Author Topic: Audigy 2 ZS Notebook  (Read 9824 times)

Renee Senger

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 47
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Audigy 2 ZS Notebook
« on: August 22, 2020, 06:17:43 pm »
Althougt my Lenovo Thinkpad T61 has PCMCIA interface (based in Ricoh RL5C746) supported by OS/2 (ArcaOS 5.0.5) with Intel PCIC driver, I never tried anything as I didn't have any PCMCIA card to test. Now I get a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Notebook and I decided to test.

With the card plugged, there are no errors advices and I can see that the system identifies a card plugged, but has no idea that is a sound card. The Plug-in application for pcmcia identifies as a "memory card ready to use" ?

As with linux (Ubuntu 12.10-32bit- Alsa 1.0.24 based -Live CD) this card works whithout problems, I am thinking if its about OS/2 pcmcia driver capabilities or Uniaud.

Doug Bissett

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1593
  • Karma: +4/-2
    • View Profile
Re: Audigy 2 ZS Notebook
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2020, 08:16:08 pm »
I think you have a lot of reading to do. PCMCIA is an interface to plug in cards. You also need a driver for the plug in card. Not ot mention that PCMCIA doesn't work very well.

Quote
(based in Ricoh RL5C746)

I may be wrong, but this device is more likely to be an SD card reader, with nothing to do with PCMCIA.

Quote
With the card plugged, there are no errors advices and I can see that the system identifies a card plugged, but has no idea that is a sound card.

That is normal, if you don't have the device driver installed for the device (the required driver may not exist). It can also be normal, if the device has more than one interface.

Quote
As with linux

Linux will tell you nothing about OS/2 PCMCIA. They are completely different.

Quote
Now I get a Creative Audigy 2 ZS Notebook and I decided to test.

Again, I may be wrong, but Creative Audigy is a sound card, not a notebook. Perhaps you worded this poorly?

If you mean that it is a PCMCIA card, with Creative Audigy sound chip, it may work with the UniAud driver (if UniAud supports that specific chip on a PCMCIA card). There could be a problem, because the card will probably need to be mounted in PCMCIA, before the UniAud driver is loaded. I am not sure if that is possible.

Start by plugging in the card, and get the output from PCI.EXE (C:\sys\install\DETECT\pci.exe in ArcaOS), and post it. Then, we can see what you actually have, and somebody may know the answer.

Martin Iturbide

  • OS2World NewsMaster
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4713
  • Karma: +41/-1
  • Your Friend Wil Declares...
    • View Profile
    • Martin's Personal Blog
Re: Audigy 2 ZS Notebook
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2020, 10:17:55 pm »
Hi Renee

I have zero experience with PCMCIA sound cards. I tried to find any reference to the Creative Audigy 2 ZS PCMCIA Card and OS/2, to see if there were any drivers, but I haven't found anything yet. I'm not sure if there where any PCMCIA sound card available for OS/2 to see if those drivers will work by any luck. 

Is the one that you have the one that I attached here?

Regards
« Last Edit: August 23, 2020, 10:25:23 pm by Martin Iturbide »
Martin Iturbide
OS2World NewsMaster
... just share the dream.

Renee Senger

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 47
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Re: Audigy 2 ZS Notebook
« Reply #3 on: August 24, 2020, 09:42:35 pm »
I think you have a lot of reading to do. PCMCIA is an interface to plug in cards. You also need a driver for the plug in card. Not ot mention that PCMCIA doesn't work very well.

Quote
(based in Ricoh RL5C746)

I may be wrong, but this device is more likely to be an SD card reader, with nothing to do with PCMCIA.

Quote

Ricoh R/RL/5C476(II) is a Cardbus controller for PCMCIA adapters. Lenovo Thinkpad T61 have PCMCIA and SD Card Reader side by side. I am not talking about the Card Reader.

Quote

That is normal, if you don't have the device driver installed for the device (the required driver may not exist). It can also be normal, if the device has more than one interface.

Quote

According http://www.os2ss.com/users/DrMartinus/nbdriver.htm , Ricoh RL5C476 chipset is supported by the Intel PCIC driver in Warp 4, so this driver was installed as I told from Notebook options of ArcaOS installation program. What I comment is the fact that PC Card Director not identifies the card as what really is

Quote

Again, I may be wrong, but Creative Audigy is a sound card, not a notebook. Perhaps you worded this poorly?

Quote

Audigy 2 ZS Notebook is the commercial name used by Creative for this card. I think you have a lot of reading about Creative Labs products.


Renee Senger

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 47
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Re: Audigy 2 ZS Notebook
« Reply #4 on: August 24, 2020, 09:45:24 pm »
Hi Renee

I have zero experience with PCMCIA sound cards. I tried to find any reference to the Creative Audigy 2 ZS PCMCIA Card and OS/2, to see if there were any drivers, but I haven't found anything yet. I'm not sure if there where any PCMCIA sound card available for OS/2 to see if those drivers will work by any luck. 

