.

Because of disturbances of the audio stream in Windows 3.1, I had to abandon my Legacy USB-mouse in favorite of PS/2. This could be IRQ-related. In Windows 98se IRQ-sharing is not bad, but in this respect I am not sure about Windows 95 osr2.

If in VirtualBox exists a (virtual) BIOS, maybe there are options to change IRQ's. 

[deomsh]

@Dave-H: About the changing behaviour of the "HDA Sound"-option: is there any difference in behaviour after a cold boot (including power switch off for 120 seconds), a hard reset (Reset switch) and a soft reset (a reboot)?

Regarding "SETUP /p i", I understand and respect your position, although unfavourable from a testing point of view. 

At the moment I am preparing the next step, so we (hopefully) get information about the actual values of the PCI-register of your Azalia controller.

[Dave-H]

I don't think that the way the system is booted makes any difference, not as far as I've been able to determine.
Can I put my system.ini entries back to normal now, so I can get all my RAM back?

I think the next stage will be important, as presumably it will tell us whether the driver is actually interacting with the hardware or not.
The symptoms at the moment would seem to indicate that it isn't.

[deomsh]

@Dave-H Allright:

1. Go to http://turkeys4me.byethost4.com/files and get AHDA17M (in fact it's version O) and unzip the AHDA17O-directory somewhere.
2. Run INTELHDA.EXE, you will see two windows, both with tabs.
3. Click ONLY Tab "PCI", resize the windows just like my picture below, and upload a picture. All W1/W2 values must be included.

1. 

BTW: you can disable MaxPhysPage as long as you reenable HDATSR in AUTOEXEC.BAT. HDACFG.INI [Busmaster] values will be overwritten by the TSR after reboot.

Edited April 8, 2019 by deomsh
Extra info

[Dave-H]

OK, I've put system.ini back to normal, and put the tsr entry back in autoexec.bat.

Here's the intelhda.exe output.
Cheers, Dave.

Edited April 12, 2019 by Dave-H
Typo

[deomsh]

@Dave-H: Thanks a lot for the PCI-picture. I will compare it with your chipset's data sheet.

Next (we are still in Step 3) I want you to run a small test: check with the batchfile if JUDAS 2.1c is delivering sound on your system in pure MS-DOS (after loading CONFIG.SYS/ AUTOEXEC.BAT). Both your chipset and your codec are listed inside the source code of JUDAS 2.1c. If there is some sound, enjoy

Afterwards the batch-file will boot DIRECTLY (no reboot) into Windows. Once in Windows please do the same as you did earlier to deliver a picture with AHDA17O.

Steps:
1) Get Judas 2.10c (ZIP-file) from https://web.archive.org/web/20121109163845/http://www.piotrkn22.republika.pl/judas/index.html
2) Make following directory in your root: JUDAS21C
3) Copy JP.EXE, JUDAS.CMD, ANAL.CFG, ANAL.EXE, CWSDPMI.EXE and TUNE1.XM to this directory.
4) Make following batch-file and save it in C:\ as BUG.BAT.
=======================
BUG.BAT
=======================
cd JUDAS21C
JP.EXE TUNE1.XM -d
C:
cd \
WIN
=======================
5) Shutdown and Restart after a while (please!)
6) Boot into MS-DOS
7) Run BUG.BAT

BTW: if CWSDPMI.EXE gives problems, try DOS4GW.EXE instead (never worked for me). It resides in the ZIP-file too.
 

[rloew]

I set it up again on my M5A97 system. I did not use HDAICOUT.HDA. It appears to work.

I was not able to change the Volume after setting VolumeWidget=$0C. I noticed that HDARUN was copied but was not added to Startup.

I noticed that there is a long delay after the Desktop wallpaper appears before the three clicks. The Startup Sound and Desktop Icons then follow.
There was a long delay opening GOM Player each time I opened it.

It seemed to aggravate the PCI-E Interrupt issues I have been having. Then the Computer crashed and would not post, suggesting that something is overheating.

I switched to a Z87 system but got no Sound. Everything seemed to Install the same. It uses the same HD Audio Device. I noticed that writing directly to it seemed erratic and then would no longer open.

Edited April 9, 2019 by rloew

[Dave-H]

12 hours ago, deomsh said:

@Dave-H: Thanks a lot for the PCI-picture. I will compare it with your chipset's data sheet.

