Tech Help

ste

Just a few problems with this new machine i've setup here!

I'm sure nothing serious but you might have a few ideas ...

Games: All work well except the old, low graphics games, like Winquake! It boots up wonderfully, plays well, but if I try to change GFX mode or exit it, or Alt-tab it crashes.
Seems to be a problem chaging video modes

I've a Geforce2 GTS latest drivers etc...

Suggestions ?

Another problem is sound, with DirectSound games, I get lovely 4 speaker surround sound, with winamp using the directsound output with mp3's i get good 4 speaker sound ... but with music CD's thru winamp only 1 or 2 speakers work ... soundblaster pci128 with cambridge soundworks 4 speaker set ...

ideas ?


thanks!

Gerry

ste, use glquakeworld instead of winquake. You can start it up with nice high res with a shortcut like this.

c:\quake\glqwcl.exe -width 1024 height 768 -bpp 32

as for 4 speakers, I'm running win2k with the default sblive drivers to avoid all the creative popup crap, so I dunno.

ste

Thanks gerry.

it did the trick alright, looks like i'll just have to survive without 320x400 winquake from now on ...

now i just need to get my hands on quake3, half-life, a few 100 megs worth of driver updates etc.. and i shud be alright!


im still pished with this CD sound situation, I can mp3 a CD and play it and I get 4 speaker sound, but straight from the CD only 1 or 2 speakers ... very weird!

Kali

cd audio generally bypasses most of the soundcards hardware and software and just directs it to your line out.
either way you've just answered your own question there.. directsound is software which simply controls which channels to send audio to, theres an element or preprocessing the audio before its outputted, unlike playing directly from a cd where no decoding of the format is needed before output.
hope you get what im saying.. excuse the waffle im tired

amp

hmmm personally I think it's the difference between CD analog and CD digital. As Kali sez there is a certain ammount of preprocessing to be done before sending it to the speakers and analog can't be preprocessed because it gets sent directly to the sound card via that wee cable. Enabling CD digital gets rid of the need for that annoying cable and allows cd playback from any cd drive you have (as long as it supports CD digital)

---

Lunacy Abounds! Play GLminesweeper!
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Gerry

Yeah, I'd say use the digital cable for the sound card. Its got a 2 pin connector on either end. It doesnt use up any more cpu time, it just means that the high quality dac on the sblive gets used instead of the usually crap one in the cd drive, and the live can pipe the sound to 4 speakers then. Well I'm fairly sure it will. CD sound quality is greatly improved either way.

ste

OK,

I've 2 CD players

One Philips 24 or 32 speed job
It's been the one I'm using and now I'm quite sure the poxy wire between it and the soundcard is boll0xed ... I'm gonna buy a new one today (if they sell em)

But I also have a 40 speed job ... I'm guessing I should use that and it may well support CD digital and not need a wire ...

perhaps ?

thanks for the advice anyhoo!

Oh BTW I got winquake working with the command line :

winquake.exe -startwindowed -nowindirect

Then she seems to work fine!


[This message has been edited by ste (edited 20-01-2001).]

Kali

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">But I also have a 40 speed job ... I'm guessing I should use that and it may well support CD digital and not need a wire ...</font>

you'll still need a digital audio cable.
look at the back of your cd drive.. should be a slot with only two pins... thats the one you need.

the normal audio cable has four pins.. one for left, one for right channel and two ground, you wont need this if the above cable is in.

i think your should pci128 have a digital input anyway, peats or maplins should stock that cable.

hope thats of some help.

ste

Yea

Well I sorted that it was the Philips CD Drive that has dod*** sound output, the other CD drive gave full speaker effect.

As for the digital cable neither Peats nor Maplin stock em, they said they can't find a supplier ... ah well!

Renton

Afaik the PCI128 (which i used to have before i realised it was a load of steaming jizz) doesnt have Digital input.