🚀 go-pugleaf

We recently purchased a couple of Creative Labs Soundblaster Pro cards for
use in a lab.  However, we've had some problems with them when we install them
in our 486/33 systems:

1)  They play random sounds after playing music from the demos.  This problem,
    according to Creative Labs tech support, is due to the fact that our 486
    has an Opti chipset.  There are two versions of the SB-pro - one known as
    the 1600 series and one known as the 1330 series.  The 1600 series is an 
    older model and apparently has difficulties with the Opti chipset; the 
    1330 series doesn't exhibit this problem.  A 1600-rev board can be made
    into a 1330 board by installing some sort of oscillator patch (hardware,
    presumably to resolve some bus timing issues).

2)  The tech at C-L also said that the boards have trouble with 486 platforms
    in general.  He recommended that we slow the bus speed down to 10MHz or
    less to avoid having problems.  He said that C-L is working on a fix for
    this but it's not ready yet.  This seems a bit foolish to me - crank my
    486/33 down to the level of an old 286 (bus-wise, anyway) so that my $200
    sound card doesn't go ballistic....

3)  There is a horrendous amount of static coming out of the speakers even
    when the board is not playing anything.  The static level seems to be
    directly related to the processor speed - when we crank the machine up to
    33 MHz, the static increases, and when we drop back to 25 MHz, the
    static subsides somewhat.  Inserting wait states and slowing the bus speed
    reduces the static further.  This problem is likely due to the fact that
    the SB-Pro has inadequate RF grounding/shielding, especially at 33MHz and
    up.


Now for the questions:

A)  Does anyone else have similar problems using the SB/SB_Pro in a 486? 
    (i.e. static, random music, bus speed, other effects?)

B)  What, if any, other sound boards perform better than this?  That is, 
    does there exist a card that plays in a fast 486 without sounding like 
    an old 45-RPM record?  I would like to believe that the demand for quality
    sound from the MM community would drive the level of performance for
    boards like this to a higher standard.  


Please send replies to woyansky@flamingo.ece.cmu.edu.  I will post a summary
in a few days.

Thanks,

-George Woyansky
 Carnegie Mellon University, LASIP Laboratory
 Pittsburgh, PA
 (412) 268-7121