OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical > Multimedia

Audigy 2 ZS Notebook

<< < (2/3) > >>

Olafur Gunnlaugsson:

--- Quote from: Doug Bissett on August 23, 2020, 08:16:08 pm ---
--- Quote ---(based in Ricoh RL5C746)
--- End quote ---

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


--- End 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.

Renee Senger:

--- 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.

--- End quote ---

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)

Doug Bissett:

--- 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.
--- End quote ---

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).
--- End quote ---

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.
--- End quote ---

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:
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:
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.


--- End quote ---
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

--- End quote ---
Of course, I have no idea how it works, I never have one of those.

Regards

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page

Go to full version