MX300 on an ASUS CUSL2

[Agathron]

Hi.

I just got a new ASUS CUSL2 with a PIII 733. The installation went fine until it came to a device that it couldn't recognise. I tried searching the ASUS CD as well as the windows CD but to no avail. I skipped that and was then told that the game port and some other functions on my sound card are not functioning. I am using a Diamond Monster MX300. The ASUS board didn't come with onboard audio, and in any case i disabled that in the bios. Has anyone had similar experiences? Any help would be great. Thanks,

Agathron

[TejasSammy]

I have the same exact problem!!! I have moved it to every PCI slot, reloaded win 98SE 10 times, still same thing happens. The message says something like "Your sound card is not loaded in primary PCI BUS, joystick, multifunction parent and other features of your card may not operate on secondary PCI BUS". I sent email to Asus about it no reply yet. Anyone out there no of why this may be happening? My only conclusion now is to by a new sound card. Well if I find out anything i will post it here good luck!!!!

[Bligg]

I have a MX300 on an Abit bx rev 2 mobo but didn't have any trouble installing it.

When it recognized the new device, it installed a Multifunction Parent first, then the MIDI, wavetable, game port and rest afterward.

One thing to check, in device manager look for a Multifunction Parent for the MX300. It won't be under Sound/Video/Game devices - it will have its own section.
If you remove this, it should remove all subsequent sound devices for just the MX300.
Reboot and hopefully Windows will recognize it correctly.


------------------
BLIGG
========================
Mmm...omnipotence, gotta get me some of that!

[Agathron]

Already tried removing the multifunction parent multiple times but to no avail. Tejas, if you ever get a reply from ASUS could you let me know? Thanks a ton,

Agathron

[revnent]

That's pretty unfortunate... I'm about to get the CUSL2 motherboard and was planning on getting the MX400 soundcard and I assume it would offer the same problems as the MX300... Anyone have any ideas?

[Agathron]

My multi function parent seems to be working ok, just the gameport. The sound is okay too, but some games don't recognise that i have 3d sound. If you're using USB joysticks you're fine, 'cause it has like 7 usb ports but other than that I don't know what to do. You could get the CUSL2 with the onboard audio which i've heard is comparable to a sb live! value, but that's just my 2 cents.

Agathron

[TejasSammy]

I have found a fix to get your card back running. Go to www.cusl2.com (http://www.cusl2.com) on there forums i believe its under the sound part is the fix for this problem. Do what it says and it did the trick for me. you need to use reference drivers not diamonds for this to work. Well good luck it worked for me!!!

[Igor]

MX300 and MX400 are two VERY different cards. One is based on the Vortex2 chipset and the other one some S3 chipset. They share nothing in comment besides the Monster name and manufacturer.
So any drivers/motherboard problems with MX300 have no relation to MX400.
Diamond doesn't even have drivers for Win2k for MX300. You have to use the reference once http://www.sharkyforums.com/ubb/frown.gif

[CTMorseJr]

This is a little off topic, but I tried using the Aureal Vortex2 reference drivers with WinME and whenever it got to the Soundblaster Emulator "new device found" and automatically tried to install the drivers for it, it would lock up. I ended up using the ancient Diamond drivers (from Jan 2000 I think) and everything went fine. I never thought I'd end up using WinME's System restore, But it save my arse with this one.

[Agathron]

Thanks a ton Tejas http://www.sharkyforums.com/ubb/smile.gif

Agathron

[Agathron]

Er... whenever i try to install the reference drivers for the mx300, it keeps detecting the multifunction parent as a diamond card. How do i get around this?

Agathron

[TejasSammy]

Well all i can think of is under device manager you must delete this and everything associated with the sound card before applying changes. Then download the drivers restart to enter bios reserve irq then when windows finds the device point it to the reverence drivers and then it all gets loaded. this is from the top of my head but i know if you dont clear it out of device manager first it will not work. Hope that helps!!!

[techbuyer]

Originally posted by Agathron:
Hi.

I just got a new ASUS CUSL2 with a PIII 733. The installation went fine until it came to a device that it couldn't recognise. I tried searching the ASUS CD as well as the windows CD but to no avail. I skipped that and was then told that the game port and some other functions on my sound card are not functioning. I am using a Diamond Monster MX300. The ASUS board didn't come with onboard audio, and in any case i disabled that in the bios. Has anyone had similar experiences? Any help would be great. Thanks,

Agathron

Okay, important point here. I had the same problem earlier this year with MX300 and a cc820 mobo. Because the i820 architecture (and i815, too) uses a Memory controller hub and an I/O controller hub, the PCI bus looks like a secondary bus to the MX300 because it's on the ICH. When your PC boots, the primary function of the MX300 starts (sound) and the secondary functions (game port, mic, etc) are unable to execute because the MX300 needs to be on the primary bus. This info came from Diamond tech support.

Their (Diamond) "fix" for the problem was to upgrade to the MX400. (at my expense, not their's) I did that, but that didn't work either. I still had the same problems with the MX400. My solution was to go with Soundblaster. I had no problems after that. I was bummed about it too, because the sound on the MX300 was awsome. I actually liked it better than the MX400. But, since neither worked well in my system, I ended up with just a SB512.

Hope that helps.

[WizardzWrath]

Originally posted by techbuyer:
Okay, important point here. I had the same problem earlier this year with MX300 and a cc820 mobo. Because the i820 architecture (and i815, too) uses a Memory controller hub and an I/O controller hub, the PCI bus looks like a secondary bus to the MX300 because it's on the ICH. When your PC boots, the primary function of the MX300 starts (sound) and the secondary functions (game port, mic, etc) are unable to execute because the MX300 needs to be on the primary bus. This info came from Diamond tech support.

Their (Diamond) "fix" for the problem was to upgrade to the MX400. (at my expense, not their's) I did that, but that didn't work either. I still had the same problems with the MX400. My solution was to go with Soundblaster. I had no problems after that. I was bummed about it too, because the sound on the MX300 was awsome. I actually liked it better than the MX400. But, since neither worked well in my system, I ended up with just a SB512.

Hope that helps.

[WizardzWrath]

If you are using Win ME make sure you uncheck the option for windows to search for the driver.Direct it to your download and it should install the reference drivers for you. Actually, the same goes for Win98. I have a driver hack that disables the bus cheack and allows everything to install right. Email me and i will send it to you. Works like a charm. The culprit is AUmmed30. You have to hack this file to get the drivers to install.

[Agathron]

Wizard,

was your driver hack adding the line

hkr,DisableBusDetection, 1,1

(or something to that effect)?

If so i tried, that and found that you get the game port to work, but afterwards, windows cannot shutdown or reboot, which turns out to be quite a pain. If not, could you send me the fix at abhaya@iname.com please? Thanks a ton,

Agathron