PC110

Installing Windows 95:
Audio drivers

 

Audio chipset

The PC110 uses an ESS 488 AudioDrive chipset - this gives 8-bit mono SoundBlaster-compatible wave audio, plus basic MIDI synthesis. I'm no music buff, so can't say what MIDI sysnthesis chip is used/emulated, nor how good the MIDI drivers are, but it does seem to be limited in the 'voice' (concurrent instrument) department. Hey, it bleeps and blurps a recognisable, if sometimes clumsy, tune, so I'm happy...

On the hardware side, I recommend you treat it as a standard SB Pro, and it'll cause you no problems. That means setting the I/O to 220h and 388h, the IRQ to 5, and the DMA channel to 1. Simple? Use the PS2 tools to check your audio setup if unsure - it may even be disabled!

Driver selection

There are basically two drivers available that will work with the ESS 488 - the SoundBlaster Pro and the ESS 488 drivers themselves. both give similar levels of performance, but the Microsoft-supplied ESS 488 drivers are better overall - as you'd imagine. Here's why:

 

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Written by Daniel Basterfield. Images found on the internet. Enjoy!