Compatible PCI cards List? - Now: Problems with sam flex

Hi everyone :)

I'm getting a Sam Flex in the next couple of days and I have a question; Two PCI slots are spoken for (A Graphics card & a MK4 Catweasel Floppy and Keyboard controller).

That leaves me with one spare PCI slot, I was wondering what else is there That compatible with OS4.1?

Wizz.

@wizzard_o

Soundcards?

@Antique

I think the SAM has a pretty decent sound chip on-board.

I have one too (Sigmatel AC97refitted) but i need another soundcard in, otherwise i can't use my MT-32 MIDI device

Hello,

- PCI TV cards could be added with a SAM but ask to spirantho the models possible.
- Some newer GFX cards if you want to help hans for his developments.
- Wifi PCI, I don't know.

@wizzard_o

Check this site

http://www.acube-systems.biz/compatibility/compatibility_41.php

@Raziel

Quote:
Snap I have a Roland MT-32 as well connected to my sam440ep but I use a cheep USB midi adapter to connect it rather than a second sound card.

@Dwyloc

Yeh, but your onboard sound chip is superior to mine and i wouldn't want to loose quality when it comes to music playback (MIDI is awesome)

Already tried it with only the Sigmatel, but i can hear the difference as the quality is really shifted to the worse in comarision to the Terratec Aureon...so i never ever thought about leaving the card out and using that USB adaptor in the first place.

@wizzard_o

Thanks for the list, I have my Sam Flex but I'm having trouble getting the internal USB headers working, if i plug anything into them i get this message; 'Hub Driver was unable to add the attached device'
It also seems to work allot better if I take out one bank of RAM which is a shame since i bought it with 1GB...

I also noticed that, unlike the A1, Sam's Uboot doesn't have catweasel support, so I have to use a PC keyboard. :(

Wizz.

@wizzard_o

whot about an ram harddisk ??

@Raziel
Quote:
As I also have a older Terratec card in my PC I am not surprised that your sound card sounds much better than the onboard audio of your AmigaOne, most older onboard audio solutions did not sound very good in my opinion. What did come as a surprise to me is that I am happy with the onboard sound quality of my sam440ep.

@wizzard_o

Have you tried updating to the most up to date version of the sound driver for your sam and using the mixer to mute the other audio inputs including the cd-in input? The reason is that I have hear of others peoples problems with audio noise being fixed in that way with their sam440s as I have not had any problems with my sam440ep (non-flex) sound quality it may be work trying just to see if it helps.

http://www.os4depot.net/index.php?fun ... e=driver/audio/cs4281.lha

http://www.os4depot.net/index.php?fun ... file=audio/misc/mixer.lha

@wizzard_o

I would recommend getting a sound card as the on board sound isnt that great on the Sam

@328gts

Quote:

Its still worth installing the updates as they are free and even if you decide to add a sound card you still want the latest version of the mixer installed.

@Dwyloc

Outside of AHI prefs the sound was not working at all, i could get the test beep but nothing else, so I tried those files you suggested but it seems that I cant get any sound out of my Samflex, infact they made it worse (no test sound in AHI now!)
I opened up a shell and typed in 'soundplayer' it returned an error 'Sound is disabled'
How do i re-enable it (if that's possible??)

I must say that i'm really disappointed, I sold my fully working Micro A1 to pay for this and I did expect it to work 'out of the box'
But with no sound, only two of the five USB ports working and no Catweasel keyboard support make this a very disappointing experience indeed!

I guess I'll have to fill my spare slot with a new sound card and buy USB keybaord :(

Wizz.

@wizzard_o

Myfirst guess is that all the audio channels are set to the default volume of 0 to fix that you need to do the following to set up AHI before use for the first time and save the settings.

1. open AHI prefs program insys:Prefs\AHI
2. For the "Music unit" select "CS4281:HiFi 16 bit stereo++"
3. set frequency to 44100 (CD quality)
4. set "Volume" to "+0.0dB"

5. Select "Unit 0" select "CS4281:HiFi 16 bit stereo++"
6. Set "Frequency" to 44100 (CD quality)
7. Set "Channels" to 10
8. Set "Volume" to "+0.0dB"

Repeat steps 5 to 8 for unit 1 - 3 then click "Save"

Now AHI should be setup and ready to go now you can test it with now go test it with AmigaAmp and an mp3 of your choice

http://aminet.net/package/mus/play/AmigaAMP
http://www.os4depot.net/?function=sho ... dio/misc/amigaamp-dec.lha

I hope my instructions should now have you up and running again with working audio on your sam44ep-flex.

@wizzard_o

Quote:

All the USB ports should work both the ones on the back and the ones on the internal header or at least they do on the non-flex version of the board I have, are you totally sure you have then connected up right?

Back in the old days there were two different standards orders for usb pin headers I don't know if that is still the case today but its always worth double checking these things

I guess its also possible that you have some sort of power issue you could try connecting up a powered usb hub and see first if it is recognized correctly and if what you connect works.

Quote:
As I don't have an Amiga keyboard to test with I cant try connecting one up to my Catweasel mk4 that I use in my PC normally. But if the keyboard port on it dose not work that means that the support for it is missing from the version of uboot on the sam440ep if I understand how it works correctly, so it is probably worth e-mailing acube and asking if they can added it for the next uboot update.

@wizzard_o

The micro boards had the USB header pins wrong.
If you had your case ports working on the micro, then the pins were probably moved around a bit to match the odd micro pinout.

I have NOT played with a Sam or Sam Flex yet, but I did document the odd micro pinning of the USB (and serial) ports in this article:
http://www.ncscaug.us/ua1page1.htm

I hope this helps.

And for the record, USB MIDI ports are WAY more efficient than soundcard ports.. If you use MIDI much at all then USB is the way to go.... That may be just an opinion, but it's one I can back up with facts. :)

LyleHaze

Thanks to Dwyloc the on-board sound is now working. :)

The USB is a different problem though, as far as the user's manual is concerned everything is wired up correctly and should work. However after running the USB inspector I can only see two units, 0 and 1. (keyboard and mouse) Its seems as far as OS4.1's concerned the other five ports don't exist yet.
I'll e-mail Acube about adding Catweasel support in U-Boot.

Wizz.

@wizzard_o

Its good to hear you now have working sound

Plus now you know the steps you will have to go through if you decide to replace the onboard sound with a PCI sound card in the future.

Sorry I cant help further with your USB problems I think you will ether need to speak to your dealer or another flex owner as it just works on my sam440ep non-flex board.

@wizzard_o

did you make sure to put the USB keyboard on the upper(highest) USB connector at the back of the Sam MB?

also triple check that the small pin connectors at J19A and J19B are securely installed as I had one of the pins in J19B connector that was slightly bent and wasnt making a proper connection when I set up my Sam...lastly try changing internal USB connector cables with new

hope this helps

After quadruple checking the USB cabling i can report that the front USB ports are now working. Unfortunately the single header (J17) didn't make it, I plugged in a Memory card reader to test it and there was a burnt ceramic smell. i dunno if it came from the reader or the Sam.....

But the other ports are working, Thanks for your help guys! :)

Wizz.