ES1879 AudioDrive OS/2 Driver Version 2.15 Software Release Notes February 28, 1998 About This Release ESS Technology is providing updated OS/2 drivers for the ES1879 AudioDrive chip in this Software Release. These drivers are complete updates to prior ESS releases for both OS/2 Warp 4.0 and OS/2 Warp 3.0. This document provides: - a description of the changes to the drivers - installation notes Please read this document completely before you upgrade your system, and follow the instructions carefully. Release Information Product: ES1879 AudioDrive OS/2 Device Driver, Version 2.15 Drivers: ES1879 (with ESFM and wavetable) OS: OS/2 Warp 4.0 and OS/2 Warp 3.0 Release Date: February 28, 1998 Release Description The ES1879 AudioDrive OS/2 Driver Software Release incorporates new changes done to the previous release, Version 2.12. Version 2.15 Changes 1. The WIN-OS/2 driver is corrected to avoid DMA contention problem so that multiple WIN-OS/2 sessions can be opened. 2. The OS/2 driver gets system information pointer correctly. Version 2.12 Features ES938 support An application, SPATIAL.EXE, is provided to control ES938 3D Stereo Processor or the built-in Spatializer. ES689/ES690 support A /W:1 parameter can be added to the device driver line in CONFIG.SYS to utilize ES689/ES690 for MIDI output. Full-duplex capability The OS/2 driver supports playing and recording simultaneously 2 wave files. ESFM support The OS/2 driver supports ESFM, ESS's advanced FM music synthesis technology. APM support The OS/2 driver supports Advanced Power Management (APM). It is recommended that users stop audio applications before putting the system into Suspend mode. The ES1879 is put into local power mode when all audio streams are closed. ES938 is also powered down upon receiving Suspend message. Hardware volume control support The OS/2 driver supports hardware volume control. The volume settings are passed to MMPM/2 via a daemon program, ESDAEMON.EXE. The program will save the volume settings and restore them on startup. A /H:# parameter can be added to the device driver line in CONFIG.SYS to specify the number of additional steps generated by one hardware volume control interrupt. The default number is zero. The maximum is 3. BIOS audio volume control support The driver checks the master volume before changing it in case the BIOS or other application has modified it. Device sharing between OS/2 and WIN-OS/2 The audio device can be shared between Windows applications and OS/2 under an exclusive sharing arrangement. If the device is not currently being used by an OS/2 application, when Windows runs an audio application, Windows will own the audio device until the Windows application (or session) is terminated. Then ownership will pass to the next application requesting it (OS/2 or Windows). This all occurs while maintaining the state of the device for all applications. Limited MPU-401 support If MPU-401 is enabled, the OS/2 driver will send out MIDI data when MIDI files are played. If MPU-401 interrupt is enabled, MIDI in data can be received. A MIDI file has to be opened for the MIDI in data to be sent to the FM synthesizer. MIDI record is not supported. In WIN-OS/2 only MIDI out is supported, but the driver requires a MPU-401 interrupt to start. In OS/2 if a MIDI file is played while MIDI in is receiving, the MIDI file has priority. After a stop command is sent to the MIDI file, MIDI in will continue generating FM music. Note that the stop command is only sent when the MIDI file play is completed or rewound or there are switching between two MIDI files. Input monitoring Input source monitoring during non-recording time is implemented. However, there are some limitations to this feature due to the design of MMPM/2. When Digital Audio comes up, the default microphone input source is used. If you want to switch to line in, you must start recording to send the information down to the driver. After then if the input source is switched back to the default microphone because a wave file is opened, you have to turn monitor off and then on to switch back to line in. Known Problems 1. For OS/2 Warp 3.0, opening too many MIDI files makes the OS/2 system unstable. This problem is related to MMPM/2 and depends on system resource. On systems with 8 Mbs memory, the limit is 3; 16 Mbs, 6. 2. Tempo in MIDI files may not be 100% accurate due to timing delay and MMPM/2 architecture. 3. For OS/2 Warp 3.0, running MCI commands "seek wave to #" and then "play wave" to a 16-bit wave file sometimes generates very loud static noise. Likewise using "record wave from #" to record a 16-bit wave file may generate wrong file. It all depends on the seek position. 