From cameron@patrick.wattle.id.au Mon Dec 8 05:25:22 2003 From: cameron@patrick.wattle.id.au (Cameron Patrick) Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 13:25:22 +0800 Subject: [Wizard] Wizard audio Message-ID: <20031208052522.GE1859@erdos.home> Hi all, I've hooked up audio connectors to one of my wizards (as described by Garry) and have finally got around to trying it out... it works okay with XMMS provided all visualisations etc are turned off. However, I've been a bit disappointed (to put it mildly) in the quality of the sound output - the signal:noise ratio is appalling, reminiscent of onboard sound of desktop machines with similar-era CPUs. And unlike a normal desktop, I can't just pop in an SB Live as a quick fix :( Has anyone else noticed this, and/or have any ideas on how to fix it? (e.g. I was wondering about USB audio but have no idea where to find a cheap USB audio adapter in Perth that would be supported properly under Linux.) Cheers, Cameron. From james@cybix.com.au Mon Dec 8 05:31:08 2003 From: james@cybix.com.au (James Mandy) Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 13:31:08 +0800 Subject: [Wizard] Wizard audio References: <20031208052522.GE1859@erdos.home> Message-ID: <001a01c3bd4c$7dc25dc0$b84776a5@FH20006959> perhaps it would be better with 12V's going to it, as suggested for better audio in most the PDF's around. Cheers, James ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cameron Patrick" To: "Wizard List" Sent: Monday, December 08, 2003 1:25 PM Subject: [Wizard] Wizard audio > Hi all, > > I've hooked up audio connectors to one of my wizards (as described by > Garry) and have finally got around to trying it out... it works okay > with XMMS provided all visualisations etc are turned off. > > However, I've been a bit disappointed (to put it mildly) in the quality > of the sound output - the signal:noise ratio is appalling, reminiscent > of onboard sound of desktop machines with similar-era CPUs. And unlike > a normal desktop, I can't just pop in an SB Live as a quick fix :( > > Has anyone else noticed this, and/or have any ideas on how to fix it? > (e.g. I was wondering about USB audio but have no idea where to find a > cheap USB audio adapter in Perth that would be supported properly under > Linux.) > > Cheers, > > Cameron. > > > _______________________________________________ > Wizard mailing list > Wizard@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au > http://lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/wizard From cameron@patrick.wattle.id.au Mon Dec 8 05:47:34 2003 From: cameron@patrick.wattle.id.au (Cameron Patrick) Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 13:47:34 +0800 Subject: [Wizard] Wizard audio In-Reply-To: <001a01c3bd4c$7dc25dc0$b84776a5@FH20006959> References: <20031208052522.GE1859@erdos.home> <001a01c3bd4c$7dc25dc0$b84776a5@FH20006959> Message-ID: <20031208054734.GH1859@erdos.home> On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 01:31:08PM +0800, James Mandy wrote: | perhaps it would be better with 12V's going to it, as suggested for | better audio in most the PDF's around. Hmm, I'm a bit leery about doing that - I don't have a suitable 12V supply lying around, and I can't really see why it should help. Where was it mentioned and in which PDF? The one that came on the CD I got with my wizard doesn't seem to say anything about it. ... One thing I did notice, though, was that it mentioned two outputs, pins 1/2/3 for "earphone" and 4/5/6 for "loudspeaker". I'm pretty sure I connected mine to the earphone one - is that what other people have done? What are Netway's connectors wired to? Has anyone tried both and noticed any difference between the two? Cameron. From fruchle@globaldial.com Mon Dec 8 07:00:25 2003 From: fruchle@globaldial.com (Mike Fineberg) Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 15:00:25 +0800 Subject: [Wizard] Wizard audio In-Reply-To: <20031208054734.GH1859@erdos.home> References: <20031208052522.GE1859@erdos.home> <001a01c3bd4c$7dc25dc0$b84776a5@FH20006959> <20031208054734.GH1859@erdos.home> Message-ID: <200312081500250078.23587C81@mail.arach.net.au> It's the drivers, not the Wizard. I had a similar problem with my Wizard when selecting an mp3 player.