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


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@rloew

On 4/9/2019 at 6:56 AM, rloew said:

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

Oops, I found that there are different species of M5A97, with different codec's. Please post content of HDACFG.INI. 

HDARUN is only needed with Mytimer=0, copied for testing purposes (but absolutely needed in Windows 3.x Standard mode). Maybe I should delete it in my INF-file in favour of WAVEOUT.EXE, and add some Volume Control Icon.

On 4/9/2019 at 6:56 AM, rloew said:

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.

There are some delays, on my system the Desktop is ready a few seconds later, opening a sound-file less than a second delay. Should be related to the timing settings in HDACFG.INI. They are related to sending/ receiving Verb's to the codec througt the Azalia controller. "Verbinterface=$1" is the CORB/RIRB-Interface (Default in version 9 of HDA2.DLL), "Verbinterface=$0" is the Immediate Command-Interface (only interface in earlier verisons of HDA2.DLL). The settings wait1=$100 and wait2=$100 can be changed, only a reboot is needed.

I tested GOM Player, no problems. Best Audio renderer is Direct Sound, further setting the Wave Buffer in Multimedia Properties at 5 seconds.

GOM-DirectSound_HDA_Sound.jpg.3dd37e249b4332cff1188cab546d68b1.jpg

On 4/9/2019 at 6:56 AM, rloew said:

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.

That sounds bad. Never heared of such "overheating", is damaging electronic circuits a possibility?

On 4/9/2019 at 6:56 AM, rloew said:

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.

There are various species of Z87. Your board seemes to have the same problem as Dave-H's. Most Linux-sources I have been reading mention in case of controller related HDA-problems setting/ disabling the NoSnoop bit, or setting MSI to a legacy mode.

@Dave-H: In the mean time I compared the PCI-Registers of your picture with your HDA Controller's data sheet (page 495-507). Except one hardwired value, all values are the Defaults. So nothing special. :zzz:

Interesting test with Judas 2.1c. Maybe Judas is to old, but at least it's good to know that it doesn't work too.

The operation of a MS-DOS HDA-player is of cause independent of HDA2.DLL, but I hoped to see a difference in your Controller's PCI-Registers afterwards. With a certain version of HDA2.DLL, Judas 2.1c changed one tiny bit on my SB600 system and I got sound in Windows. For a while I had to start Windows 3.1 with BUG.BAT, until Watler produced a new version of HDA2.DLL.

Yesterday I tested MS-DOS version of MPlayer, plays WAV files and is much more recent. At the moment I have no time to seek for a link, but maybe you can find it. I'd like you to do the same test with a rewritten BUG.BAT, and posting a picture of AHDA17O -> PCI, IF you observe differences.

I am hesitating a "bit" with theoretical possibilities, because of writing to PCI-registers on a system that is not mine. In HDACFG.INI one 8-bit Register can be changed with the setting "pcipatchB=$xxxx".

About "HDA Sound", is the option stable with Mytimer=$1 too? If yes, return to this setting. Further it would be nice if you start experimenting with the "wait=" settings, I suggest higher settings first, with "20"-steps. Maybe you can observe a difference regarding the "your sound card may be in use" problem. Will cost you many reboot's, I don't feel responsible for the bearings of your Hard Disk. :hello:

@UCyborgThanks for testing, does your IRQ-changing imply that the Controller had an exlusive IRQ? I am sorry but I can't understand your logic of facts related to a (even virtual) AC'97 controller.

About your Choppy sound: maybe a silly question. Did you rule out Guest/Host problems? How's HDA-sound with W2K or XP? I saw some interesting HDA-correspondence on the VirtualBox-Forum about W2k/XP and even WIN10 as a Guest (mainly on older versions of VirtualBox).

Your (Virtual) HDA Codec should be STAC9221. According to the data sheet: "VolumeKnob Node (NID = 0x16)". So try VolumeWidget=$16 if you like.

Edited by deomsh
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The M5A97 and the Z87 use a 10EC:0887 Codec.

Today I tried my MA785 which uses a 10EC:0885 Codec. When the Sound starts, the Computer freezes a few seconds later. I don't hear anything. The first time I got an Error 202 at a low DOS Address.

I have HDAUDBUS working so I can see the enumerated Codec. I disable it when running these tests.

