GUS Daily Digest Thu, 31 Mar 94 9:37 PST Volume 11: Issue 55 Today's Topics: .au files for GUS (forgot to mention...) Doom 1.2 lockup - Kill yer Mouse DOOM crashing Doom lockup Epic GUS support gus0041 and mail servers. GUS Daily Digest V11 #50 GUS Daily Digest V11 #53 (2 msgs) Gus pins Is Windows better than OS/2 mass-debate OS/2 Issues RFD: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard reorganization Some Newbie Questions. Ultima 8 patch available now Standard Info: - Meta-info about the GUS can be found at the end of the Digest. - Before you ask a question, please READ THE FAQ. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 08:48:39 -0600 (CST) From: vic@cd.com (Vic Serbe x237) Subject: Re: .au files for GUS (forgot to mention...) >> Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 11:03:01 +0800 (WST) >> From: Tien Choon Wei >> Subject: .au files for GUS >> >> Just a question....does anyone know what programs for GUS supports Sun's >> au sound format? > >I've had great luck with a shareware program called "goldwave 2.0" it is >only for Windows, but it supports the NeXT .snd format, the Amiga IFF >format, .wav, .voc, and matlab (.mat) format (whatever that is). The >editing tools are very good. I like it better than the wave editor that I >got with MCS Stereo. In my reply above I should have said "but it ALSO supports...". The reason I replied is because it DOES support the .au format. I've personally used it as I have a SPARCstation at work. One might have assumed this, but it's not necessarily clear thanks to my wording. Sorry. -- _._ Vic Serbe (vic@cd.com), Applications Engineer #####> ------- Central Data Corp. - Makers of the scsiTerminal Server //___/ / 1602 Newton Dr., Champaign, IL 61821 ------* 800/482-0315 or (+1) 217/359-8010 (FAX-6904) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Mar 94 17:41:49 CST From: Jon Holt Subject: Re: Doom 1.2 lockup - Kill yer Mouse A note to other disenfranchised Doom 1.2 junkies: I just received this note from id regarding the lockups in Doom 1.2. It doesn't seem to be a GUS problem at all. Forwarded message: >From help@idcube.idsoftware.com Wed Mar 30 17:00 CST 1994 >From: help desk >Message-Id: <9403291608.AA21939@idcube.idsoftware.com> >Date: Tue, 29 Mar 94 10:08:40 -0600 >To: Jon Holt >Subject: Re: Doom 1.2 lockup > >>After a little bit of prowling around level one (any mission), the >>mouse gives out. Keyboard control still works for about 30 seconds, >>then that freezes up, leaving me listening to music and watching my >>Space Marine looking around nervously. > >This is a bug in the software. There will be a patch out soon. This >problem only arises using a PS/2 style mouse. You can use the >keyboard only or use a serial mouse until the patch is out. The patch >will be sent to all registered users. > > >--- >-American McGee (american@idsoftware.com) >id Software ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Mar 94 21:01:10 -0600 From: terry@cpre1.ee.iastate.edu (Terry B. Smith) Subject: DOOM crashing Bryon - Take this for what it is worth, I only started playing DOOM this past weekend. I took my computer over to a friends and did the null-modem thing so we could go head to head, but my computer kept locking up. I have a 486 dlc-40 board. Since then I've found 2 contributors besides the irq - both are in my BIOS settings. If you have these option in your BIOS, turn Hidden Refresh off and also disable any Video Shadowing. I did this last night and played successfully for an hour, no hang ups. Hope this helps your situation (ps - I found these somewhere in the README.EXE that came with DOOM.) P.S. Everyone there couldn't believe the cool DOOM music and thought the sound effects were awesome (compared to my friend's lame SoundBastard). P.P.S. E-mail bounced, so I hope you're getting this. Terry _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Terry B. Smith Iowa State University tbsmith@iastate.edu or College of Business terry@cpre1.ee.iastate.edu Management of Information Systems ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 12:01:55 -0500 (EST) From: "Dean M O'Donnell" Subject: Re: Doom lockup > NOTE THE GUS DIGEST ONCE WROTE: > > > I'm at the end of my rope with Doom 1.2. It locks up on me every > > time I play, within 20 minutes or so of starting, and usually sooner. What > > happens is the screen freezes or distorts, and the music goes bonkers. > > I have to powerdown to shut the GUS up. (I suppose ultrinit would reset it > > but I'd have to listen to it during the whole reboot). I have 512K on my GUS and I was getting these lockups too. Playing with settings helped the problem, my old settings were: 220,1,1,5,5 I changed them to: 220,5,5,5,5 and then went into the default.cfg file in the Doom directory and changed the sblaster_??? <<<< (sorry, I'm not at my home computer, but it was something like that) from a 1 to a 5. This reduced the lockups from once every five or ten minutes, to once every 4 or 5 hours (just remember to save often). The lockups usually seem to occur nowadays when I'm chaingunning a cacodemon, or something equally sound intensive. I've also changed my channels from 4 (the max allowed in the setup program) to 8 (you have to edit the default.cfg file for this too). This reduces clipping (as has been said here before), and who knows, it might even help with preventing the lockups too. Hope this helps. D. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 12:08:58 -0500 (EST) From: "Dean M O'Donnell" Subject: Epic GUS support > > Date: Sun, 27 Mar 94 12:19:39 PST > > From: ksoule@tatertot.com (Kent E. Soule) > > Subject: EPIC Pinball; Errant Sound > > > > Whatever sound problems you might experience in the game are due to > bugs inthe game itself. Epic hasn't bothered to iron out several > problems with the GUS sound driver. > I've recently become a beta tester for Epic thru CI$, and although I can't speak for Epic pinball, I find them very interested and responsive to problems with the GUS. Although as far as I can tell, I'm the only GUS owner in the group there. Just tryin' to do my part for GUS support... :) D. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Mar 94 19:19:49 GMT From: Simon@geordie.demon.co.uk (Simon Crute) Subject: gus0041 and mail servers. Does anyone know of a mail server I can get gus0041 from ? I would FTP it, but I run a dial up link to a local internet provides, and this is a long distance call for me. I'd still probably try and FTP it, but I'm only getting about 100cps over the link (from the states anyway) *and* I keep loosing the carrier at times. So if anybody does know... ? Or, could some kind sole send me it in mail ? IF YOU DO, PLEASE TELL ME 1ST and WAIT TILL I SAY YES THANKS. I DON'T WANT TO BE SWAMPED BY 5 COPIES AT ABOUT 2.5 Mb EACH. Thanks. -- Geordie ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Mar 94 23:32:00 PST From: n4zfd!frodo@rylos.n2idf.ampr.org ("James M. Blakely") Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V11 #50 > > Has anyone heard anything about if Gravis is going to support GUS for > > Chicago (Windows 4.0) ? I'm just curious... > > Noooooo, don't start Chicago talk here. Of course will Gravis have windows > drivers. But you can be 100% sure that they won't come *before* the > release of the final version (probably some time afterthat too). > > So, let's wait with Chicago talk for a year or more. Maybe it's out then. > > But you can bet Gravis will release the Chicago drivers before the OS/2 > one. ***** SIGH ***** > > __ > ThomasEZ.. > You bet they will -- since Chicago supports Windows 3.1 drivers, we already have drivers compatible with Chicago. +-------------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | Jim Blakely, MCP | Co-Author of | | Blakely-Signature Associates | "Windows Configuration Secrets" | | Bonita Springs, Florida, USA | with Valda Hilley | | | Coming in May '94 from IDG Books | | A Microsoft Solution Provider | ISBN 1-56884-026-8 | +-------------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Mar 94 19:45:45 +0200 From: Yossi Oren Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V11 #53 >Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 11:03:01 +0800 (WST) >From: Tien Choon Wei >Subject: .au files for GUS > >Just a question....does anyone know what programs for GUS supports Sun's > au sound format? GoldWAVE 2.0, while not strictly a GUS app, supports Sun .AU files, as well as just about anything else! GLDWAV20 at ftp.cica.indiana.edu, pub/pc/win3/sounds. HTH, Yossi. +---+---+---+---------------------------------------------------+---+---+ | = | E |_|/| Signature 1.31 | V | ^ | +---+---+---+---------------------------------------------------+---+---+ |Yossi Oren, Al-Daf Techno-Mercenaries, Rishon Le-Zion, Israel. Help | |TInternet EMail:LIOREN1@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL TT The people are T| ||Bitnet EMail:LIOREN1@WEIZMANN || with the Golan || ||Drag yer damn objects around. I've got work to do.|| Heights! || +====================================================++================++ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Mar 1994 12:06:03 -0600 From: Mike Surgeon Subject: Re: GUS Daily Digest V11 #53 > Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 10:27:37 -0500 > From: Bryon Daly > Subject: Doom lockups > > Hello, > > I'm at the end of my rope with Doom 1.2. It locks up on me every > time I play, within 20 minutes or so of starting, and usually sooner. What > happens is the screen freezes or distorts, and the music goes bonkers. > I have to powerdown to shut the GUS up. (I suppose ultrinit would reset it, > but I'd have to listen to it during the whole reboot). > > Anyway, I sent mail to help@idsoftware.com a week ago, but got not reply. > I currently have set ULTRASND=220,7,7,7,5. Prior to v1.2, Doom hardly > crashed at all on my system, maybe once in a while after playing for a few > hours. Now it crashes EVERY time. This is in the registered version of > 1.2. > > I tried changing my settings to 1,1,7,5 once and the game crashed then, too. > I have the gus0041.zip software installed. > > Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be the problem? > > Thanks, > -Bryon > I think we will just have to wait for version 1.3, since 1.2 (and 1.2 only) has this GUS lockup problem (I never had a problem before 1.2). I was just about to register to continue the DOOM mayhem, but now I have to wait for 1.3. :-( Mike Surgeon ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Mar 