= Changing the player fixed the problem. (Note that I'm using MS-DOS in= this instance, so I'm using the mp3player's inbuilt drivers). outputs: one is line out, which is unamplified audio, the other is= headphones, which is an amplified line out. (I went and bought an audio= connector from Netway, drilled two new holes and mounted it in my box). I= would recommend using Line-Out, not headphones, unless you need the= (somewhat dodgy) amplification provided. - Michael *********** REPLY SEPARATOR *********** On 8/12/2003 at 1:47 PM Cameron Patrick wrote: >On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 01:31:08PM +0800, James Mandy wrote: >| perhaps it would be better with 12V's going to it, as suggested for >| better audio in most the PDF's around. > >Hmm, I'm a bit leery about doing that - I don't have a suitable 12V >supply lying around, and I can't really see why it should help. Where >was it mentioned and in which PDF? The one that came on the CD I got >with my wizard doesn't seem to say anything about it. > >... One thing I did notice, though, was that it mentioned two outputs, >pins 1/2/3 for "earphone" and 4/5/6 for "loudspeaker". I'm pretty sure >I connected mine to the earphone one - is that what other people have >done? What are Netway's connectors wired to? Has anyone tried both and >noticed any difference between the two? > >Cameron. From cameron@patrick.wattle.id.au Mon Dec 8 07:40:49 2003 From: cameron@patrick.wattle.id.au (Cameron Patrick) Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 15:40:49 +0800 Subject: [Wizard] Wizard audio In-Reply-To: <200312081500250078.23587C81@mail.arach.net.au> References: <20031208052522.GE1859@erdos.home> <001a01c3bd4c$7dc25dc0$b84776a5@FH20006959> <20031208054734.GH1859@erdos.home> <200312081500250078.23587C81@mail.arach.net.au> Message-ID: <20031208074049.GN1859@erdos.home> On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 03:00:25PM +0800, Mike Fineberg wrote: | It's the drivers, not the Wizard. I find this hard to believe given that (a) the noise is present even when nothing is being sent to the audio device, and (b) it coincides with network traffic and graphics updates. This, to me, suggests it's picking noise from sundry other hardware in the Wizard....? | outputs: one is line out, which is unamplified audio, the other is | headphones, which is an amplified line out. (I went and bought an | audio connector from Netway, drilled two new holes and mounted it in | my box). I would recommend using Line-Out, not headphones, unless you | need the (somewhat dodgy) amplification provided. Okay, I might try that. Cameron. From craig@postnewspapers.com.au Mon Dec 8 08:01:20 2003 From: craig@postnewspapers.com.au (Craig Ringer) Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 16:01:20 +0800 Subject: [Wizard] Wizard audio In-Reply-To: <20031208074049.GN1859@erdos.home> References: <20031208052522.GE1859@erdos.home> <001a01c3bd4c$7dc25dc0$b84776a5@FH20006959> <20031208054734.GH1859@erdos.home> <200312081500250078.23587C81@mail.arach.net.au> <20031208074049.GN1859@erdos.home> Message-ID: <3FD42FD0.4090301@postnewspapers.com.au> > | It's the drivers, not the Wizard. > > I find this hard to believe given that (a) the noise is present even > when nothing is being sent to the audio device, and (b) it coincides > with network traffic and graphics updates. This, to me, suggests it's > picking noise from sundry other hardware in the Wizard....? I found the same - I've got really good headphones, and it was _really_ obvious whenever the system was doing anything. The disk was definitely the main culprit, though. That said, it's not impossible (especially on such odd hardware) that the drivers are capable of boosting the output gain or some other odd thing. I was using the conn. from netway; I haven't done much fiddling with it yet, though, so I'm not sure how it'll go. I may disable the disk and netboot it, which should reduce the noise considerably. Craig Ringer From sharkey@zoic.org Mon Dec 8 08:11:17 2003 From: sharkey@zoic.org (Nick 'Sharkey' Moore) Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 19:11:17 +1100 Subject: [Wizard] Wizard audio In-Reply-To: <20031208074049.GN1859@erdos.home> References: <20031208052522.GE1859@erdos.home> <001a01c3bd4c$7dc25dc0$b84776a5@FH20006959> <20031208054734.GH1859@erdos.home> <200312081500250078.23587C81@mail.arach.net.au> <20031208074049.GN1859@erdos.home> Message-ID: <20031208081117.GA5446@zoic.org> On 