-=> CHARLES ANGELICH wrote to WAYNE CHIRNSIDE <=-
 
 WC> but the order on the audio plugs between the SoundBlater
 WC> and Turtle beach cables don't match. SB blank, white,
 WC> black, red Turtle Beach white, blank, black, red Both
 WC> connectors are labeled audio on the respective CD-ROM
 
 WC> cut the plug with pigtail off the PCI sound card and solder
 WC> it onto the Sounblaster cable correcting the order
 WC> regarding where the blank pin is but matching white, black
 WC> and red. What do you think?

 CA> In usenet groups Turtle Beach is considered a 'collectible' and
 CA> I think was quite expensive in it's day? Some pros keep one on
 CA> hand and might even pay a good sum of money to get a working TB
 CA> card? I wouldn't chance doing damage to it myself. 
 
I wouldn't be chancing damaging the card itself just hacking up the 
cable a bit and in such a way I could return it to original once 
and if I get a plug and play O.S. 
My concerns regarding modifying the cable is limited to
possibly damaging the SoundBlaster sound card and or the CD-ROM. 
Analog audio is analog audio but who knows whether the two chose
the same color coding is anybodies guess.


 CA> I would
 CA> either find the proper wiring schematic or try offering it for
 CA> sale on EBAY.

 I'm aware Turtle Beach was highly thought of but I've no software for
 it nor in fact have I yet pulled the card to find the model 
 number to get specs off the web. It *is* the sound card that was 
 plugged into the CD-ROM when I salvaged the machine from the trash.
 Now that I've got it all up and running perhaps I should try
 the damaged drive with Win 98 on it again attempting to boot
 with boot disks obtainable from www.bootdisk.com?
I don't think I'll find a wiring schematic for the Turtle 
Beach as these things are sold as plug this there.
 
Might not want to sell the Turtle Beach either because support may 
exist in Linux and Win 95.

 CA>> I've mixed feelings about those numbers quoted for CD rom
 CA>> drive speeds. They aren't 'real' numbers but some sort of
 CA>> derived number or average access rate or possibly maximum.
 CA>> I don't pay much attention to them.
 
 CA> I noticed the speed of my 24x and 32x CD drives was 'good' but
 CA> I seldom use them for anything other than CD-DA and restoring
 CA> from backups of the system files.

 Yeah and I'm looking forwards to that once I get an I/O 
 card that supports ATA 133. Loading my SoundBlaster software
 over itself so it'd recognise the new CD-ROM was very fast
 with this very small buffer 3800 spindle speed Seagate
 thrashing all over the place as the software loaded.
 Don't really see any jumpers on the board so I'm assuming 
 you answer "none" to the 4 IDE device drives in the CMOS
 to disable it? 

 CA> Hard drive transfer rates are worth spending time to get right.
 CA> They are the #1 limiting factor for all systems.

Don't I know it.

 WC>> Come March it's a definate I'll have a new 60 gig drive in
 WC>> this very machine. 
 
 CA>> I guess that will help with Linux 'distros' when you lose
 CA>> it and become a linux freak that must reinstall each week
 CA>> and try every distro you can get your hands on. ;-)

 Yup.
 
 WC> across some information where there's now a utility that
 WC> allows one to boot Linux well above the previous 1,024
 WC> cylinder limit :-)

 CA> I somehow had the impression that Linux could _always_ boot
 CA> beyond that limit? If it's something new it's a surprise to me.

 Oh you can locate Linux above that limit but the 
 boot itself must reside under that limit.
 My understanding it you can make Linux boot from bootblock or
 boot the image from even a 3 meg DOS partition
 under 1,024 but to boot above you need this relatively new
 technique I read about in newsgroups.

 CA> Yes, sort of. You can run setup.exe from DOS and reset the
 CA> driver/res combination that way too.

Nope, prompts for OEM Vidio driver and there are none for this ATI.
I'm stuck until I either get Win 95, 98 or X-Windows
running :-(

 WC> BTW ever seen invalid command.com - command com not found when
 WC> trying to exit Windows? Been happening every time I try to
 WC> close Windows ever since I swapped the drive into the
 WC> pentium. Another reason to install over the old Windows
 WC> perhaps?

 CA> I get that if I try to load MSDOS v6.22 using "high" from
 CA> within config.sys - I can use "umb" but not
"high". Never did
 CA> figure out why though. 
 
Hmm, something I can try. 
I've got "UMB,high" in my config.sys.
I've also got 90K upper memory free.

 CA> In theory it should work but it doesn't
 CA> for some reason on this machine. I just assumed it's a memory
 CA> conflict of some sort.  I  moved from an 80386 to a Pentium 5
 CA> here.  Could be a W31 vs Pentium problem?

Not a clue though it doesn't seem to cause a problem 
crashing out with warm boot, no lost files on running chkdsk/f.
That's another thing I can try modifying the video memory I've
denied video driver unused in the old machine to gain
some to run programs.

 WC> 264VT-A4 here and search does not reveal a Win 3.1 driver.

 CA> I will check for the URLs I used to search for ATI drivers.

I'm a member at drivers.com and neither they nor google reveal
a 3.1 driver.
 
 WC> will snag again. Perhaps Win 95 will install from this new
 WC> CD-ROM drive but it balked on the old one as it's supposed
 WC> just go into certain machines.

 CA> I'm guessing you have an OEM version of W95? 
 
Good guess, given to me in shrink wrap with registration
number sealed. Originally for a Dell it also suports
2 other machines including NEC of which this is one
but _this_ CD-ROM drive wasn't manufactured until 1999 
and I recall you've only three options for CD-ROM drive types
to install this OEM package.
The Pentium was built in 96 with the 40X drive obviously 
added later.

 CA> If you had W95SR2
 CA> (b) it is reputed to be a good stable and fast OS on the proper
 CA> machines.

 Will check for availability and price and yes I've been reading
 about the Windows SE debate.

 Hey check this out, just tried the headphone jack and
 four buttons on the CD drive and it will play audio CD's
 there with volume control but no bells and whistles
 except it does have a skip to next track button.
 Need a pipe cleaner and some solvent though as the contacts appear 
 corroded per having to jiggle the jack a bit to get both channels.
 Pretty good drive and the price was right ;-)
 
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