Isa Vs Pci

[Nightowl]

I have an old computer that I am goofing around with. It is an IBM 2162-S9C. I want to get the sound board up and running again. I was told to get a sound blaster 16, and if I had PCI slots to get one of those. So I found one on Ebay. Now my computer is the type that has the cd rom, and the diskett not in the tower, but it sits under the monitor. I put the sound card in, and found out that the board that is in there already was ISA. Now I can't get the plug to fit from the board to the sound blaster board. Did I get some bad info, and should of got an ISA sound card? I am really confused now. Does anyone know where on the net, I can get a schematic of this computer?

Richard

 

[raybay]

PCI should work, since you have PCI slots. But you may need to go to the control panel to disable the drivers or install of the old ISA unit... which will not be difficult if the old card has been removed.... but if integrated, you may require a bit more work... including a change in the BIOS at boot.
Doable, definitely.

 

[Nodsu]

What exactly do you mean by "can't get the plug to fit"?

Which sound card exactly did you get? Can you provide pictures? Can you provide pictures of your PCI slots?

PCI can work in 5V and 3.3V and both cards and slots are keyed to make sure you use right kinds of devices in right kinds of slots.

 

[Nightowl]

The cable that goes from the main board, to the soundblaster board is too small. The soundblaster board came with a new cable, and the ends are bigger. I tried to put the original cable into to soundblaster board, but the connection on the board will not accept the small plug. If I use the new cable, it fits the soundblaster board just fine, but is too large to be accepted into the socket of the cd rom board. I am assuming that any sound board that is replaced on this computer, must be ISA compatable, not PCI, so that the cable will fit. The modem that is in there now does work in the PCI slot. This computer is over 10 years old, but still works fine for a secondary computer.

 

[Nightowl]

I will try to get some pics of both boards, plus the old board I took out. I am not sure how to post pics on here tho.

Richard

 

[SNGX1275]

Click Go Advanced below the box where you can type, it brings up a new page, then under Additional Options you can choose manage attachments under Attach Files.

 

[zipperman]

Windows version Pleeeeeeeeeeze.
But i doubt you'll find any ISA hardware these days.
What do you have now ?
Are you doing this because you want Dos support for older software ?

 

[Nightowl]

I was just on ebay, and they have some soundblaster16 ISA boards on there. I did bid on one, but didn't get it. I will try again.

 

[Nightowl]

This is the main board that is in the computer tower. That is the cable that I was talking about in the above posts.

This is the board that was taken out. The cable from the main board fits into this board at the white socket. This board is bad.

This is the new board that I bought off of ebay. As you can see, it has the PCI configuration. The socket for the CD Rom is the middle socket. The socket is bigger than the one on the second picture. Using the cable that came with the new board, is fine, for the sound board, but where it has to plug into the white socket in the first picture, or main board, it is too large for it to plug in.

Thats why I was thinking that I will need a sound board with an ISA slot, instead of the PCI sound board. The main board cannot be changed. That board runs by cable to the cd rom, and diskett drive that is situated under the monitor.

This is the picture of the computer with the cd rom, and diskette counsel. In the back of the unit, a thick cable runs up to the tower, and plugs into the main board.

 

[Nodsu]

Wow.. Wth is that on the first picture? Looks like some addon card.. Maybe a hard drive or IO controller?

Anyway, the CD cable is rather unimportant - all newer OS and software can read audio from CDs digitally and the analog cable is just an extra noise source. It is pretty normal to have different plugs - you can use a knife and some tape to make yourself a suitable cable if you like (you'd have to figure out the wiring first, of course).

 

[Nightowl]

That is the card that I believe runs the cd rom, and also the diskett drives. I am not sure what else it is for, but I do know that the cable was hooked into the soundboard. Now if the one I have really doesn't need that cable, then I really don't have a problem. I thought it needed that cable, because thats the way the original was set up.

Richard

 

[Nightowl]

Thanks for the help, Nodsu. The sound board works perfect. Thanks for the advice about not needing that cable.

Richard

 

[Tedster]

I am quite sure the Aptiva used ISA.