2003-12-08, Cameron Patrick wrote: > On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 03:00:25PM +0800, Mike Fineberg wrote: > > | It's the drivers, not the Wizard. > > I find this hard to believe given that (a) the noise is present even > when nothing is being sent to the audio device, and (b) it coincides > with network traffic and graphics updates. This, to me, suggests it's > picking noise from sundry other hardware in the Wizard....? Here's a thought ... there's a CD audio header and audio input pins on the main audio header, maybe it's picking up noise on these and amplifying it? Different drivers might turn this 'feature' off ... -----sharks -- Nick 'Sharkey' Moore "World Domination Through Enhanced Shareholder Value!" From cameron@patrick.wattle.id.au Mon Dec 8 08:23:40 2003 From: cameron@patrick.wattle.id.au (Cameron Patrick) Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 16:23:40 +0800 Subject: [Wizard] Wizard audio In-Reply-To: <20031208081117.GA5446@zoic.org> References: <20031208052522.GE1859@erdos.home> <001a01c3bd4c$7dc25dc0$b84776a5@FH20006959> <20031208054734.GH1859@erdos.home> <200312081500250078.23587C81@mail.arach.net.au> <20031208074049.GN1859@erdos.home> <20031208081117.GA5446@zoic.org> Message-ID: <20031208082340.GA4594@erdos.home> On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 07:11:17PM +1100, Nick 'Sharkey' Moore wrote: | On 2003-12-08, Cameron Patrick wrote: | > On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 03:00:25PM +0800, Mike Fineberg wrote: | > | > | It's the drivers, not the Wizard. | > | > I find this hard to believe given that (a) the noise is present even | > when nothing is being sent to the audio device, and (b) it coincides | > with network traffic and graphics updates. This, to me, suggests it's | > picking noise from sundry other hardware in the Wizard....? | | Here's a thought ... there's a CD audio header and audio input | pins on the main audio header, maybe it's picking up noise on | these and amplifying it? | | Different drivers might turn this 'feature' off ... I've got that switched off already (or at least turned the volume to 0) using aumix. If I turn the "line in" up, it gets much much worse. Cameron. From cameron@patrick.wattle.id.au Mon Dec 8 08:24:53 2003 From: cameron@patrick.wattle.id.au (Cameron Patrick) Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 16:24:53 +0800 Subject: [Wizard] Wizard audio In-Reply-To: <3FD42FD0.4090301@postnewspapers.com.au> References: <20031208052522.GE1859@erdos.home> <001a01c3bd4c$7dc25dc0$b84776a5@FH20006959> <20031208054734.GH1859@erdos.home> <200312081500250078.23587C81@mail.arach.net.au> <20031208074049.GN1859@erdos.home> <3FD42FD0.4090301@postnewspapers.com.au> Message-ID: <20031208082453.GO1859@erdos.home> On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 04:01:20PM +0800, Craig Ringer wrote: | >| It's the drivers, not the Wizard. | > | >I find this hard to believe given that (a) the noise is present even | >when nothing is being sent to the audio device, and (b) it coincides | >with network traffic and graphics updates. This, to me, suggests it's | >picking noise from sundry other hardware in the Wizard....? | | I found the same - I've got really good headphones, and it was _really_ | obvious whenever the system was doing anything. The disk was definitely | the main culprit, though. Ahh, at least I know I'm not going mad. I'm not using headphones, but have speakers and amp which should be significantly better than the average computer set-up... :-) Although I don't even /have/ a disk connected on this machine. | I may disable the disk and netboot it, which should reduce the noise | considerably. Mine is running entirely off an NFS root, playing music stored on a machine in another room. Those 5GB laptop drives are not only a bit small, but also surprisingly whiney - to me, more annoying than the hum from the fans and hard drives of my desktop. | That said, it's not impossible (especially on such odd hardware) that | the drivers are capable of boosting the output gain or some other odd | thing. I hadn't thought of that. Upping the gain would probably help it, assuming it could be done from some point before the noise was picked up. I did notice that even on maximum output volume set in aumix it produced a lower level signal with more noise than my SB Live (which is in turn quieter than the onboard audio in the same machine) - and the SB Live is hooked up through ~7m of RCA cabling! Cameron. From cameron@patrick.wattle.id.au Mon Dec 8 09:12:17 2003 From: cameron@patrick.wattle.id.au (Cameron Patrick) Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2003 17:12:17 +0800 Subject: [Wizard] Wizard audio In-Reply-To: <20031208052522.GE1859@erdos.home> References: <20031208052522.GE1859@erdos.home> Message-ID: <20031208091217.GQ1859@erdos.home> On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 01:25:22PM +0800, Cameron Patrick wrote: | it works okay with XMMS provided all visualisations etc are turned | off. Here's another weird thing... I get more noise playing through XMMS than with sox?! With XMMS there's an additional, constant high-pitched background noise which is not present when nothing is playing, or when using another player. Cheers, Cameron. From starfox@iinet.net.au Mon Dec 8 15:00:22 2003 From: starfox@iinet.net.au (Dave Hng) Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2003 23:00:22 +0800 Subject: [Wizard] kernel patches, cooling. Message-ID: <3FD49206.4030102@iinet.net.au> These pages might be useful to those of you playing with kernel patches: http://www.djcj.org/LAU/guide/Low_latency-Mini-HOWTO.php3 http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/schedlat.html - Low latency scheduling patches http://www.da-cha.org/geode/geode.html - Specific Geode CPU patches The page with the Geode CPU patches has a few really nice things, but you'll probably have to manually patch parts of the kernel yourself and see if they compile as most of the sources there are for older 2.4 kernels. I've managed to get the Geode CPUID and speedup patch into 2.4.22 and compiled it successfully. I've also noticed that the heatsink that's stuck to the northbridge / southbridge and cpu really sucks :) Even after moving the cables around, the heatsink becomes too hot to touch once you load up the CPU. The heatsink's attached to the cpu and northbridge / southbridge with some sort of thermal pad which doesn't contact very well, so the ICs run much hotter than the heatsink. It's a bit of a worry! On one of my wizards i've put a stock intel socket370 cpu on top of the stock heatsink with some thermal compound between them. It helps a lot. Also, if anyone's going to try to run their own 12V supply to the wizard, don't forget to desolder the integrated boost IC that's on the board... It might start doing strange things (like become really hot and blow up) if you run another 12V in parallel with that. Dave From adrian@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au Fri Dec 12 02:24:42 2003 From: adrian@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au (Adrian Chadd) Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 10:24:42 +0800 Subject: [Wizard] Wizard audio In-Reply-To: <20031208074049.GN1859@erdos.home> References: <20031208052522.GE1859@erdos.home> <001a01c3bd4c$7dc25dc0$b84776a5@FH20006959> <20031208054734.GH1859@erdos.home> <200312081500250078.23587C81@mail.arach.net.au> <20031208074049.GN1859@erdos.home> Message-ID: <20031212022442.GC219785@morwong.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au> On Mon, Dec 08, 2003, Cameron Patrick wrote: > On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 03:00:25PM +0800, Mike Fineberg wrote: > > | It's the drivers, not the Wizard. > > I find this hard to believe given that (a) the noise is present even > when nothing is being sent to the audio device, and (b) it coincides > with network traffic and graphics updates. This, to me, suggests it's > picking noise from sundry other hardware in the Wizard....? Err, it happens on most computers. Its generally noise off the ISA bus. Yay for crappy sound hardware. Adrian From bernard@blackham.com.au Sun Dec 14 02:22:58 2003 From: bernard@blackham.com.au (Bernard Blackham) Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2003 10:22:58 +0800 Subject: [Wizard] kernel patches, cooling. In-Reply-To: <3FD49206.4030102@iinet.net.au> References: <3FD49206.4030102@iinet.net.au> Message-ID: <20031214022257.GA4970@amidala> On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 11:00:22PM +0800, Dave Hng wrote: > Also, if anyone's going to try to run their own 12V supply to the > wizard, don't forget to desolder the integrated boost IC