GUS Daily Digest Fri, 28 Jan 94 0:07 Volume 10: Issue 28 Today's Topics: //dram DRAM Speed DRAM grounding, S3M players? DRAM Speed (3 msgs) DRAM static/CompUSA static DUNE2 and MEGAEM EPIC Megagames Further OPTi Info GUS0013.ZIP GUS Daily Digest V10 #26 Joystick Port/Gravis Gamepad Miles Drivers Mod type players.... Mtm's from ASM-93... Multi-bank ultrasnd.ini and new drivers Problem with the PatchMaker-Lite Windows-Drivers Shadowcaster UMC Hardwire fix Where else to get GUS0013.zip? Standard Info: - Meta-info about the GUS can be found at the end of the Digest. - Before you ask a question, please READ THE FAQ. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 09:38:19 -0500 (EST) From: David Bowden Subject: Re: //dram DRAM Speed Joe Cheng writes: >One quick question about dram speeds, the guy at CompUSA said that it >takes about 15 minutes for you to ground by holding onto the chassis, >unless you have a 'special' grounding circuit, and that improper handling of the dram will decrease the speed of it. Any verifications? >>Joe If you've ever gotten a "shock" from shuffling your feet across a carpet on a rainy day, then touching a metal object or anpother person then you have persoal experience re: how long it takes to ground youreslf. That "shock" was the built -up static electricity jumping from tyou to the grounded object. That "shock" is also what DESTROYS (not decreases the speed of, unless you count an infinite wait as a "decreae") the chips. Unfortunately, I haven't found the general CompUSA employesse to be as knowledgable as I would wish, (with the occasional happy exception), but this guy must be smoking something! Go ahead and install your DRAM yourself, the only special grounding circuit I have ever heard of is a strap which you wear so that you are constantly grounbded, and don't have to hold onto a good ground. Just a note - your pwower supply is only a good ground if it's PLUGGED IN! :) David (dsbowden@vela.acs.oakland.edu) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 13:44:23 EST From: "Scott C. Savett" Subject: DRAM grounding, S3M players? In yesterday's post, someone asked for verification of a statement made by a CompUsa tech person regarding grounding and chip speeds. I cannot see how it could take 15 minutes to achieve a good ground through the chassis of the computer. Just leave the computer plugged into the wall (to ensure a ground) put leave the power switch off. Touch any of the frame rails or the metal cover of the power supply frequently while working to discharge any static you may accumulate. It also helps to work on a day when the humidity is higher. If you do 'zap' a chip with static, the chip might be fried. Imagin 10,000 volts, even for a short time, running through a device meant for 5 volts. On another note: a question about S3M players. I have my GUS happily working in a DTK 286. I have no problems play .MID, .669, .WAV, and .SND files. BUT, it refuses to play .S3M files no matter what player I use. I got ENJOYS3M.ZIP and S3M_PL2.ZIP from ORST archives. Neither of them will play. Instead, they lock my computer and require a hard boot. Am I missing something? Is a 386 needed for this? Thanks... Scott C. Savett, happy GUS owner SCSAVETT@ACAD.URSINUS.EDU ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 94 09:54:21 EST From: "Burns Fisher, VMS Engineering 27-Jan-1994 0957" Subject: Re: DRAM Speed Joe Cheng write: > >One quick question about dram speeds, the guy at CompUSA said that it >takes about 15 minutes for you to ground by holding onto the chassis, >unless you have a 'special' grounding circuit, and that improper handling >of the dram will decrease the speed of it. Any verifications? > Sure sounds like BS to me. I can't imagine why a wrist strap is any more efficient in draining static electricity than just touching the chassis (except that it is continuous, whereas you might let go of it with your hand. And I've never heard of static "slowing down" a chip. It either fails, partially fails (in logic, not speed), or it works. I could be wrong here. I suppose it is possible for a zap to change some dielectric somewhere, thus changing the capacitance on some data lines, but... Burns ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 94 10:39:49 MST From: tschmidt@pefs1.micron.com (Tom Schmidt) Subject: Re: DRAM Speed Regarding Joe Cheng's post in the 26 Jan 1994 GUS general digest: > From: Joe Cheng > Subject: DRAM Speed > > One quick question about dram speeds, the guy at CompUSA said that it > takes about 15 minutes for you to ground by holding onto the chassis, > unless you have a 'special' grounding circuit, and that improper handling > of the dram will decrease the speed of it. Any verifications? The guy at CompUSA apparently doesn't know what he is talking about. Fifteen minutes is bogus. It only takes a split second for the human body's ESD (ElectoStatic Discharge) to equilibrate with the computer chassis. You can get special grounding straps that basically connect your wrist to the chassis through a 1M ohm resistor, but just holding onto the chassis with one hand while using the free hand to work on the PC is OK. The advantage of the wrist strap is that you have both hands free, plus you are not a dead short to the chassis because of the resistor in case the chassis accidently becomes charged with 120VAC. As far as the damage that ESD can do to DRAMs and other components, it can cause a variety of failures. Most common is blowing the circuitry on an input or output pin(s). This can cause an immediate failure, or a latent failure that may not show up for years. It most likely will not cause the DRAM to slow down (at least not more that a couple nanoseconds). _____ ___ Tom L. Schmidt | | / \ Manager - Component Characterization | | \___ Micron Semiconductor, Inc. | | \ 2805 E. Columbia Rd. Mail Stop 376 | |____\___/ Boise, ID 83709-9698 tschmidt@pefs1.micron.