4. To be able to play and record wave files at the same time, the enforcement of only one active wave file by MMPM/2 is relaxed. Therefore, some problems or erratic behaviors may pop up if two wave files are played. 5. The OS/2 driver allows sharing of audio and MPU-401 interrupts, but it is not recommended. If both are shared, occasionally too much MIDI in data will lock up AudioDrive's interrupt processing when a wave file is played or recorded. To get out of this situation, stop the wave file, stop the MIDI in source, close all MIDI files, and restart the wave file to re-initialize AudioDrive's interrupt processing. 6. Due to the nature of MIDI music, turning MIDI in on while the MIDI in data are coming may not generate the right sounds. It is recommended to stop the MIDI in source first before enable MIDI in. 7. Some older ES938 chips have problem after powered down. In this case, add /T parameter to the device driver line in CONFIG.SYS to disable ES938 power down. Installation Notes To install the new drivers successfully the following steps must be taken: 1. Open an OS/2 Window and run the EINSTALL.EXE program on the installation disk by typing "A:\EINSTALL." The program first runs ESDETECT.EXE to auto-detect the chip, then calls ESUNINST.EXE to remove old drivers. That program will create a backup of CONFIG.SYS named CONFIG.ESS and remove the audio device lines from CONFIG.SYS. It also creates a backup of MMPM2.INI named MMPM2.ESS and removes the audio drivers information from MMPM2.INI. In addition, it removes any other ESS driver information in COMPLIST.INI. After then, the installation program calls Multimedia Application Install program, MINSTALL.EXE. After it finishes, another program, ESCONFIG.EXE, will be called to update CONFIG.SYS if necessary. 2. When Multimedia Application Install program brings up, a check mark beside ES1879 AudioDrive means that item is already selected. To toggle selection, click the mouse on the item. Click the Install button to start the installation. Once the drivers are installed, shutdown OS/2 and reset the computer for the new ES1879 drivers to take effect. 3. If the installation cannot be completed, read the logs EINSTALL.LOG in \MMOS2\INSTALL subdirectory and MINSTALL.LOG in \MMOS2\INSTALL subdirectory or root directory to find out the problem. 4. If during the installation an error saying the audio device is already in use by another application comes up, make sure all applications that utilize audio have been closed. If this is caused by system sounds not closing the audio device, you have three options to remedy this situation: A. Remove the audio driver by running ESUNINST.EXE. B. Go to Sounds object in System Setup folder and uncheck Enable system sounds option. After the driver is installed properly, check the option to enable system sounds. C. Run DINSTSND.CMD in d:\MMOS2\INSTALL subdirectory. After the driver is installed properly, run INSTSND.CMD d: to enable system sounds. Perform one of these operations and reboot to disable system sounds. Install the drivers again. 5. If WIN-OS/2 is installed in the system, start WIN-OS/2 and run "A:\SETUP" to install WIN-OS/2 drivers. Change the WIN-OS/2 settings to the following if necessary: AUDIO_ADAPTER_SHARING = Required INT_DURING_IO = On 6. Since OS/2 Warp 3.0 MINSTALL.EXE changes the icons of MIDI player and Digital Video player to that of Digital Audio player in the Multimedia folder, you may want to change them back to the originals. To change the icon of MIDI player, right click MIDI player to bring up the menu. Select Settings, select General, and click the Find... button. In the Start Folder window, enter \MMOS2\INSTALL. Click the Find button and a window of all found icons appears. Select MIDIPLAY.ICO and click OK. Close the MIDI player Settings notebook. For Digital Video player, repeat the above steps but select VIDPLAY.ICO instead. 8. If the MIDI plays are not smooth in WIN-OS/2, you need to change the timer resolution. Edit SYSTEM.INI in your Windows directory. Under [timer.drv] are TIMERMax386Res and TIMERMax286Res. You need to change the values to less than 8 from the default of 10. Since ES1879 is a plug and play board, in a system with plug and play support the optimal settings will be used instead of the settings specified in CONFIG.SYS. If you change the ES1879 settings in a system with no plug and play support, be sure to reset the computer for ES1879 to forget its previous settings. These are the files copied to your hard disk for the MMPM/2 component: \MMOS2 ES1879DD.SYS VAUDDRV.SYS ESDAEMON.EXE SPATIAL.EXE \MMOS2\DLL CARDINFO.DLL ESSVSD88.DLL \MMOS2\HELP ES1879IN.HLP \OS2\BOOT CLOCK01.SYS CLOCK02.SYS TIMER0.SYSDownload Driver Pack
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