that's on the > board... It might start doing strange things (like become really hot and > blow up) if you run another 12V in parallel with that. Ahhh, so that's the little black box soldered onto the underside of the Molex connector, right? I'm guessing that there's no way it'd be able to power a desktop HDD, so I'm about to mod mine to run off 12V/5V. Bernard. -- Bernard Blackham From matthew.prouse@telstra.com Tue Dec 30 12:10:14 2003 From: matthew.prouse@telstra.com (Matthew Prouse) Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 20:10:14 +0800 Subject: [Wizard] How do I put Windows (boo hiss!) on my Wizard? Message-ID: <2b7922f493.2f4932b792@email.bigpond.com> Hi there I've just bought a Wizard PC from Netway. Several members mentioned them on the PLUG list - and I checked them out for work purposes (I work for a small accounting firm on the Northern Suburbs). I've bought a Wizard today - Netway upgraded the memory to 128MB and I've drilled some more holes in the box for cooling purposes HOWEVER the version of RedHat that's preinstalled (6.2) is horribly broken: it doesnt even boot - it locks up looking for "wd" and then perpetually loops looking for it.... HOWEVER I need to rip Linux off (boo!) and put Windows 9x on it. Has anyone done this? How do I do it step-by-step? I do have a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE cable converter lying around somewhere but I have minimal idea where to begin. This PC is being used to host Lotus Organizer diary files and will do very little work... but I do need Windows. Does anyone feel like helping me? I have applied to join the Wizard list but I haven't got a confirmation yet. Thanks mousematt ---------------- Powered by telstra.com From james@cybix.com.au Tue Dec 30 12:25:19 2003 From: james@cybix.com.au (James Mandy) Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 20:25:19 +0800 Subject: [Wizard] How do I put Windows (boo hiss!) on my Wizard? References: <2b7922f493.2f4932b792@email.bigpond.com> Message-ID: <017c01c3cecf$fceba680$0f1219cb@epsilon> I did exactly the same thing to both of my wizards. I'll be putting linux on them eventually however... I plugged my HDD's into my PC using the cable you describe. fdisk'ed and formatted the drive, made sure it was a system disk (format /s) made a temporary directory to copy the win98 cab files, copied them, also made a temp directory for the drivers required. (I downloaded the drives off the net so that I could get video/network/sound working properly straight away)... I then put the hdd back in the wizard, booted them up and started the install process from where I copied the cabs, etc. This process worked well, was easy, etc. play's MP3's with winamp no problemo... also loads IE, etc, etc. One of mine is going in the kitchen with a flat panel for recipes, white pages, etc, the other is going in the garage for my car stuff, online manuals, forums, etc. Good luck. James ----- Original Message ----- From: "Matthew Prouse" To: Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2003 8:10 PM Subject: [Wizard] How do I put Windows (boo hiss!) on my Wizard? > > Hi there > > I've just bought a Wizard PC from Netway. Several members mentioned them on the PLUG list - and I checked them out for work purposes (I work for a small accounting firm on the Northern Suburbs). > > I've bought a Wizard today - Netway upgraded the memory to 128MB and I've drilled some more holes in the box for cooling purposes HOWEVER the version of RedHat that's preinstalled (6.2) is horribly broken: it doesnt even boot - it locks up looking for "wd" and then perpetually loops looking for it.... HOWEVER I need to rip Linux off (boo!) and put Windows 9x on it. > > Has anyone done this? How do I do it step-by-step? I do have a 2.5" to 3.5" IDE cable converter lying around somewhere but I have minimal idea where to begin. > > This PC is being used to host Lotus Organizer diary files and will do very little work... but I do need Windows. Does anyone feel like helping me? I have applied to join the Wizard list but I haven't got a confirmation yet. > > Thanks > mousematt > > ---------------- > Powered by telstra.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wizard mailing list > Wizard@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au > http://lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/wizard