Is the one that you have the one that I attached here?

Regards

Hi Martin, that is the the card! "Creative Audigy 2 ZS Notebook"

Olafur Gunnlaugsson

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 244
  • Karma: +5/-0
    • View Profile
Re: Audigy 2 ZS Notebook
« Reply #5 on: August 29, 2020, 02:32:40 pm »
Quote
(based in Ricoh RL5C746)

I may be wrong, but this device is more likely to be an SD card reader, with nothing to do with PCMCIA.


Ricoh RL5C746 is an old PCMCIA interface chip not an USB/mass media interface, it is sufficiently generic to work with some even older Ricoh PCMCIA drivers on Windows so there is a possibility it will do the same on OS/2.

BTW, the Audigy ZS Notebook is basically the same card as the later Soundblaster X-Fi Cardbus card except for the mechanical interface, I have one of those but no OS/2 based computer with a Cardbus interface to test it on.

Renee Senger

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 47
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Re: Audigy 2 ZS Notebook
« Reply #6 on: August 29, 2020, 10:35:36 pm »
Quote
Ricoh RL5C746 is an old PCMCIA interface chip not an USB/mass media interface, it is sufficiently generic to work with some even older Ricoh PCMCIA drivers on Windows so there is a possibility it will do the same on OS/2.

BTW, the Audigy ZS Notebook is basically the same card as the later Soundblaster X-Fi Cardbus card except for the mechanical interface, I have one of those but no OS/2 based computer with a Cardbus interface to test it on.

Hi,

Ricoh RL5C746 PCMCIA interface chip used in Lenovo Thinkpad T61 as I said in my first post, is compatible with Intel PCIC driver (SS2PCIC1) available since OS/2 Warp 4 installation CD's. I had no problems to install SS2PCI1 in T61. Can be easily done with Selective Install.

What frustrated me was the poor support for pcmcia cards showed. Basically are supported cards for communications (ethernet, token-ring, fax-modem) and flash memory storages. I think it's useless this type of cards when we already have in T61 an ethernet port and other means to work with flash memory storage cards.

Althought, the SD card reader of T61 does not work within OS/2 (at least I didn't find anything about Ricoh R5C822 chip OS/2 support in my search), there are usb adapters to work with these cards, so nowadays, nobody really needs a flash memory pcmcia card.

A Fax/Modem pcmcia card would be useful I think, since internal CXT soft modem of T61 not works with OS/2. However an external usb modem is more easy to find (besides the fact that the only use I make today of a modem is to remotely access my old Paradox security system at home).

The only thing not usual I saw in the devices list was a Bondwell B236 Game Card Pcmcia that I never heard about.

So, I think try to do Audigy 2 ZS Notebook work with OS/2 PCMCIA ends up being a waste of time.

Below some screenshots of PCMCIA Plug and Play
Audigy is identified as a memory card (storage)

« Last Edit: August 30, 2020, 05:09:47 pm by Martin Iturbide »

Doug Bissett

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1593
  • Karma: +4/-2
    • View Profile
Re: Audigy 2 ZS Notebook
« Reply #7 on: August 30, 2020, 03:48:10 am »
Quote
What frustrated me was the poor support for pcmcia cards showed. Basically are supported cards for communications (ethernet, token-ring, fax-modem) and flash memory storages. I think it's useless this type of cards when we already have in T61 an ethernet port and other means to work with flash memory storage cards.

So, PCMCIA is sort of supported with Richoh adapters. Okay, but that doesn't mean it will support a sound card. Remember that support for PCMCIA was abandoned by IBM, before they abandoned OS/2. I doubt if any PCMCIA sound cards existed when PCMCIA was abandoned. As I said earlier, you probably need to get the PCMCIA support installed, before loading the UniAud driver (UniAud doesn't know about PCMCIA, so it won't wait for it). I don't think that is possible.

Quote
A Fax/Modem pcmcia card would be useful I think, since internal CXT soft modem of T61 not works with OS/2. However an external usb modem is more easy to find (besides the fact that the only use I make today of a modem is to remotely access my old Paradox security system at home).

I have a Fax/Modem PCMCIA card. It "works", but is totally useless because I no longer have a telephone line to connect it to. I think there is ONE (and only ONE) USB modem that works with OS/2. Again, there is no demand, so nobody has bothered to even try to make them work. I also think there is ONE, and only ONE, software modem that will work with OS/2. Still useless without a telephone line to connect it to.

Quote
So, I think try to do Audigy 2 ZS Notebook work with OS/2 PCMCIA ends up being a waste of time.

It is an interesting idea, but I doubt if you can make it work. Audigy sound cards are supported (somewhat) by UniAud, but UniAud knows nothing about PCMCIA, so you would need to find some way of loading the PCMCIA support, before loading UniAud. Even then, it may not work.