94 15:03:19 EST From: "Burns Fisher, VMS Engineering 30-Mar-1994 1507" Subject: Re: Gus pins According to an article which I saved from long ago, the pin order is LGGR: Left Ground Ground Right Not clear from this which end is left and which end is right, but they are on the outside. Burns ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 12:59:32 +1000 From: Peter.Enzerink@finance.ausgovfinance.telememo.au Subject: Re: Is Windows better than OS/2 mass-debate I really don't think we want to get into this here, but to stop people who may be mislead by some of this crap, here goes (take this lightly): Windows NT for servers and highend workstations - grunt software that does run a bit slow for most workstations. - rated superior as a database server by everyone including IBM who are porting DB/2 and CICS to it. - About 200 native applications available now. - not for home users. Windows 3.x and W4W 3.x - cheap software for low end workstations. Not as stable as others, but recovers quickly too. Plenty of hardware drivers. - about 45 million users which is like 75% of the PC market. - countless software products and developers. - environment of choice for home users. "Chicago" - Windows 4.0, new messaging services builtin, preemptive multitasking, netware client. Runs in 4MB (it does, I've seen it) - Part of the Win32 strategy that is a clearly mapped migration path for users. - ??? OS/2 2.1 - Powerful desktop software. Biggest selling point is the ability to show two video clips at the same time while formatting a floppy disk! (I buy preformatted disks these days, anyone else?) Also touted as being able to run all the most powerful software available today. Er... that seems to be Windows software they're referring to. Certainly more robust than Windows, but Windows takes a minute to reboot while OS/2 takes like 5 minutes. If Windows falls over less than 5 times a day, you're in front. (I certainly am) - A few million users at best. May be more since IBM started giving it away for $69. - receiving little or no support from the industry, handful of products with the only mainstream user apps coming from Lotus. Those apps are behind in features compared to Windows versions. More vendors backing away from it each day, including Lotus who have put their production teams into neutral at the moment. - okay for home use if you don't mind running Windows software with it, don't have exotic hardware, don't mind having to put better hardware in it, don't mind that Windows support will break with any updates, don't mind that Windows software suppliers usually won't want to support you, don't mind that IBM haven't indicated any clear picture of the future to the users. And last of all, since this a GUS list, the GUS will work with: Windows 3.x, W4W 3.x, "Chicago" with existing drivers (hey why not take the opportunity!), and I don't know about NT. Last, I had heard there were a few OS/2 users complaining about a lack of OS/2 drivers, but hey, since the MAC has a much larger installed base than OS/2, maybe we will see some MAC drivers first! Get the idea? Lets leave the discussion at that, or take it off line if anyone needs any clarification. (Oh gosh, here comes the mail!) ----- INTERNET: Peter.Enzerink@finance.ausgovfinance.telememo.au or Pedro@act.acs.org.au X400 : /G=Peter/S=Enzerink/O=Finance/P=ausgovfinance/A=telememo/C=au SMAIL : PO Box 165, Queen Victoria Terrace, Parkes 2600 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 09:54:18 -0400 (EDT) From: Drivers run for the nutrious taste of Renault Subject: OS/2 Issues An interseting point: If you're using OS/2 and have a GUS in the system, you might find a bunch of conflicts unless you use a driver for the GUS. If you don't use a driver, the GUS won't initialize properly and you may see intermittent printer problems and so forth. I had a conflict with a SCSI card, printer, modem, and GUS. Until I used the GUS driver, I couldn't get these solved; use the driver. Thanks to Vinster @ Forte for the help.... Jeff ------------------------------ Date: 29 Mar 1994 15:47:49 -0500 From: vincie@blaze.cs.jhu.edu (Michael Young Ko) Subject: RFD: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard reorganization Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc The following RFD has been cross posted to news.annouce.newgroups, news.groups, and comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard. Also, the follow up group will be the news.groups. Request For Discussion: This is a formal Request For Discussion concerning the groups comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard and the illegal group comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.GUS. This RFD is to remove the groups comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.GUS and replace comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard with the four following groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.(hardware).soundcard.games comp.sys.ibm.pc.(hardware).soundcard.music comp.sys.ibm.pc.(hardware).soundcard.tech comp.sys.ibm.pc.(hardware).soundcard.advocacy All of these groups will be unmoderated. The purpose of having hardware in parentheses is the possible of placing the soundcard group under the hardware hierarchy. This is mainly for conforming to the other ibm pc hardware groups. Charters for proposed groups: a) comp.sys.ibm.pc.