[Vt8235 Motherboard Driver Free Download
Iberio Ralda
My first thought was that obviously maybe the video card is defective or something but I have another FX 5200 128MB and the result is the same, I even tested with a Geforce MX 440 64MB but yeah, same exact issue (and yes I did a clean install with this card on just to make sure) - and all these cards have been tested in Windows 98SE and they work just fine. Too bad I don't have any AGP card from any other brand than nVidia right now, the onboard video from the SiS mobo works "fine" I get high resolutions and all that but the OpenGL support apparently isn't the best as Quake III doesn't even launch.
The first motherboard I tested with is a M863G with a SiS 741GX chipset and the other is a K7VMM+ rev 7.1 with the VIA KM266 and VT8235 combo (and I did install the chipset drivers in the case of the VIA one and the AGP driver for SiS). The processor is an AMD Sempron 2600+ (the second motherboard doesn't even support the right FSB but that's beside the point).
Then I thought maybe Windows NT needed the correct monitor driver but that apparently isn't even a thing in Windows NT because I couldn't even install it. I tested it in multiple monitors as well so it's definitely not a monitor issue as on all of them the same thing happens (I even tried doing a clean install in a different monitor just in case but nope). Tried without SP6, with SP6, same.
Is there something I'm missing? Maybe the processor could be the issue? I don't have a different one to test right now but I'll probably get an Athlon XP just to test. Tried with differnet memories, with no soundcard, every integrated device disabled in the bios, etc. I don't know I'm running out of ideas. Maybe a configuration issue? I never really used NT 4.0 before.
Let's see...Windows NT4 was already feeling kind of tired by 1999 when I switched to Windows 2000. Then by 2003 when the FX5200 came out I was already switching to XP. I usually switched when micro$hit stopped updating the OS with service packs. I would guess basically nobody ran the FX5200 on NT4, and I wonder if Nvidia even bothered to test it out. If there were still systems running NT4 in 2003, it was probably for server use, and I doubt they would have cared about a card designed to play video games.
I got my hands on a 6200 (and I know trying an even newer card shouldn't help but I didn't get it just for this), and the weird thing is even though the drivers allegedly support it the system just refuses to work with it, it just reverts back to the default VGA driver and asks to replace it (not even installing it manually), tested with a couple driver versions and one of them actually broke the system completely: 66.93.
And that page that says "where APIs used by the NVIDIA control panel don't exist in the OS" maybe correct but by my testing you get dll errors (mostly related to shlwapi.dll) when loading control panel but that gets fixed by installing IE 6.0.
Edit: Actually I'm starting to thing it might just have something to do with the fact that I'm using a "modern" motherboard and processor (Sempron 2600) because I installed Windows 95 OSR2 and I can't get the FX 5200 to work there either (system just keep restarting, tested with a few different drivers).
Also this issue with the FX 5200 also was present on Windows 95, as in it just refusing to boot regardless of driver version (and actually some older driver versions didn't work with 98 even), I bet it's fixed now as well with the Athlon but haven't tested it yet though.
that one i believe doesn't support DDMA, but I am not sure, because 596 was intended as laptop chipset. So, I believe it has only PC-PCI/SBLink support (as that was used for a docking station with ISA slots inside). That's why usually desktop motherboards with 596 are the only VIA motherboards that have SBLink header. If anyone have seen VIA-based motherboard with SBLink and South Bridge different than 596 - let me know. I myself have a lot questions about 596 compared to VT82C586.
I have a CMI8738 model 33 and also a model 55. Unfortunately, my Pentium 2 computer won't POST and I already swapped video card and PSU, so I won't be able to test until I swap out the motherboard. I do have a 440 BX motherboard which I will try to install this weekend.