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 10:43:43 +1030 (CST) From: Gavin Subject: Re: DRAM Speed Joe Cheng writes.. >the guy at CompUSA said that it takes about 15 minutes for you to ground by >holding onto the chassis.. What a wally, how do these people get their jobs? We're lucky not to have CompUSA here but we do have similar. The special grounding circuit he talked about is your finger, you can even lick it first to provide better conduction. The important thing is that you should be at the same potential as the GUS board, so just touch the metal case of the power supply (with the power off), you'll be grounded as fast as the speed of light, taking into account your velocity factor it may even take 10 nanoseconds. Make sure you leave you finger on the ground whilst inserting the chip. I am assuming you are using a grounded system (ie 3 pin plug) >and that improper handling of the dram will decrease the speed of it Yep, you could make it infinitely slow, ie. blow it up. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 94 07:26:57 EST From: Stuart Hancock Subject: DRAM static/CompUSA static ...An interesting post about the static problem with the DRAM as stated by the CompUSA guy. 1. As many people will no doubt note, the CompUSA guy must have just emerged from a rope-smoking session in the back room. 2. The idea that static discharge from one's person would take "fifteen minutes or so unless you have a special grounding circuit" was probably acquired while he was getting his engineering Master's degree prior to coming to work for CompUSA ('nuff said). 3. Improper handling of any RAM, D- or otherwise, will in virtually all cases result in a discrete result -- i.e., "Hey, it still works!", or "Hey! This is busted!", not "Gee, I shouldna handled my 70-nano RAM so carelessly - now it's up to 74 nanoseconds! Rats!" etc. etc. 4. "Specialized grounding equipment" like, a radiator, for example, or almost any other hunk of metal in the house with reasonable grounding possibilities (Fridge, sink, table saw (watch the blade), or wife, husband, other human holding onto/touching same objects. 5. In my experience, it is VERY DIFFICULT to kill RAM of any type. I have mishandled the hell out of many, many RAM chips, and the stuff appears to be very durable. On the other hand, I also don't deliberately scuff my feet on the carpet on cold, dry winter days and run for the parts bin... Regards.... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 19:54:59 +0100 (MET) From: richard ritsma Subject: DUNE2 and MEGAEM Hi, there It take's a big time to test megaem 2.02 with DUNE2 but nothing works. I want to use megaem with DUNE2 and configure dune 2 to soundblaster AND MT32 but it only accepts one soundcard to do two things. Is ther someone who knows the dune.cfg contents in hex? for soundblaster and ROLAND-MT32?? Thanks... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 15:54:54 -0500 (EST) From: elminstr@hudlink.hoboken.nj.us (Jj pierson) Subject: EPIC Megagames I'm suprised I didn't see any messages here in the digest about how Epic Megagames went back on thier GUS support promises. Zone 66 is their only game that supports the GUS. Their new game Xargon only supports the SB. ----------- elminstr@hudlink.hoboken.nj.us (Jj pierson) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 09:50:39 -0800 (PST) From: david.roberts@amd.com (Dave Roberts) Subject: Re: Further OPTi Info > Date: Wed, 26 Jan 1994 17:40:44 MST > From: "Dean C. Johnson" > Subject: Re: Yesterday's OPTi chipset explanation. (for Dave Roberts) > > Yesterday Dave Roberts did an excellent job clearing up the > motherboard incompatibility problem. (realy the UMC 82C206 > problem) Thank you. :-) > I tried to FTP to theoris.rz.uni-konstanz.de get the file gus0013.zip > that explains how to fix the problem by soldering a resistor to the > mother board. I get a *UNKOWN USER NAME* error though. I'm > used *anonymous* as my user name and either *anonymous* or my > e-mail address as my password. Why can't I log on? Does any one > know? I don't know. Supposedly this site is just for European use. Somehow, I was able to get in the other day, though. That was the only place I could find gus0013.zip. All the North American FTP sites didn't have it for one reason or another. Notably, archive.orst.edu has some, but not all GUS files and the Index files are terribly out of date. I actually didn't try nctuccca.edu.tw because I found it at theoris first. > I avoided buying an OPTi chipset motherboard, so I got a UMC one. I > could not have done worse. AAARRGHH! Here's some more information about this. I