EWS 64XL plus AWE 64 Gold

[captainp]

Hi
I have the two soundcards which are Displayed in the topic.
After alot of reboots I got them both to work.

The Problem is now that I always have 10-12% CPU usage without anthing running.
If I deinstall the Digital Control and Synth driver it goes back to zero.

I used the recommended settings from studio4all.
Only for MIDI 1 I used a drifferent I/O because the AWE needs the 330.

My system is a Slot 1 Intel BX Board with W2k installed on a U160 SCSI drive.

There are now Interupt conflicts.

What can I do?

Thanks for help!!

Sorry if my english sounds funny but I am from Germany

[Werner_O]

You could try to choose PnP for the Dig. Control and perhaps for the MIDI 1 I/O too - some W2k/XP installations work better the EWS64 like this.

Did you want to say 'I have NO IRQ problems' or do you NOW have IRQ problems?

Regards
Werner

[captainp]

Hi
there are no IRQ Problems.
I tried PNP but there were no differences.

The card is working but I always have a 10-12% CPU usage.
I had the same Problem before I plugged the AWE in.

I read somewhere that you can connect the digital out of the AWE with the EWS.
Is that throught the Front panel?

Ist es ein Problem wenn ich Deutsch schreibe?
Ich sehe gerade du kommst aus K?ln.

[Werner_O]

I thinks it's better to keep on writing in English for the other visitors of this forum.

Surely you can record the AWEs Dig-Out with the EWS64-Dig-In at the EWS-Frontpanel. In this case you have to set the EWS-Sync-Settings in the Controlpanel to 'Sync extern' (=Slave mode) - the EWS64 will automatically recognize digital signals with 32, 44,1 or 48 kHz and synchronize to them (depending on the AWE settings).
Note: Many Soundblaster cards are fixed to 48kHz at the Dig-Out!

About high CPU usage:
1. Do you use IRQ 9 for any EWS64 device? This can cause problems in motherboards with BX chipset. In this case you should try other EEPROM settings.
2. Did you disable the EWS64 gameport? Only one gameport is 'allowed' under Windows.
3. You should also try another ISA slot for the EWS - sometime this can fix EWS64 problems.

Regards from Cologne
Werner

[captainp]

Hi
I do not use IRQ 9. I use 7 for Codec and 11 for Synth.
Both Gameports are disabled (AWE and EWS).
Tried many settings and had once to reset the card to factory defaults because it was not recognized any more.
I will try swapping ISA Slots.


What could cause the CPU usage?





I found out that it often helps (after reinstallation of drivers after eeprom change) to shut down and disconnect the power cord for at least one minute.

[Werner_O]

It was a good idea from you to post the screenshots:

1. Your Adaptec SCSI controller appears twice in the device listing (IRQ 4 + 9 and E/A E800-E8FF + EC00-ECFF). Do you really have TWO Adaptec controllers?
2. In the E/A listing the EWS-Codec-FM-Synth appears at E/A 100-103, but E/A 100-CF7 is also used by the 'PCI-Bus'. This is not normal, because E/A ranges cannot be used from different devices simultaneously.
(Note: E/A is the same as I/O in English Windows versions.)

It seems to be, that your motherboard BIOS is not able to recognize EWS64+AWE+Adaptec correctly at the moment.

Four weeks ago I had similar problems with my own computer, which is very similar to your computer: BX-board + EWS64 + Terratec Base 1 (ISA sound card) + Adaptec 3940 UW.
I had the following errors:
1. The EWS64 BIOS messages for Codec, synth and MIDI2 were not shown any longer at the bootup as they did before
2. All my SCSI HDs and the CD-ROM/CD-Writer appeared at 'ASYN - HD0,HD1' etc. at the Adaptec Boot sequence ('ASYN' had never been shown before for any device)

