This software package contains the drivers for Windows 95, Windows 3.1 and DOS. For Windows 95 users, please refer to the "Windows 95" section. For Windows 3.1X/DOS users, please refer to the "Windows 3.1X/DOS" section. This text file provides the latest information of the drivers and a quick installation guide. Please refer to the user's guide for more information ========================== General Information ========================== - Three-in-one: drivers for DOS, Windows 3.1X and Windows 95 are all in the same diskette. Installation is easy and simple. - DOS and Windows 3.1X driver are both installed through the Windows installer. Installation procedure is self-explanatory and easy to follow. - Driver uninstall utility is provided for Windows 95, Windows3.1X and DOS. This ensures an issue-free re-installation if it is needed. - Hot-key support in Windows 95 DOS box (in Sound Blaster mode). A feature that comes in handy when the Windows mixer is not available. - Microsoft DirectSound support. This enriches the Windows games experience. ========================== What's NEW in this release ========================== - Hardware resources information: use sndtune.exe to check the data is valid or not. Especially, when yellow exclamation mark is shown on Sound/Audio device in the device manager of system/control panel or the system does not request users to provide Windows 95 drivers after the audio card plug-in to PC ISA slot, then it is strongly recommended to run sndtune.exe in MS-DOS mode. Either Windows 95 or DOS/Windows 3.x, if users find something abnormal, please use sndtune.exe to reconfigure hardware resources information. This utility program can not be run in DOS BOX or MS-DOS prompt of Windows 3.x or Windows 95. =========== Windows 95 =========== 1. DRIVER INSTALLATION Insert the sound card into your system and power on the computer. Windows 95 will detect the sound card and prompt you for the driver. Insert the driver diskette into the floppy drive. Windows 95 will step through the installation procedure. Notes: - The 82C931 is a Plug-and-Play audio device. It consists of a number of logical devices that could be detected and reported by Windows 95. These devices are: . Gameport Joystick : Joystick interface . OPTi Plug-N-Play MPU-401 : MPU-401 interface . OPTi Plug-N-Play Sound System : Audio device . (optional) Standard IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller - If there is no audio device installed in the system before, Windows 95 would prompt user to insert the Windows 95 CD to add related audio utilities (like volume control, sound recorder, etc.) into your system. 2. RESOURCE RECONFIGURATION The 82C931 sound device is a fully Plug-N-Play device. Windows 95 can detect its available resources and allocate them on-the-fly in the installation sequence. In some rare cases, however, resource conflict could occur and it is flagged by the yellow exclamation mark shown at the Device Manager of the Windows 95. To resolve the conflict, click on the SYSTEM icon in the Control Panel folder and choose Device Manager. From Device Manager, double click the "Sound, video and game controller" category and the list of installed devices will be displayed. Double click on the device with yellow exclamation mark. Choose Resource. Determine the conflict cause thru the hints shown in the "Conflicting device lists". Change the resource (e.g. I/O address, DMA, IRQ) accordingly. The resource setting will be reconfigured. 3. AUDIO CONFIG IN WINDOWS 95's DOS BOX The audio device's configuration is valid in both Windows 95 and dos box. The majority of the audio applications should be running fine in DOS box. It was found, however, that certain soundblaster games could launch from dos box but failed to produce digital sound or FM music. These games could not use the pre-assigned resources but intead expect the popular soundblaster settings,i.e., IRQ=5 DMA=1 I/O=220h. As a result, the resource mismatch causes the problem. To correct it, make sure the games' setting match the assignment shown at Device Manager. To find out what resources are currently assigned to the sound card, proceed to open the properties box associated with the "OPTi Plug-N-Play Sound System" (Control Panel / Device Manager, under "Sound, video and game controller" category) and select the Resource tab. The third I/O Address range in the Resources box is used for DOS games. The first Direct Memory Access is used for playback. We recommend you select the following resources: Input/Output Range: 220 Interrupt request: 5 or 7 Direct Memory Access: 0 or 1 Choose these resources as appropriate and select OK. The Device Manager will dynamically configure the hardware to use the resources you've selected. At this point, you may setup your DOS game with the settings which you have just chosen. 4. MPU-401 WAVETABLE CONFIGURATION if you have a wave table device on board or attached to your sound card, you should follow the recommended steps listed above but check on the "OPTi Plug-N-Play MPU-401" device settings instead. You may need to write down its current settings which might be needed for enabling the general MIDI support in some DOS games. 