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I just tried a MSI 970A SLI-Krait that uses a 10EC:0887 Codec.

I got sound but it causes ERROR 202 sporadically and when Installing Drivers or playing Videos. I never got sound and video together.

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18 hours ago, deomsh said:

 

@Dave-H: In the mean time I compared the PCI-Registers of your picture with your HDA Controller's data sheet (page 495-507). Except one hardwired value, all values are the Defaults. So nothing special. :zzz:

Interesting test with Judas 2.1c. Maybe Judas is to old, but at least it's good to know that it doesn't work too.

The operation of a MS-DOS HDA-player is of cause independent of HDA2.DLL, but I hoped to see a difference in your Controller's PCI-Registers afterwards. With a certain version of HDA2.DLL, Judas 2.1c changed one tiny bit on my SB600 system and I got sound in Windows. For a while I had to start Windows 3.1 with BUG.BAT, until Watler produced a new version of HDA2.DLL.

Yesterday I tested MS-DOS version of MPlayer, plays WAV files and is much more recent. At the moment I have no time to seek for a link, but maybe you can find it. I'd like you to do the same test with a rewritten BUG.BAT, and posting a picture of AHDA17O -> PCI, IF you observe differences.

I am hesitating a "bit" with theoretical possibilities, because of writing to PCI-registers on a system that is not mine. In HDACFG.INI one 8-bit Register can be changed with the setting "pcipatchB=$xxxx".

About "HDA Sound", is the option stable with Mytimer=$1 too? If yes, return to this setting. Further it would be nice if you start experimenting with the "wait=" settings, I suggest higher settings first, with "20"-steps. Maybe you can observe a difference regarding the "your sound card may be in use" problem. Will cost you many reboot's, I don't feel responsible for the bearings of your Hard Disk. :hello:

Thanks again @deomsh.
I tried changing to Mytimer=$1 in HDACFG.INI and indeed the "HDA Sound" option disappeared.
However, when I changed it back to Mytimer=0 again and rebooted, it didn't come back!
Over several reboots my conclusion was that it seems to come and go as it pleases regardless of the settings.
I will experiment with the "wait" settings, but what should the other HDACFG.INI settings be for that to be a valid test?
:dubbio:

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@rloew: ALC885/ALC887 have no VolumeKnobWidget, as far I can see in the data sheet. The four DAC's connects to Mixers 0C/OD/OE/OF. If using HDAICOUT.HDA all PinWidgets should be connected to OC (I am not sure if SPDIF-OUT is acually functional, never tested it).

ALC885 has more streams, with extra Mixer 26.

HDA2.DLL has some stability issues:

  1. Sporadic 202 Error's at Startup or during operations involving bigger files. On my system extreme low Vcache settings gave more stability, MinFileCache=1024, MaxFileCache=1024, especially with other 16-bits drivers used). Also higher MinTimeSlice values May help. I have no video/ audio-problems.
  2. HDATSR's buffer can be forced being set to high by other program's (already with SMARTDRV 4096!). Alternative is shown in one of my Post's for Dave-H in this thread.
  3. Clipboard operations, depends somehow on the video card/ drivers too, didn't really test this, so maybe hypothetical.
  4. Issues with DosBoxes, absolutely video card/ driver related. Since I had to reverted back to my PCIe GF 6700XL I had less issues with the 7772 driver (IF all Nvidia's utilities had been disabled in MSCONFIG.

BTW: according to the Readme EMM386 shouldn't be used (no testing possible on my System).

 

Edited by deomsh
Addition, typo's
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@Dave-H: That erratic behaviour/ 'Device in use problem's' of the "HDA Sound"-option should be tackled somehow. Since I am not a programmer I cannot rewrite HDA2.DLL (source code is included in the Zip!).

If I did understand your question well: you want a hint regarding "wait settings". Start with 120 (both) reboot, test, set to 140, etcetera. Go up to 200. If no changes try 80 and go down to 20. 

In the meantime I will try to re-read Intel's High Definition Audio Specification, although the part about the HDA Link is not my favorite. :crazy:

BTW: did you find a MS-DOS version of MPlayer?

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3 hours ago, deomsh said:

@Dave-H: That erratic behaviour/ 'Device in use problem's' of the "HDA Sound"-option should be tackled somehow. Since I am not a programmer I cannot rewrite HDA2.DLL (source code is included in the Zip!).

