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Author Topic: Motherboard suggestions?  (Read 1472 times)

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thebrownshow

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Motherboard suggestions?
« on: April 15, 2004, 03:33:57 pm »
Greetings all, did a seach before posting this, didn't find anything, so I'll just ask away:

My arcade cab was great, running advancemenu and advancemame in DOS, until the damn PC inside decided to die on me.  So I replaced the motherboard and processor, and brought it back to life with one problem: no sound.

A few months and 5 sound cards later, I find out that my Asus A7N8X-X motherboard does not support the major "known-working" MAME soundcards under DOS, i.e. the Ensoniq Audio PCI, SB 16 PCI, SB PCI 128, etc.  

(see here: http://www.motherboard-forum.com/asus/Does_Asus_A7v8XX_support_NMI_568620.html)

So I'd like to replace my motherboard (again) with something that actually *works*.  I've got an Athlon 2600 processor that I'd like to keep, but if need be, I'll replace that with Intel and put my other board up on ebay.

So, finally getting to my question here:
What motherboards are KNOWN to work well with DOS and either an Ensoniq Audio PCI or a SB 16 PCI?



brained

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Re:Motherboard suggestions?
« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2004, 04:14:23 pm »
Hey man, --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type-- buying another mobo try this software out!.

http://www.ece.mcgill.ca/~vromas/vdmsound/

I've used it --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type-- in some mod tracking apps and it worked for me. You should give it a try.

BTW did you disabled the mobo's internal audio???


thebrownshow

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Re:Motherboard suggestions?
« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2004, 04:43:36 pm »
Thanks for the suggestion, but I'd actually rather buy a new motherboard and get this working the way it's supposed to work instead of trying all sorts of hacks and even more emulation.

And yes, I've tried all the simple fixes and whatnot, it's not a configuration problem.  PCI sound cards will NOT work in DOS with this board.  It's a hardware problem, and that's why I'd like to replace it.

I really just want to know what other boards people are using and find out which boards are KNOWN to work.

pmc

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Re:Motherboard suggestions?
« Reply #3 on: April 15, 2004, 10:08:51 pm »
I bought an MSI board and a 2.4GHz Thoroughbred last September at the advice of someone on this board. It's the K7N2G-L. I use both the onboard audio and video for MAME. Works great. No need for a PCI soundcard and the onboard video is good enough. But I don't know if the onboard audio will work in DOS since I use the Windows command line MAME.

With such a powerful CPU (you said you have a 2600), why not leave both DOS and your old SB16 behind?

thebrownshow

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Re:Motherboard suggestions?
« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2004, 11:04:56 pm »
Mainly because my cabinet is set up already, it worked great before my old board crashed.  I just need a new board.  I LIKE dos, I LIKE advancemenu and advancemame.  I LIKE the fast bootup time and just being able to kill the power without having to go through a shutdown process.

Sorry if I seem a little annoyed, I've been asking this same question on forums all over the place, and everyone keeps saying "Why DOS? Why not windows? Why not linux" instead of just saying "I use DOS too, and I have such-and-such motherboard and it works great."

I appreciate the alternatives though, just getting a bit frustrated.

Tiger-Heli

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Re:Motherboard suggestions?
« Reply #5 on: April 16, 2004, 09:04:25 am »
Like PMC said, I got a refurb (hit or miss, though) Shutttle AK38N motherboard from www.newegg.com and highly recommend it, but use the on-board audio and WinMAME so can't really answer your specific Q's.

Sorry.
It's not what you take when you leave this world behind you, it's what you leave behind you when you go. - R. Travis.
When all is said and done, generally much more is SAID than DONE.

kahlid74

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Re:Motherboard suggestions?
« Reply #6 on: April 16, 2004, 09:13:56 am »
You would be hard pressed to find newer motherboards that support PCI bridging in Dos.  Since I haven't seen many right now, your best bet is to talk to some motherboard manufacturer's and find out from them what boards they supply would work with DOS and PCI bridging.

SOmething to note, you are wasting a lot of processor power being in DOS.  As you said you have heard it time and time again, so you already know you are wasting good power, so I won't harp that.

Remember DOS has problems accessing memory more than 256 MB and that it has a lot of overhead when it comes to managing memory greater than 128 MB.

Realize all the extra power you get moving to an OS, you can watch videos on it, you can play PC games on it, and you can even watch DVD's on it.  

You are going to spend countless hours and money looking for a fix to your situation when quite simply you could take 3 hours and CHANGE your situation.


thebrownshow

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Re:Motherboard suggestions?
« Reply #7 on: April 16, 2004, 09:41:24 am »
Either way, won't I have to throw money at this problem?

If I get a new motherboard that actually supports PCI bridging, I can use my old setup.

If I use my exisiting hardware and do a new setup, I'll have to try something different, I've got an arcade montior using a J-Pac and Advancemame and Advancemenu on a GeForce 256.  If I want to run Windows, it's my understanding that I'll have to get an ArcadeVGA card, correct?

I'm just viewing this whole problem from a "If I'm going to have to buy SOMETHING, why not buy something that'll keep me from having to completely overhaul the whole darn thing?"

Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it.

Tiger-Heli

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Re:Motherboard suggestions?
« Reply #8 on: April 16, 2004, 11:06:28 am »
Either way, won't I have to throw money at this problem?

If I get a new motherboard that actually supports PCI bridging, I can use my old setup.

If I use my exisiting hardware and do a new setup, I'll have to try something different, I've got an arcade montior using a J-Pac and Advancemame and Advancemenu on a GeForce 256.  If I want to run Windows, it's my understanding that I'll have to get an ArcadeVGA card, correct?

I'm just viewing this whole problem from a "If I'm going to have to buy SOMETHING, why not buy something that'll keep me from having to completely overhaul the whole darn thing?"

Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it.
Couldn't you run advanceMAME for windows with your current graphics card?  (I gave up on trying to figure out AdvanceMAME, but I'm just asking?)
It's not what you take when you leave this world behind you, it's what you leave behind you when you go. - R. Travis.
When all is said and done, generally much more is SAID than DONE.

thebrownshow

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Re:Motherboard suggestions?
« Reply #9 on: April 16, 2004, 11:41:57 am »
Can I run advancemame and advancemenu FROM windows on my non-arcadevga graphics card?  I suppose I had always been under the assumption that running windows wasn't possible on my arcade monitor with my graphics card.

gtjoe

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Re:Motherboard suggestions?
« Reply #10 on: April 19, 2004, 10:55:19 pm »
Ebay.  You can probably find a used version of your old motherboard