• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

IBM PS/2 Model 76 - Parallel port interrupt?

S

southbird

Experienced Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2009
Messages
316
I have an external parallel port driven sound device which I want to use on a PS/2 in lieu of an internal sound card, but it needs an IRQ to work. At this point it appears that the LPT1 port is port 3BCh and no interrupt. I've gone into the setup and don't see an option for that. (COM ports however very clearly can be assigned.) Can it use an interrupt? Is the option in the setup but just vague?
 
Could you perhaps tell us a bit more about this particular sound device? AFAIK, most parallel port audio solutions are simply dumb DACs that just convert anything you send to the I/O ports to analog signals. They generally don't make use of IRQs.
 
digger said:
Could you perhaps tell us a bit more about this particular sound device? AFAIK, most parallel port audio solutions are simply dumb DACs that just convert anything you send to the I/O ports to analog signals. They generally don't make use of IRQs.
Click to expand...

The driver actually specifically requests it, i.e. "I can talk to it, but I can't find its interrupt, so I'm not going to install." For what it's worth, it will also provide SoundBlaster emulation which WILL need an interrupt. I don't know if disabling the DMA will fix anything, and I further don't know if IRQ7 actually is assigned to the port, perhaps just unspecified. (FWIW, Windows is suggesting it doesn't have one.)
 
Not sure which version of Windows you're in and I *should* remember all the IRQs from the a+ test but I don't anymore. You should be able to see them though with msd.exe if you're running Microsoft dos or maybe winmsd.exe depending on what version of Windows you're in.
 
barythrin said:
Not sure which version of Windows you're in and I *should* remember all the IRQs from the a+ test but I don't anymore. You should be able to see them though with msd.exe if you're running Microsoft dos or maybe winmsd.exe depending on what version of Windows you're in.
Click to expand...

Well the DEFAULT LPT1 IRQ is 7. And according to MSD.EXE, it detects LPT1 on IRQ7 as "yes"; but mind you, MSD makes some assumptions, such as the only thing that could be on IRQ 5 is LPT2!

And FYI Windows is 95. If I manually change the configuration of the Parallel port such that it has IRQ 7 (autodection gives it only a port address, no IRQ), it seems to do nothing, i.e. Windows boots and parallel port seems okay, but sound driver continues to assert that it can't find the parallel port's IRQ.
 
southbird said:
The driver actually specifically requests it, i.e. "I can talk to it, but I can't find its interrupt, so I'm not going to install." For what it's worth, it will also provide SoundBlaster emulation which WILL need an interrupt. I don't know if disabling the DMA will fix anything, and I further don't know if IRQ7 actually is assigned to the port, perhaps just unspecified. (FWIW, Windows is suggesting it doesn't have one.)
Click to expand...

But what exactly is it? Does it have a brand and model name? Does the driver mention any? Can you show us a screenshot of the device?
 
digger said:
But what exactly is it? Does it have a brand and model name? Does the driver mention any? Can you show us a screenshot of the device?
Click to expand...

Not sure how it'll help, but here it is; known as the PORT*ABLE SOUND, made by DigiSpeech Inc who were later bought out by DSP Solutions (or the other way around, I can't remember, but DSP is the one claiming credit for the device in the driver.)

And for the record, disabling the DMA changed nothing; not that I expected it would, as the driver claims it can communicate with the device, it just can't find the interrupt, and Windows seems to agree that there's no interrupt to be had...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top