[EDIT] I've just found my card based on Trident 4DWave-DX chipset - it uses same 40h for DDMA. So, that will allow me to do good research from my side. that's good, some small progress, but at the end, we should be able to get to the bottom of what is valid for which Cmedia revision. currently, my rev 37D is no go for DDMA and so rev 33 is the prime candidate for the information in the datasheet.
nothing about Hardware wavetable in the CMedia daatsheets, but FM is there for sure and on 37D it can output via digital out - that's why there is thread in this forum for pass-trough of FM on modern systems using CMI8738.
anyway, no matter if we find revision of CMI8738 that has DDMA or not, my effort on this will still lead to release of some tools - for example tools to enable DDMA on compatible Intel, VIA chipsets, etc. Looking now at this - the biggest problem of back then was that they did not include that as option in the BIOS - where I think that belongs. it's a shame, because properly done DDMA has to be like close to 100% compatible and indistinguishable from ISA sound card. it also needs no driver - just small initialization to tell the sound card and the chipset to use DDMA.
Right, scratch that. Fortunately I have another system with an MSI MS-6168rev2, with i440BX and PIIX4E southbridge that I needed to move to my workshop anyway. That one should do DDMA. What can I test?
that's not true, for example VT82C686 has close to excellent DDMA support and there are many motherboards with that chipset without any ISA slots. also, some PCI cards have interesting features - for example cmi8738 ability to output OPL3 via its digital outputs. all pci cards also have much better sound-to-noise ratio, i.e. are less noisy. last, but not least, because it's probably most important point - SiS chipsets have excellent, really excellent, on par with the benchmark 440bx, DDMA support and they supported that up to SiS963 Sound Bridge. So, there are really countless AthlonXP and Pentium 4 motherboards with SiS chipset that have DDMA.
I started working on this, on this project, exactly to get DDMA on my P4 SiS motherboard (no any vendor tool works on SiS) and today I have huge progress and get it running with 4DWave-NX based card - no any third party tools or tools from the vendors, just my small tool. So, today was a lot of run - running Impulse Tracker on 3+ GHz P4 system plus the sound is really clear, because just analog part of PCI card like 4DWave-NX is much better.
P.S. VIA is hell though. VT82C686 as I mentioned close to excellent, but on VT82C586 I cannot get DDMA working and now I think their datasheet is wrong in fact it's similar problem as what I have with CMI8738 037D - I cannot write to the address in VT82C586 that is supposed to control DDMA. One more time Intel and SiS are equally good for DDMA on my tests, but with Intel you have DDMA only with ancient 430TX and 440BX, while with SiS you have it up to modern times. I mean motherboards with SiS963/SiS962, etc are quite modern compared to 430TX/440BX. However, no vendor tool supports those new SiS chipsets and so tools like the one I made today for 4DWave-NX are needed.
For some reason, Kamerat was able to initialize and use some cards on a vt8233 south bridge with DDMA mode. VIA may not test it, they don't advertise it, but they may not have deleted DDMA functionality from the ASIC, at least in the early V-Link south bridges.
PCI sound cards and Chipsets from various manufacturers...
i am 99.9% sure Kamerat is mistaken, because for FM801 mentioned I don't know (if I can find any datasheets I will check more), but the other one ALS4000 - has emulation mode that works even on later VIA South Bridges like VT8237/9 (tested by me), but that's not DDMA. So, Kamerat is welcomed to jump in and give more details.
As from my side really this transformed in making myself (and respectively the community) Swiss-army-knife set of tools for DDMA, I think maybe one set of tools I can make is tools that check from sound card side its settings what mode they are really running/using. that way tell the user for sure is it DDMA or something else.
It's big mess from my side, but in 1-2 weeks, probably i will start releasing Proof-of-Concept tools here. Maybe, made separate thread as "master" thread for DDMA information, because already there are huge gabs between datasheets information, what is spreading as information among the community, etc. and what is really true especially based on empirical evidence.
the problem is that if they "haven't deleted it" from the ASIC, they moved it to some secret/undocumented addresses, which is doubtful, because DDMA addresses even on the very fist VT8231 (after VT82C686) are used for another functionalities and those functionalities are confirmed by open-source chipset drivers like those for Linux, not just the datasheets, i.e. confirmed empirically. I hope that clarifies my point. I really don't see a reason why if they kept it, to changes the control addresses and even reuse the old control addresses for other things.
i like the chipset, i don't have motherboard with such chipset. do you have other PCI sound cards? if you're willing i want to use you to test DDMA tool for SiS5598, but you need PCI audio card that can do DDMA for sure, i.e. first we make Sis5598 working.
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