talked to my friend who worked at OPTi and he said that once OPTi found out about this problem they started to add the pull down resistor into their own motherboard designs. They give these designs away as examples to motherboard designers. Many companies copy them verbatim, however. As it so happens, I bought a new motherboard the other day and installed it last night. I got one with an OPTi chipset and a Taiwanese '206 on it (presumably UMC manufactured) on the condition that I could return it if the bug was present (I described the situation to them). I took it home and the GUS worked fine (I'm going to return it because the CMOS keeps wiping itself, but the GUS is great! :-) ). This means one of two things: (1) UMC fixed the problem or (2) I got a board with the resistor already designed in. I know my board is an OPTi design. Now, I don't know if UMC (who also designs a lot of boards) has incorporated the fix into their boards or has addressed the problem at the chip level (or both, or neither). > Is the fix that is described in the above mentioned file just as valid for > UMC chipset motherboards as OPTi chipset motherboards that use > that UMC 82C206 chip? Yes. > Yesterdays post mentioned checking to see if the NMI is disabled. > (?? Non-Maskable Interrupt ??) How do I check this, how could this be > a problem , and is it reverseable? Run SBOS. It will tell you very quickly if it's disabled (it'll print a message effectively saying that on the screen). If it is disabled, you *may* be able to enable it by going into your BIOS setup and turning parity checking on. Some motherboards are very defective, however, this won't work. Take these back! They are not AT compatible. There is another Gravis tech note that describes the problem and you should show that to your dealer if he gives you any guff. But again, just run SBOS. If it doens't complain, you're clean. Dave Roberts Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. I/O and Network Products Division david.roberts@amd.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 13:30:20 -0800 (PST) From: david.roberts@amd.com (Dave Roberts) Subject: GUS0013.ZIP I've uploaded the GUS0013.ZIP file to the submit directory of epas since it's unavailable on any North American site and konstanz is supposed to be for European users. GUS0013.ZIP contains the Gravis technote that describes the "OPTi Motherboard Problem". That is all... Dave Roberts Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. I/O and Network Products Division david.roberts@amd.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 01:05:01 -0700 (MST) From: "Shawn T. Rutledge" Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V10 #26 > Its an old offer, does anyone have an email address for Howling Dog Systems? They do read the programmers' digest. Try posting there. I sent some suggestions about Power Chords and they replied the next day. > I just got the new Windows Drivers (better late than never) as well as the > Xwing sound files from EPAS (xwngsnds.zip). I found out that I am missing > the Midi Patch tremstr.pat. It doesn't seem to be in any of my > installation disks (I checked v1.21 2.06L and 2.06a). I thought I > remember seeing this file on epas but it's not there, nor is it in any of > the mirrors. Does anyone know where I can get this patch? Are there any > Midi Libraries on the 'Net? It's a standard patch (#44, Tremolo Strings) and is included on the installation disks. > Date: Tue, 25 Jan 1994 21:42:33 -0500 > From: David A Denis > Subject: Voice Assist > > I borrowed Voice Assist from my roomate, and get can't get it to work. It is > for wINDOWs so I thought it would work fine. But, I click on it, and it > says SB card neeeded. I try to install th e SB drivers adn it won't work > at 220 and 7 IRQ. Its like it won't rwecognize it at all. Any ideas on how to get it to run? The roommate has an SB, right? I tried the same thing, with the same results. But I hear there is a version that works with all Windows-supported soundcards available, on epas I believe. -- _______ (_ | |_) shawn.rutledge@asu.edu __) | | \__________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 17:19:44 -0500 From: Dale Luther Bewley Subject: Joystick Port/Gravis Gamepad I had my Gravis Gamepad connected to my serial port and it worked fine w/ doom shareware ver. (most everything else for that matter) but when I play Doom reg. v1.1 it just goes in circles. So I decided to try the port on the GUS. Doom failed to find the joystick so I ran ultrajoy 1 then joycomp. Findcard would not work, and nothing would happen when I tried to calabrate. The red block would just flash around in the corner. I ran MSD.EXE (microsoft diagnostics) and under 'other adapters' it said no game adapter installed I believe. Someone please help me! :) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 15:29:46 +0800 (WST) From: b2502056@cc.ntu.edu.tw (b2502056) Subject: Miles Drivers Does somebody have Miles Driver V1.0 source code, which is a PD software, It was released by The Audio Solution and can find in their BBS. Would anybody send the software named DMKIT.ZIP and DGMID.ZIP to some ftp sites, like archive.epas.utoronto.ca /pub/pc/ultrasound/submit Thanks a lot for your help !! