OPTi 82C931 sound card problems
franc zabkar
I had a weird problem in a 586 machine running DOS 6.22.
I was trying to install a generic soundcard based on the OPTi 82C931
chipset. I was finding that sometimes the CD-ROM could not be detected
and sometimes the hard disc would appear to fail with a message
something like "Cannot load COMMAND.COM. System halted." It did not
matter whether the CD-ROM was connected to the sound card or the
secondary IDE port on the M/B.
I narrowed the problem down to this:
The problem only showed up when executing the sound card's
initialisation software, SNDINIT.EXE, but only after a cold boot. If
SNDINIT was run again after a warm boot, everything appeared to be OK.
To see what was happening to the hard drive, I booted from a floppy
and DIR'ed drive C: before and after the problem. Here is what I saw
(viewed best with fixed pitch font):
BEFORE
------
Volume in drive C is PARTITION1
Volume Serial Number is 2361-7771
Directory of C:\OPTI931
. <DIR> 11-20-97 12:27p
.. <DIR> 11-20-97 12:27p
VOLTSR EXE 7,533 10-23-96 9:12a
CDSETUP SYS 2,936 01-25-97 4:14p
DEMO16 WAV 275,516 03-01-93 8:10p
SNDINIT EXE 410,024 02-04-97 3:50p
WINAPP <DIR> 11-20-97 12:27p
VOLUME CFG 83 11-20-97 2:35p
MIXER CFG 406 02-14-97 10:09a
README TXT 11,817 02-11-97 4:12p
SOUND16 BAK 1,198 11-20-97 2:35p
INSTALL DAT 8,846 02-20-97 2:45p
CONFIG TXT 3,522 02-11-97 4:12p
SETUP DAT 832 02-24-97 2:40p
SOUND16 CFG 1,198 11-20-97 2:35p
ADSROM BIN 401 02-11-97 4:12p
MBSROM BIN 386 02-11-97 4:12p
SNDTUNE EXE 16,679 02-13-97 5:06p
18 file(s) 741,377 bytes
580,141,056 bytes free
AFTER
-----
Volume in drive C is PARTITION1
Volume Serial Number is 2361-7771
Directory of C:\OPTI931
. <DIR> 11-20-97 12:27p
.. <DIR> 11-20-97 12:27p
VOLTRR DXD 7,532 10-22-96 9:12a
BDRETUP RYR 2,936 01-24-97 4:14p
DELO06 VAV 275,516 03-00-93 8:10p
RNDINIT DXD 410,024 02-04-97 3:50p
VINAPP <DIR> 11-20-97 12:27p
VOLULE BFF 82 11-20-97 2:35p
LIXER BFF 406 02-14-97 10:09a
RE@DLE TXT 11,816 02-10-97 4:12p
ROTND16 BAJ 1,198 11-20-97 2:35p
HNRT@LL DAT 8,846 02-20-97 2:45p
BONFHG TXT 3,522 02-10-97 4:12p
RETUP DAT 832 02-24-97 2:40p
ROTND16 BFF 1,198 11-20-97 2:35p
@DRRNM BIN 400 02-10-97 4:12p
LBRRNM BIN 386 02-10-97 4:12p
RNDTTND DXD 16,678 02-12-97 5:06p
18 file(s) 741,372 bytes
580,141,056 bytes free
It appears that the SNDINIT software somehow caused the drive to drop
bit 0 of every 16 bit word (eg VOLUME becomes VOLULE, 7533 becomes
7532).
If I CHKDSK'ed the drive, or performed a long DIR including
subdirectories, the drive would behave again. It looked like some
corrupted cache was being flushed, but this is where I stopped.
I didn't troubleshoot the problem beyond this point since the card
only cost me $18 and I was in a hurry to build this system and sell
it. I ended up using a card based on a different chipset.
In retrospect, I don't remember whether SMARTDRV was loaded. Nor did I
think to use DEBUG to dump system RAM. Also didn't think to test the
idea that somehow the disc drive's on-board cache was corrupted (is
this possible?).
Any ideas?
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-- Franc Zabkar
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