 

[Nightowl]

They did, but they also used the PSI. I have both on my old computer. Now I didn't try a music cd on it yet to see if it will play, so I am not sure if this is the way it will stay. The psi card is working great, but I haven't tried it on music cd's as of yet. I am not sure if that cable is needed as it was on the old card, and if it is needed, then I will need to get an ISA sound card, and will put the PCI up for sale. I bought it off of ebay, and it was still in the sealed package. Good thing, because I needed the serial number off of the box to make it work, unless there is a way around the registering part. Even tho it is 11 years old, I still had to register it and put in the number before it would let me download the drivers off of the cd.

Richard

 

[Nodsu]

There is no certainty that the analog audio cable would fit in the ISA sound card unless you get exactly the same thing you had before. In those early days CD-ROMs were exclusive and rather proprietary gadgets.

 

[Nightowl]

Hi. No it doesn't and no way could. When I fire her up again, I will throw in a music cd to see if that works. If it comes down to the point that I may have to get an ISA board, so that cable will fit, then I may do that, but at least I got sound coming out of her now, but I just don't know about the music cd's yet.

Richard

 

[zipperman]

?

I guess you just makeing this a hobby,to see what you can accomplish.
But ISA is history as is early cdrom drives.
I'm not surprised the cdrom and sound card will not work without
floppy installation driver disks.
They create the config.sys and autoexec.bat files.
This is more of a Win3/Dos system.What OS are you useing,i can't find it.
Sorry if it was named somwhere.
Good mmx P3's complete go for very little bucks.
I've seen as low as $150 CDN.
And are guaranteed.
My mmx P3 cost my son $ 50 quite a few years ago.Maybe 10.
A great Xmas gift as i had something like you have.

 

[Nightowl]

It has windows 98. I am fine with what it does, but I also like to see what I can get out of it. Can you believe that in 1996, I bought this thing brand new for 2749.99. I found the receipt for it. I made alot less money back then also. I even got the IBM discount, as my brother in law worked there. How times have changed.

 

[Nodsu]

I don't see the point in ditching something only because it is old..
If it works the way you want, then there is no reason to throw it away.

There are tons of uses for ancient machines.. With original Pentium CPUs or less, you can even make the thing fanless (may need to downclock the CPU a bit) to have a silent appliance serving printers, files, personal webpages, old games, whatever.

 

[Nightowl]

Well the music cd's won't play in it, so I guess I need an ISA slot card so I can plug one board into the other. It was worth the try tho.

Richard

 

[Nodsu]

What software did you try? You may have to enable digital audio playback manually.

Digital playback may not be supported by your ancient CD-ROM drive. Maybe try a newer one?

 

[zipperman]

ISA sound cards need a driver install floppy disk.
This is written to config.sys and Autoexec.exe
Old ways still need old ways to use.
Get a new pci with driver floppy or cd,
their cheap.

 

[Nightowl]

Thats what I put in was a soundblaster 16 PCI. It was still shrink wrapped on the box. I put in the new drivers that came with the cd, but all I have is the sounds if you hit a link, or on start up or shutting down. That was more than what I had before, so thats why I thought the old ISA board I took out was bad. I still think that little cable needs to be plugged in, but I will need a sound card from an ISA slot board to do that. The plug in no way will plug into the pci board, and the new cable is too big to be plugged into the main board.

Richard

 

[Tedster]

I don't see the point in ditching something only because it is old..
If it works the way you want, then there is no reason to throw it away.

There are tons of uses for ancient machines.. With original Pentium CPUs or less, you can even make the thing fanless (may need to downclock the CPU a bit) to have a silent appliance serving printers, files, personal webpages, old games, whatever.

I agree. Even old computers are still useful for office applications. A word processor won't run any faster on a new machine. It might LOAD faster, but whoopee. once it runs, it waits for YOU!

 

[zipperman]

Volume control

Thats what I put in was a soundblaster 16 PCI. It was still shrink wrapped on the box. I put in the new drivers that came with the cd, but all I have is the sounds if you hit a link, or on start up or shutting down. That was more than what I had before, so thats why I thought the old ISA board I took out was bad. I still think that little cable needs to be plugged in, but I will need a sound card from an ISA slot board to do that. The plug in no way will plug into the pci board, and the new cable is too big to be plugged into the main board.

Richard

Is it on the Taskbar ? If not use run and type in sndvol32.
It may have all volumes disabled.Do your speakers have a volume control ?
SB also has other things installed to setup your sound.
Find Programs Creative on the start menu for devices like Creative diagnostics or speaker settings.I have Audigy 4 so i kind of forgot useing yours i had 10 years ago.
Did it have a manual.Read the cd for instruction files.