5. HELPFUL SETTINGS FOR DOS GAMES To ensure an ideal environment for DOS games, it is recommended that you modify the Idle Sensitivity property of the DOS Game environment to High. To do this, press the ALT+ENTER keys to change to a DOS Box Window (if not already in a Windowed session) and click on the top left hand corner of the DOS Box Window. A drop down menu will appear and at which point you should select Properties. Select the Misc tab and proceed to modify the aforementioned property. When you are playing DOS games in DOS box, you can use hot keys to adjust the volume: -Alt + Shift + PageUp : Turn up master volume -Alt + Shift + PageDown : Turn down master volume -Alt + Shift + End : Mute/unmute master volume 6. AUDIO SUPPORT UNDER REAL MODE DOS In Windows 95, the audio driver is requested and installed automatically after the plug-and-play sound card is plugged in. After the driver is successfully installed, user would need to run the following to install the DOS configuration utility, SNDINIT.EXE, which is USED to initialize the sound card for audio application in real mode DOS. To install this utility, insert the 82C931 Drivers Installation diskette in the floppy driver. Click on "Start" and choose "run". Type "a:SETUP.EXE" The InstallShield Wizard will guide you through the installation of the DOS cofiguration utilities for 82C931. Note: The resources setting in real mode DOS is independent of the settings in Windows 95. So you can configure your sound card DOS resource separately. Type SNDINIT.EXE under DOS prompt, the DOS resource configuration user interface will be brought up. You can select the resources, adjust volume settings, and do sound test to see if the resources or the settings are OK. The command options of SNDINIT.EXE: /? - Show all the command options /b - Setup and initialize the sound card in batch mode. None - When no option is specified, it will activate the configuration program. Use this program to change the settings of your sound card. ================ Windows 3.1X/DOS ================ 1. DRIVER INSTALLATION Insert the sound card into your system and power on the computer. Bring up Windows 3.1, and insert this installation diskette to your floppy drive, then go to Program Manager | File | Run, select the SETUP.EXE file in the diskette. The InstallShiled Wizard will guide you through the installation process and install the Windows 3.1X/DOS drivers and utilities. Your AUDOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS will be changed for using sound card under DOS environment. Please refer to the user's manual for more details. The InstallShiled Wizard will create an "82C931 Application" group in Windows 3.1. This consists of audio programs and utilities. 2. RESOURCE RECONFIGURATION During the driver installation, the installation program interfaces with the system BIOS and chooses a set of available resources for audio device. These resource settings could be modified later by using the configuration program. The resource settings in Windows 3.1X and DOS are independent of each other. The following describes the steps to go through for reconfiguring resource setting in Windows 3.1X and in DOS mode: In Windows 3.1, go to Program Manager | Control Panel | Drivers. Select "OPTi 82C931 Audio Driver". Click on Setup, the configuration dialogue box will be brought up. Changing the setup would cause the Windows 3.1 to restart to make the new resources take effect. In DOS environment, change to 82C931 directory and run SNDINIT.EXE. The DOS configuration interface will be brought up. You can change thge hardware settings, perform sound test to see if the setting works out properly, or adjust the volume settings. The command options of SNDINIT.EXE: /? - Show all the command options /b - Setup and initialize the sound card in batch mode. None - When no option is specified, it will activate the configuration program. Use this program to change the settings of your sound card.None However, when Intel's CM (Config Manager) is present, you need to use ICU to change the sound card resources. 3. AUDIO CONFIG UNDER WINDOWS 3.1X's DOS BOX The audio device's configuration is valid in both Windows 3.1X and dos box. The majority of the audio applications should be running fine in DOS box. It was found, however, that certain soundblaster games could launch from dos box but failed to produce digital sound or FM music. These games expect the popular soundblaster settings, i.e., IRQ=5 DMA=1 I/O=220h. If the config in Windows 3.1X is set differently, the resource mismatch would cause the problem. If you want to play DOS games in Windows 3.1X' DOS box, please note: 1) Make sure the game's settings match the ones in Windows 3.1X. 2) Sometimes, the Setup of the PIF file of a DOS game is crucial. To make a game work effectively under Windows, you probably have to try a few alternative options through PIF editor. 3) Not all of the DOS games can run in Windows' DOS BOX. Please refer to games' user manual for suggestions. If the issue persists, try to launch the game in pure DOS mode. 4. MPU-401 WAVETABLE CONFIGURATION If you have a wave table device on board or attached to your sound card, please make sure in the configuration dialogue, the MPU401 interface is on. You may want to write down its settings for configuring the general MIDI setup in the DOS games.