If I did understand your question well: you want a hint regarding "wait settings". Start with 120 (both) reboot, test, set to 140, etcetera. Go up to 200. If no changes try 80 and go down to 20. 

In the meantime I will try to re-read Intel's High Definition Audio Specification, although the part about the HDA Link is not my favorite. :crazy:

BTW: did you find a MS-DOS version of MPlayer?

Not yet, but I will look for it.
All I was asking was that if I'm going to test different "wait" settings in HDACFG.INI, what should the other settings in the file be set to?
We have changed quite a few from their defaults.
Should I return to using the default file before doing the "wait" setting adjustments?
:dubbio:

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@Dave-H: Sorry for misunderstanding. I suggest: stay using HDATSR, HDAICOUT.HDA, HDACFG INI: Verbinterface=$1, Mytimer=0 and VolumeWidget=$0C as I suggested earlier.

While experimenting stay with latest "best" configuration!

For faster testing make shortcuts in your Startup folder to HDARUN.EXE and SNDREC32.EXE and place a long WAV-file in MyDocuments.

I found two MS-DOS MPlayer versions during traffic, just tested with a WAV-file on my System.

http://rayer.g6.cz/download/download.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20170501000000*/http://falcosoft.hu/mplayer_dos.zip

You can download mplayer_dos.zip from the link september, 24th. So no direct linking (just in case Moderators think so and ZIP is included in the rules).

Rayer's file is newest. If his version is not working with MPLAYER YOUR.WAV add to command-line: ao=wss:dev=-1:vol=21:latency=0.025

Other version should work with MPLAYER YOUR.WAV

Edited by deomsh
Typo's, confirm no direct linking
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I actually found a copy very like the second one in between your two last posts, it seems to be pretty much the same thing, although it's missing a few files, the PUNKFM.BAT file is not there, and the Codecs and Font folders are empty.
Anyway none of the mplayer files actually worked, all just saying "Load error: no DPMI - Get csdpmi*b.zip"
I've found a copy of csdpmi*b.zip but it contains just an executable file, which I'm a bit apprehensive about just running on my system unless I know what it is!
I've started the wait settings testing, no conclusions yet but nothing seems to be changing.
:)

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@Dave-H: Sorry, forgot they are not included, tonight I just checked the files, they where exactly the same as allready on my System (my smartphone is not compatible with Win9x).

Good you are carefull, but it's safe. Read: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CWSDPMI

BTW: you used CWSDPMI.EXE with Judas 2.1c allready. :P

Edited by deomsh
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I just tried the DOS Media Player, and I'm delighted to be able to report that it works!
:cheerleader:
I tried playing several wav files, and they all sounded fine.
It did seem to be on repeat though, playing them over and over!
Before it actually played, a load of text scrolled through on the screen which I couldn't read, but this is how it ended up -

20190412_192123.thumb.jpg.91b240cb7a9fd9f34e0ced704dbc0fcd.jpg

I have no idea what all that means, but I'm hoping that it may help!
Getting some sound out of the hardware in DOS mode has encouraged me enormously.
Now all we need to do is get it working in Windows!
Thanks, Dave.
:)
 

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@Dave-H

Great, you deserved it. :yes:

Nice picture, but I need another one.

Please try this batch-file, assuming MPLAYER resides in C:\MPLAYER together with a WAV-file, not a short one, say 60-100 seconds. Rename it to YOUR.WAV, or edit the batch-file according to the name of your WAV-file.

Make following batch-file and save it in C:\ as BUG2.BAT.
=======================
BUG2.BAT
=======================
cd MPLAYER
MPLAYER YOUR.WAV
C:
cd \
WIN
=======================

BTW: if needed earlier, edit the command-line.

Afterwards the batch-file will boot DIRECTLY (no reboot) into Windows. If the player won't stop, try [ESC]. Once in Windows please do the same as you did earlier to deliver a picture with AHDA17O.

Details are in my post of monday 10:01 pm.

Edited by deomsh
Typo
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OK, here's the result.
I did have to press ESC to stop the file playing.
I hope it gives some clues!
I have to say that it does look identical to last time to me.
:dubbio:

Image1.thumb.jpg.33cdf6640042caf577f5bf156026c9b6.jpg

Edited by Dave-H
Typo
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