(hardware).soundcard.games - Unmoderated discussion of using IBM-PC compatible games with a specific soundcard, resolving compatibility problems of a certain soundcard with a particular game, discussing campaigns at software groups to have more native soundcard support, questions if a particular game supports a certain soundcard, and questions on which soundcard is best for a particular game or all games in general. b) comp.sys.ibm.pc.(hardware).soundcard.music - Unmoderated discussion of software that plays back and record sound and music files, music formats such as WAV, VOC, MIDI, MOD, STM, 669, ULT, ROL, etc., resolving problems with musical software, discussing which software or hardware is best for a particular musical or sound project, and questions concerning sampling or sound patch making. c) comp.sys.ibm.pc.(hardware).soundcard.tech - Unmoderated discussion of questions concerning programming a particular soundcard, discussing hardware problems such as loss of sound from a particular channel, discussing the pros and cons of a particular sound generation scheme, questions on the compatibility of the soundcard to a particular computer type, operating system, and peripheral such as a CD-ROM drive, questions about the functionality of a particular soundcard, and resolving hardware problems. d) comp.sys.ibm.pc.(hardware).soundcard.advocacy - Unmoderated discussion of the pros and cons of soundcards in general. This discussion will possibly overlap some discussions on the other soundcard groups. Also reviews of soundcards and future opinions and tests of soundcards will be placed in this group to be discussed by the users. Justification: The sudden increase in the volume of messages posted to the group comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard has caused the suggestion of splitting the group to appear. Many users on the group have expressed interest in dividing the group because the topics listed on the group are varied tremendously. Having approximately 200+ new messages a day on this group is expensive to some users who must pay for the receiving the usenet group based upon amount of information as well as paying for the amount of time needed to sort through all of the messages. Currently, a heated debate is present on the c.s.i.p.s group which is disrupting those users more interested in new software and problems. They have expressed concern that some are not able to keep up with all of the traffic and decided that by splitting the group, this would allow them to read the messages relevant to their interests pertaining to their soundcard. The comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.GUS is unrecognized usenet group throughout many news servers. Therefore, to avoid confusion and to reorganize the entire soundcard group, this illegal group must be eliminated. Many GUS users are satisfied with removing this group and using the four above mentioned subgroups. There was also concern about where this group should be located, under the comp.syd.ibm.pc hierarchy or comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware hierarchy. Most are flexible with the location of these groups. It is a matter which is better in terms of an organizational point of view. By placing these groups under the hardware hierarchy, these groups will be seven levels deep. Also, by leaving the split groups under the comp.sys.ibm.pc hierarchy, the transition would be less disrupting. Rationale: The idea of spliting the group was tossed around the c.s.i.p.s group many times. However, no action was ever taken. It is hoped that finally with the dramatic increase in messages, that this reorganization would make the group more efficient and easier to use. Questions had to be raised about add another group, a c.s.i.p.soundcard.GUS group which would handle all topics specific to the Gravis Ultrasound card. Presently, a majority of messages on the group is concerned with this card. Now with the a 100 message increase because of a heated debate (flame war?) the rational users want the group to be split. This eventually let to a group discussion about splitting up the soundcard group based upon the particular cards discussed, such as the Ultrasound, Soundblaster, Pro Audio Spectrum, etc. However, further discussion revealed that a majority thought that such a split would be short term due to the possibility of an unexpected loss of interest in a particular product. Therefore, because of the prospect of new soundcards being released that would increase the number of messages to the group, the prospect of more pc users of becoming involved in the multimedia revolution, and the steadily increase in messages in this group, it was decided that the group should be split based upon the topics mentioned above. The games group was chosen because a great number of posts on the soundcard group are concerned with how to use a particular soundcard with a particular game and what soundcard is best to use with game. Many users were concerned that the group was overrun with posts concerning how to get a particular game to work with a particular soundcard. They