AudioDrive ES1488 OS/2 Driver
Version 1.00
Software Release Notes
April 4, 1996
About This Release
ESS Technology is providing OS/2 drivers for the AudioDrive
ES1488 chip in this Software Release.
This document provides:
- a description of the changes to the drivers
- installation notes
Please read this document completely before you upgrade your
system, and follow the instructions carefully.
Release Information
Product: AudioDrive ES1488 OS/2 Device Driver,
Version 1.00
Drivers: ES1488 (with OPL2)
OS: OS/2 Warp 3.0
Part Number:
Release Date: April 4, 1996
Release Description
The AudioDrive ES1488 OS/2 Driver Software Release incorporates
the following features.
Version 1.00 Features
APM support
The OS/2 driver supports Advanced Power Management (APM). It is
recommended that users stop audio applications before putting
the system into Suspend mode.
Device sharing between OS/2 and WINOS2
The audio device can be shared between Windows applications and
OS/2 under an exclusive sharing arrangement. If the device is
not currently being used by an OS/2 application, when Windows
runs an audio application, Windows will own the audio device
until the Windows application (or session) is terminated. Then
ownership will pass to the next application requesting it (OS/2
or Windows). This all occurs while maintaining the state of the
device for all applications.
Input monitoring
Input source monitoring during non-recording time is
implemented. However, there are some limitations to this
feature due to the design of MMPM/2. When Digital Audio comes
up, the default microphone input source is used. If you want to
switch to line in, you must start recording to send the
information down to the driver. Note that ES1488 does not
support input monitoring during recording.
Known Problems
1. Opening too many MIDI files makes the OS/2 system unstable.
This problem is related to MMPM/2 and depends on system
resource. On systems with 8 Mbs memory, the limit is 3;
16 Mbs, 6.
2. Tempo in MIDI files may not be 100% accurate due to timing
delay and MMPM/2 architecture.
3. Running MCI commands "seek wave to #" and then "play wave" to
a 16-bit wave file sometimes generates very loud static
noise. Likewise using "record wave from #" to record a
16-bit wave file may generate wrong file. It all depends on
the seek position.
Installation Notes
To install the new drivers successfully the following steps must
be taken:
1. Open an OS/2 Window and run the EINSTALL.EXE program on the
installation disk by typing "A:EINSTALL." The program first
runs ESDETECT.EXE to auto-detect the chip, then calls
ESUNINST.EXE to remove old drivers. That program will create
a backup of CONFIG.SYS named CONFIG.ESS and remove the audio
device lines from CONFIG.SYS. It also creates a backup of
MMPM2.INI named MMPM2.ESS and removes the audio drivers
information from MMPM2.INI. In addition, it removes any
other ESS driver information in COMPLIST.INI. After then,
the installation program calls Multimedia Application Install
program, MINSTALL.EXE.
2. When Multimedia Application Install program brings up, a
check mark beside AudioDrive ES1488 means that item is
already selected. To toggle selection, click the mouse on
the item. If WinOS2 is installed in the system, you can
select WinOS2/Windows Audio support also. If not, make sure
that item is not checked. Click the Install button to start
the installation. Once the drivers are installed, shutdown
OS/2 and reset the computer for the new ES1488 drivers to
take effect.
3. Since this version of MINSTALL.EXE changes the icons of MIDI
player and Digital Video player to that of Digital Audio
player in the Multimedia folder, you may want to change them
back to the originals. To change the icon of MIDI player,
right click MIDI player to bring up the menu. Select
Settings, select General, and click the Find... button. In
the Start Folder window, enter \MMOS2\INSTALL. Click the
Find button and a window of all found icons appears. Select
MIDIPLAY.ICO and click OK. Close the MIDI player Settings
notebook. For Digital Video player, repeat the above steps
but select VIDPLAY.ICO instead.
4. If the MIDI plays are not smooth in WinOS2, you need to
change the timer resolution. Edit SYSTEM.INI in your Windows
directory. Under [timer.drv] are TIMERMax386Res and
TIMERMax286Res. You need to change the values to less than 8
from the default of 10.
These are the files copied to your hard disk:
\MMOS2
ES1488DD.SYS
VAUDDRV.SYS
\MMOS2\DLL
CARDINFO.DLL
ESSVSD88.DLL
WININST.DLL
WINRES.DLL
\MMOS2\HELP
ES1488IN.HLP
\OS2\BOOT
CLOCK01.SYS
CLOCK02.SYS
TIMER0.SYS
\WINDOWS
AUDDRIVE.HLP
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM
AUDMPIO.DRV
ES1488WN.386
ES1488WN.DRV
MIDIMAP.CFG
MSMIXMGR.DLL