It took two weeks until I was able to fix these problems - I nearly drove crazy....
Finally I succeeded doing the following steps - you should try the same:
1. I built-out both sound cards - only the graphic adapter and the Adaptec controller remained on the motherboard
2. I restarted the computer and went into the motherboard BIOS. At the menue item 'PNP/PCI CONFIGURATION' of my Gigabyte board is a setting called 'RESET CONFIGURATION DATA' with four possible settings: DISABLED/ESCD/DMI/BOTH. I activated 'BOTH', saved the new settings and made a reboot with a bootable Floppy disk.
Now all my SCSI devices where shown correctly (without 'ASYN') as they did before.
3. I made a new Windows installation and used 'F5' to install a Standard-PC (without ACPI).
4. I replaced the Windows Adaptec driver with the origin driver from the Adaptec server.
5. Then I installed the graphic driver.
6. Then I built-in the EWS64, made a reboot via a bootable Floppy disk including EWS64CFG.EXE and reprogrammed the EEPROM again.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
The reprogramming of the EWS64 EEPROM is successful only, if there is no other ISA device (in my case the Base 1) connected to the computer! With a build-in Base 1 a reprogramming of the EWS64 EEPROM settings is never successful!!! This could be the same with your AWE or any other ISA card!
7. I rebooted the computer via Floppy disk: Now the BIOS showed again the EWS64 ressources for Codec, Synth and MIDI2 incl. the IRQ and DMA ressources.
8. I restarted Windows and installed the EWS64 successfully. Please check at this point, if you now still have the unusually high CPU usage. In this case you should reboot via Floppy disk and assign IRQ 15 to the Codec via EWS64CFG.EXE. The BIOS setting 'On-Chip Secondary PCI IDE' has to be disabled first!
9. Now restart Windows and check again the CPU usage. If everything is fine now, continue with step 10, otherwise make a new posting.
10. Finally you should build-in the AWE and install it after the next Windows start. After the next reboot it should be working fine too.

That's all for the moment,
good luck
Werner

[captainp]

Hi
thanks for the long Post.

My Adaptec Card has two Channels which means it is recognized as two independent Cards.
Both Cards (AWE and EWS) are shown on Boot.
Why did W2k not mark the Codec Driver with a conflikt sign?

to 6.: Thats why I got an error message saying there are Interup Conflikts when Programming the EEPROM.
Thats why some settings where gone after restarting the EEPROM Program.

I will try some more....

[Werner_O]

My Adaptec 3940 UW is also a (PCI-onboard) Dual-Channel-SCSI-Controller with two independant channels (A and B). In Windows 9x/W2k/XP it appears as two different devices, but it takes only ONE IRQ (which is shared with the AGP-card in my PC) and ONE E/A (E800-E8FF)!

Normally this should be the same with your BX-Board + Adaptec Card. I think, you first should fix THIS problem.
You should try the following steps using a bootable Floppy disk:
1. Remove all PCI/IDE-Cards from your computer.
2. Enter the BIOS and make a 'RESET CONFIGURATIOM DATA' (with parameter 'BOTH' if possible).
3. Now build-in the Adaptec card and watch the BIOS messages: Only one IRQ should be assigned to this 'Mass storage controler'. You can ignore IRQ 14, because this is your primary IDE-channel and not the Adaptec card.
4. If it doesn't (still 2 IRQs), you should enter the BIOS again and repeat 'RESET CONFIGURATIOM DATA' (with parameter 'BOTH' if possible).
5. At the next reboot the Adaptec Card should use only one IRQ. If it doesn't, please make a new posting at this place.

To 6:
Keep this in mind for any future EWS64 EEPROM changes.

To E/A 100-103 for the Codec:
I've made a fresh XP-Installation (not finished until now, just the basics) and I also have a PCI-Device at E/A 100-CF7. I still don't know, if this is a real error. I'll post information to this later.

Regards
Werner

[Werner_O]

First of all two corrections of my last posting:

A. The two SCSI channels of my AHA 3940 use DIFFERENT address ranges (E/A in German or I/O in English) under XP: E800-E8FF and EC00-ECFF
Nevertheless my AHA 3940 UW uses only one IRQ for both channels simultaneously.
B. At 1. I wanted to say 'Remove all PCI/ISA-Cards...'.

Last notes:
I finished my new XP basic installation incl. all hardware (EWS64XL, Base 1, GeForce 2 MX, Voodoo 2, 3COM 905B LAN card etc.) and XP-SP2.
The Task Manager now shows a CPU usage of 1-2% on my system with a PIII-600 and 512 MB RAM, when no program is running.

The E/A (I/O) address sharing of the EWS64 Codec FM-Synth (100-103) and the unknown PCI device 'PCI-Bus' (100-CF7) doesn't make any trouble as it seems for the first moment.
After installing Cubase and Co. I will know more...

Regards
Werner

[captainp]

Hi
that my adaptec takes two IRQs seems to be alright.
If I access the Bios of the card I have the Choice between channel A and B.
Under details channel A shows IRQ 9 assignt.
Channel B shows IRQ 4.
I can not change this.

I will try first without new installation of w2k since it has been running without Problems for more than a year.

That your taskmanager shows CPU usage under XP is afaik normal since your CPU is only a P3 600
I have a 1,4Ghz CPU.
Thats why the 10% spooked me.

I will try this weekend some more and will post the results.