ESS Solo-1 audio in Windows 98SE

[Taelon]

OK, since I got my new machine I'm polishing up the old Compaq for my wife to use.

It runs Win98SE and has an ESS Solo-1 onboard audio chip. Had my SB Live! 5.1 in there before but pulled it.

I have no DirectX hardware acceleration whatsoever. If I go to the Multimedia control panel and click on Advanced Properties (for the playback/recording devices) it freezes up - so bad I have to cold-reboot.

Trying to run dxdiag.exe, same thing. It starts up then just sits there frozen. I have no chance to even look at the Directsound or DirectMusic panel!!

I made the mistake of installing WDM drivers for the ESS soundchip ... then found out that 1. WDM on 98SE is not the greatest thing and 2. WDM means no DirectX hardware acceleration is available by design according to Microsoft.

"Aha," says I, and uninstall the drivers and go back to VXD ones.

Alas, the issues mentioned above persist, even after updating DirectX to the latest available. I can't shake the feeling that Windows is still trying to use audio the WDM way rather than the VXD one.

I'm stuck. What can I do?

At this point I don't care if the acceleration has to be turned off/emulated in software, but I want to be able to use the Multimedia control panel and dxdiag without freezeups. Plus I want my wife to be able to play some older DirectX games...

 

[IceDigger]

http://www.esstech.com/techsupp/drivers.shtm

Try those. Yea, ess sucks.

 

[mal]

What can you do?

Post in the right place to start with.

[thread moved from General]

 

[Myname]

As far as my experience with 98 goes, it's fully SB compatable or nothing. It seems to really have a problem with on-board sound.

Would just getting a cheapo Soundblaster be out of the question?

 

[Taelon]

IceMan: funny, that's the site I got my drivers from in the first place. Duh.

mal: I thought the General forum was for anything non-Sega-related. Didn't think the tech support forum was OK for non-Sega tech support.

Myname: Did that already.

I had gotten a SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 - which worked great although Windows still refused to use any hardware acceleration. At least stuff didn't freeze up. Alas, that SBLive! lives in my new PC now, that's why the old one is back to its ESS sound.

Incidentally, I was able to fix it....but don't know exactly how.

I happened to simply disable the DOS emulation - not remove it as Windows would only reinstall it on the next reboot, but permanently disable it.

And what do you know? All the freezeups were gone - I was able to run DXDiag, do the sound tests with success - even though it still won't play from hardware buffers, ohwell, right - AND I was able to use the Multimedia control panel to DISABLE acceleration for good, that is switch DirectSound to emulation-only.

So... All's good now. My wife can use the thing and she can play some of our older games on it. Yay.