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 94 02:26:44 -0800 From: brian@ccnext.ucsf.edu (Brian Huddleston) Subject: Mod type players.... Greetings all, I just got the Sound site CD-Rom (I highly recommend this cd to anyone interested in MOD music) and it contains a other directory, which contains OCTAMEDS, OKTAMODS, and files with an ext of .PP. Does anyone know of any GUS players that support the formats? What exactly are these formats? Thanks.... brian@ccnext.ucsf.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 13:35:11 -0600 (CST) From: Siu-fung Lee Subject: Mtm's from ASM-93... I lost my disks of music, and I didn't get a chance to listen to the mtm files from Assembly '93. They don't seem to be available from ftp anymore. Can anyone send me those files, or put them on epas? Thanx. |\ /\ | Siu-Fung Lee University of Manitoba | \/ \| umlee182@cc.umanitoba.ca Student, Sleep-aholic, Sounds and Stories. Q: How many Mac users does it take to change a light bulb? A: None. They like to be left in the dark. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 18:04:07 From: T.Bolhuis@el.utwente.nl (Thijs Bolhuis) Subject: Multi-bank ultrasnd.ini and new drivers ---------- X-Sun-Data-Type: text X-Sun-Data-Description: text X-Sun-Data-Name: text X-Sun-Content-Lines: 18 X-Sun-Content-Length: 824 Hi, I've just played around with the GUS (1mB, vs 3.4) for a few weeks and I think I get the hang of it. When I saw that there were new windows drivers with which one can define multiple patch-banks ,I was delighted, because that's just what I needed. When trying to write midi songs, I needed quite different sounding basses,kickdrums,snares and self made samples. But f.i. in the patch manager and MIDIsoft Recording session I cannot get different banks. In Recording session you can select different banks, but I allways get the first one in the ULTRASND.INI. By the way several people are talking about ultramid.ini (read.me in pmak lite). Am I missing something here? Another Question: Is Cakewalk Pro working with the GUS as well as the demo? Hope to get some answers regards Thijs Bolhuis The Netherlands ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 10:31:02 +0100 (MET) From: Stefan Divijak Subject: Problem with the PatchMaker-Lite Windows-Drivers Hi there ! I've encountered a little (or should I write major) problem with the new GUS-windows-drivers included with the Patch-Maker-Lite 1.10. First of all they didn't want to produce any kind of midi-sound at all, but after a complete re-installation they worked just fine (I guess this was some kind of mistake I commited during my installation?). So beeing glad that I had my midi back, another problem occured. This new mixer-applet's 'SAVE'-button seems to be there just for fun! Pushing it does update the 'ultramix.ini' file located in my ULTRASND-directory, but whenever I restart windows these settings are just ignored and settings enabling the LINE- and MIC-IN connections are used. This is very nasty because it gives me a lot of noise through my speakers. In previous versions of the windows-drivers there has been a possibility to disable the inputs through the control-panel, but in this newest version they have been removed ?! Also changing the values in SYSTEM.INI in the section ULTRASND.DRV didn't bring any improvements, they also seem to be ignored. So please could anybody tell me if he had the same problems and what the correct solution is? (seems to me as if the new drivers didn't bring any enhancements compared to the ones in GUS0035.ZIP...? -:( ). Any help would be MUCH appreciated ! Peter Feldbaumer c/o Stefan Divjak ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 94 13:56:25 +0100 From: rock@POOL.Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE Subject: Shadowcaster Hi! Could someone please tell me if there is digital speech in the intro (when the father talks to his son ) ? I don't get any and wondered if that's alright. Especially with Origin... Thanx...Olli ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 20:35:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Roger Frederi Clark Subject: UMC Hardwire fix Someone in yesterday's digest asked if the OPTi fix is valid for the UMC chip. Well, this afternoon I performed the needed operation to pin 61 of the 82C206, placing a 1K resistor from pin 61 to +5v, and I now have working 16-bit DMA channels. It's wonderful to be able to load patches in half the time(for me at least). BTW it's a very delicate operation with the surface mount 82C206 chip, but some VERY careful soldering and a jumper and all work great. Thanks for all the help y'all. Roger Clark | /\ helios@strauss.udel.edu |/^^\ o "I'd rather be biking." University of Delaware | \ J\. Chemistry (and others) | \__O_<_O_______________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 10:42:25 -0500 (EST) From: "K.S. Holly" Subject: Where else to get GUS0013.zip? I think that theoris.rz.uni-konstanz.de is only accessable from Europe since I tried to FTP there and it said "no overseas access". Could someone please tell us UMC/OPTi owners where else we can get the OPTi fix GUS0013.zip? Can someone please upload to epas? Thanks Kevin ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V10 #28 *******************************