Over that past 20 years, or so, I have used PCMCIA to test if it will do anything. It is a terrible thing, that doesn't work with SMP systems, so you do need to disable SMP support to even try it. Then, you need to find the proper driver for the device (that knows about PCMCIA). Then, you need to configure PCMCIA to manage the device (that can't happen, if the device driver doesn't know about PCMCIA). A "waste of time" is an understatement. Of course, if you can write your own driver, it could be an interesting project.

Express card adapters are slightly different. Express card connects to the PC bus, directly (no driver required), so an OS/2 driver (if one exists) can find it at boot time.  I have a StarTech USB 3 Express card adapter, and it works okay, with the XHCI driver from Arca Noae, in my Lenovo ThinkPad T510, and my IBM ThinkPad T43. As usual, YMMV.

Dave Yeo

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4787
  • Karma: +99/-1
    • View Profile
Re: Audigy 2 ZS Notebook
« Reply #8 on: August 30, 2020, 06:10:48 am »
I used USR Robotics USB modems for a while with OS/2, they worked fine until a lightning storm, fried a couple :) I also had what was claimed to be a USB modem, it had both a serial port and a USB port and internally a USB to serial converter chip, a common one. I lucked out there as just when I no longer had a serial port, David updated his USB drivers to support the USB to Serial chip.

Martin Iturbide

  • OS2World NewsMaster
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 4713
  • Karma: +41/-1
  • Your Friend Wil Declares...
    • View Profile
    • Martin's Personal Blog
Re: Audigy 2 ZS Notebook
« Reply #9 on: August 31, 2020, 02:45:24 am »
Hi

I was just checking the IBM PC Card Director R5 and found this reference on the "Supported PC Cards" text file.

Quote
1.7   Audio cards

    RATOC SYSTEM Inc. REX-5570MD 16bits Stereo Sound PC Card with MIDI I/F

        This card does not work on IBM ThinkPad 550/555BJ.

and
Quote
Audio
              New Media Corporation
                .WAVjammer PCMCIA Sound card
              Panasonic
                Sound Card CF-VEW211
              RATOC SYSTEM Inc.
                REX-5570MD 16bits Stereo Sound PC Card with MIDI I/F
              Roland
                PCMCIA Sound Card
              Turtle Beach Systems
                AUDIO ADVANTAGE PCMCIA SOUND DEVICE
              IBM
                PCMCIA 16-bit Audio Adapter
Of course, I have no idea how it works, I never have one of those.

Regards
« Last Edit: August 31, 2020, 03:25:05 am by Martin Iturbide »
Martin Iturbide
OS2World NewsMaster
... just share the dream.

Renee Senger

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 47
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Re: Audigy 2 ZS Notebook
« Reply #10 on: August 31, 2020, 05:34:45 pm »
Hi

I was just checking the IBM PC Card Director R5 and found this reference on the "Supported PC Cards" text file.

Quote
1.7   Audio cards

    RATOC SYSTEM Inc. REX-5570MD 16bits Stereo Sound PC Card with MIDI I/F

        This card does not work on IBM ThinkPad 550/555BJ.

and
Quote
Audio
              New Media Corporation
                .WAVjammer PCMCIA Sound card
              Panasonic
                Sound Card CF-VEW211
              RATOC SYSTEM Inc.
                REX-5570MD 16bits Stereo Sound PC Card with MIDI I/F
              Roland
                PCMCIA Sound Card
              Turtle Beach Systems
                AUDIO ADVANTAGE PCMCIA SOUND DEVICE
              IBM
                PCMCIA 16-bit Audio Adapter
Of course, I have no idea how it works, I never have one of those.

Regards

This information is interesting Martin. I will check for more details. Until now I was checked only the old archived The Notebook/2 Site http://web.archive.org/web/20061019015429/http://www.os2ss.com/users/DrMartinus/nbdriver.htm#PCMCIA

Olafur Gunnlaugsson

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 244
  • Karma: +5/-0
    • View Profile
Re: Audigy 2 ZS Notebook
« Reply #11 on: August 31, 2020, 08:15:50 pm »
This information is interesting Martin. I will check for more details. Until now I was checked only the old archived The Notebook/2 Site http://web.archive.org/web/20061019015429/http://www.os2ss.com/users/DrMartinus/nbdriver.htm#PCMCIA

Jonas Buys had an updated version of that site http://web.archive.org/web/20070224015317/http://www.os2warp.be:80/index2.php?name=nb2pcmcia

P.S. There was someone releasing updated versions of IBM's PCMCIA drivers and applications in the latter half of the noughties and distributing it from their homepage, but as I did not own a laptop at the time I did not have the presence of mind to download them and cannot remeber his name.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2020, 08:26:12 pm by Olafur Gunnlaugsson »