had to try to sift through the 200+ message a day to look for non-game compatibility messages. Therefore, the music group was also chosen because the other large part of message is related to the production of music. These include what programs can use a particular music format, and what programs exist to create programs. Also, in this group is the topic of sounds such as digitizing sound bytes and songs. A separate group was not created because many of the problems and solutions concerning recording or playing back sounds is related to the music production scene. The tech section was chosen because many users occasionally have questions about the technical aspect of soundcard, such as the pros and cons on how a soundcard generates sounds. Also, any hardware problems and compatibility would be discussed. But most importantly, the advocacy group would handle the bulk of the soundcard debate and keep it away from those more concerned with games or music. Such a split would try to evenly distribute the messages throughout the sub groups. Most agree that sorting through 50+ is cheaper and less time-consuming. Schedule: These proposals have been discussed informally in the comp.sys.ibm. pc.soundcard group for the past five weeks. I have decided to write the RFD to have the group split. I have been keeping count of the number of users in favor and against the proposal. Because of the vast majority of those in favor of splitting the group, I have made the RFD request. The posting of this RFD will begin the discussion period lasting 21 days. The discussion will take place in news.groups. Do not vote on this RFD now. After the 21 days and/or there are no unresolvable points, a formal Call For Votes will be announced. Michael Ko -- / ...the chances of getting picked up by another/ The Invincible \ / ship within those thirty seconds are 2 to the / vincie@cs.jhu.edu \ \ power of 276709 to one against." - From The \ Computer Science Depart. / \ Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - D. Adams \ Johns Hopkins University/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 6:31:08 -0600 (CST) From: Erek Adams <941ADAMS@MERLIN.NLU.EDU> Subject: Some Newbie Questions. Hello! Having recently gotten my GUS ($299 CD-ROM/GUS Bundle from SYNERGY), I've got some basic questions. 1) I got a rev 2.4 board. Is that normal? Should I complain? 2) With the 2.06m Install disks I am missing MidiSoft Recoding Session, PowerChords For Ultrasound, Power Chords Tutorial, Power Chords Demo, and Ultra Help. The GUS manaul says I should get this, Synergy says its 'Not included with the standard package. It can be yours for just $10.00" Is this normal? 3) How should I setup my GUS for ease of use with most programs? IRQs, DMAs, port addresses, etc.... 4) What utils should I FTP? 5) Some basic Do's and Dont's for the GUS and for using it with various games. (Yes, I know about the Glist! :) Thanks for any info! Erek Adams +---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+ | Erek Adams, Student Programmer, | Internet: 941adams@merlin.nlu.edu | | Northeast Louisiana University | SnailMail: 5330 DeSiard, #2 | | Monroe, Louisiana 71202 | Monroe, LA 71203 | | | PGP2.3a: finger 941adams@merlin.nlu.edu | +---------------------------------+-------------------------------------------+ Monty Python's Quote of the Day is......... Brother Maynard: And then the Lord spake, saying: "First, shalt thou take out the holy pin. Then shalt thou count to three. No more, no less. *Three* shall be the number of the counting, and the number of the counting shall be three. *Four* shalt thou not count, and neither count thou two, excepting that thou then goest on to three. Five is RIGHT OUT. Once the number three, being the third number be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade to-wards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it. Amen. All: Amen. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 31 Mar 94 03:45:00 BST From: f.graham@genie.geis.com Subject: Ultima 8 patch available now Re: Ultima 8 Gravis uploaded a patch to Genie, I assume it's at least on the Gravis board, in case this is still news. Here it is!: U8GUS.ZIP 940330 72192 Ultima VIII patch for Ultima8 and GUS MMmph... oh yeh, I can't send it, I only got email.... ------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Mar 1994 18:00:18 -0600 From: Sesterhenn Steven J To all who know, I have a couple problems: 1.) Ever since I upgrades my SBOS from the one in disk 2.06, I get NO sound at all from XWing or UltraBots. I used to get sound and music from them, just not good. MegaEm of course works great with both except an annoying high pitched beep whenver a rebel ship flies by in Xwing. Xwing recognizes SB emulation but I get no sound. A few -o_ options have been tried to no avail. Any ideas? 2.) Since I upgrades to gus0041[a,b] I can't get Megaem to work because I am missing charang.pat and honky.pat. Who knows what other .PAT's I am missing besides. Any clue where I can get these PAT files? Thanks for any and all help in advance. Steven Sesterhenn PS Oh yeah, I have rev2.4 and had disks 2.06 before. Bought my GUS in 6/93. ------------------------------ End of GUS Daily Digest V11 #55 *******************************