Next (we are still in Step 3) I want you to run a small test: check with the batchfile if JUDAS 2.1c is delivering sound on your system in pure MS-DOS (after loading CONFIG.SYS/ AUTOEXEC.BAT). Both your chipset and your codec are listed inside the source code of JUDAS 2.1c. If there is some sound, enjoy

Afterwards the batch-file will boot DIRECTLY (no reboot) into Windows. Once in Windows please do the same as you did earlier to deliver a picture with AHDA17O.

Steps:
1) Get Judas 2.10c (ZIP-file) from https://web.archive.org/web/20121109163845/http://www.piotrkn22.republika.pl/judas/index.html
2) Make following directory in your root: JUDAS21C
3) Copy JP.EXE, JUDAS.CMD, ANAL.CFG, ANAL.EXE, CWSDPMI.EXE and TUNE1.XM to this directory.
4) Make following batch-file and save it in C:\ as BUG.BAT.
=======================
BUG.BAT
=======================
cd JUDAS21C
JP.EXE TUNE1.XM -d
C:
cd \
WIN
=======================
5) Shutdown and Restart after a while (please!)
6) Boot into MS-DOS
7) Run BUG.BAT

BTW: if CWSDPMI.EXE gives problems, try DOS4GW.EXE instead (never worked for me). It resides in the ZIP-file too.
 

I tried this, but no joy I'm afraid.

I tried both with the TSR program enabled in autoexec.bat and with it disabled, same result.

Here is the intelhda.exe output after it then loaded Windows.

It looks as if we're still not talking to the hardware, even in DOS.

[UCyborg]

On 4/8/2019 at 9:40 AM, deomsh said:

Can you tell what version of VirtualBox you are using?

6.0.4

On 4/8/2019 at 9:40 AM, deomsh said:

I'd like to see your HDACFG.INI too.

 

[ALLHDA]
$0028=$26688086

[HDA]
TSR=TSR Found
PCI_VID=$8086
PCI_DID=$2668

[BUSMASTER]
myPCIHI=$0012
myPCILO=$1000
myPCI=$00121000
aPCIHI=$0011
aPCILO=$1000
aPCI=$00111000

[HDA_26688086,76808384]
cardmemregistersLO=$4000
cardmemregistersHI=$F080
Mytimer=1
Verbinterface=$1
wait1=$100
wait2=$100
pcipatchB=$0000
PCI_BUS=$00
PCI_DEVICE=$05
PCI_FUNCTION=$0
GCAP=$4401
VMIN=$00
VMAJ=$01
GCTL=$0001
CODEC BITMAP=00000001
CODEC Index=$0
CODEC_VID=$8384
CODEC_DID=$7680
CODEC_REV=$103401
CODEC_NODEINFO=$010001
CODEC_AFG_GPIO_CAP=$C0000004
CODEC_AFG_SUBSYSTEM_ID=$83847680
CODEC_AFG_PM_SUPPORT=$0F
CODEC_AFG_PCM_DEFINITION=$20020
CODEC_AFG_F000B=$01
SleepingWidget=$02
VolumeWidget=$14
OutputWidget=$02

On 4/8/2019 at 2:40 PM, deomsh said:

Regarding IRQ's: maybe it was'nt clear what I ment. I am not a native speaker, sorry for my poor English. I did not ment an IRQ-conflict, but IRQ-sharing.

Oh, well, 11 was chosen by default, so I tried 10, 9 and 5. No change, sound remained choppy. The results on Windows 98 SE were similar, except IRQ could not be changed (a message popped up saying this resource setting cannot be changed).

Also, when ICH AC97 is chosen as the audio controller instead of Intel HD Audio, then AC97 gets the IRQ 11. I guess that fact alone is enough to rule out that the problem is related to IRQs.

On 4/8/2019 at 2:40 PM, deomsh said:

If in VirtualBox exists a (virtual) BIOS, maybe there are options to change IRQ's.

Its BIOS only offers the menu to choose boot device.

 

 

[UCyborg]

Sorry for the messed up post, spoiler tag seems to be buggy. Even though I only enclosed HDACFG content in the spoiler tag, the forum software trapped all the following text in there as well. The editor is royal PITA.

[Dave-H]

@deomsh

Just to report that the "HDA Sound" option seems to have now stuck in the "Multimedia" Control Panel applet.
I've rebooted several times and it's always been there.
The "Sounds" applet test button seems to always be "live" now too, but just pops up the "your sound card may be in use" message if I use it.
Cheers, Dave.

Edited April 10, 2019 by Dave-H
Correction