While browsing through the messages i noticed i'me not the only one, but i couldn't find a solution. I have an ESS 1868 in a Compaq Armada. Downloaded the driver from BeBits, but I seem to be doing something wrong. It is installed with the driverfile in the bin directory, but no sound, how do you install drivers at all???

Which driver did you download? "ESS Maestro 2" appears to be the best choice for you. Apparently BeBits also has entries for ess1688 & ess1869, which look similar but perhaps don't work on your machine. If your sound driver works, you'll have an entry for your device under "Audio Settings" in the Media preference panel (and also a "1" file somewhere under /dev/audio if you prefer that approach). Otherwise it might not be installed correctly, or it might be incompatible with your hardware. Looks like the ESS Maestro 2 driver's author has a gracious offer if you're sure the driver should work... Also, you might try the SB16 and soundblaster-compatible drivers as a last resort.

Thanks for your relpy. I think I already tried the Maestro drivers, but I'll download them anyway and try again. I'm sure I tried the SB 16 driver no sound. I ame using a laptop (compaq) witch just might be the problem. In a week or 2 I'll be home and finally have my SoundBlaster Live again!!!! Live seems to be supported so there's no problem there. An other thing is, when I boot to WinMe I have sound ofcourse, BUT when I boot from WinME to BeOS with the bootdisk I can use the CD palyer witch then works fine with volume control and all... maybe some drivers are left active or the amp on the card is left activated... well at least I have a Cd but i'll try AGAIN... :( zzzzzzz

OK, just so I understand: The "ESS Maestro 2" driver recognizes your hardware, such that the Media panel I mentioned above has something listed for "Audio Out" -- right? But... the driver isn't fully functional: you only get CD audio sound & nothing else (this is after restarting Windows, though you use a BeOS boot floppy and not the Windows icon) -- right? This seems like the same problem described in my referenced link (comment dated 27 june 2000, at bottom). Note that the /dev/ directory structure is part of a completely different filesystem (created at boot time), so copying the file was probably not really what "fixed" the driver for that person. Instead, just rebooting alone (but *not* from Windows) was the trick, I bet. Try a cold boot (power off, insert BeOS floppy, and fire it up), as mentioned in http://www.betips.net/cgi-bin/chunga.pl?ID=tip527 and see if things change. Hope I got your situation right -- post back!

Thanks for the reply!!!! First of all I'me using WinME, so the only way to reboot to BeOS from Win is by using the bootdisk, works fine. "Most of these problems stem from the fact that booting BeOS from within Windows leaves some hardware in an indefinite state, with hardware IRQs and memory registers thinking they're still in Windows land." THAT'S IT!! If I do a cold boot the Cd-player doesn't work, if I do a reboot from windows the above happens leaving my soundcart available for Cd-player, it must be... HMMM. So there must be a equipment discribed in "Audio out" in "Media" AHAA. there none and I can't select one. Yesterday I tried making a jumped divice with the same IRQ's, mem ranges and DMA's, set up as a multimedia sound device, but that one didn't work. In Devices, my sound card is found as a ESS card with the exact same settings as in Win ME so I think it is found correctly, but not activeted in Media... I will try to copy the driver to the dev directory as well, just to try... Well get there eventually...

Nope, no sound... o well never mind. It's gonna be busy for me the comming months, so i'll just have to give BeOS a rest. Thanks anyways

hai my computer have problems i lost my drivers for my pc100 m571 where can I download that drivers on internet please....