4 channel > 5.1??

[james.miller]

me again. posting yet another thread!!!

well anyway i have a cheep 4 channel soundcard (hurcules muse xl) which uses the cmi8378 chipset

when i looked at my friends soundcard (which is a 5.1 by a company called safeway) i found it uses the same cmi-8378 chipset!

can i convert mine to a 5.1?

[MospeadasDark]

Well, how many outputs do you have on the card?

Even if you do get drivers working you would need 2 front, 2 rear, 1 center and 1 sub. If your card doesn't have the appropriate outputs it wouldn't matter.

Some cards do ship w/ extra channels that aren't enabled till later. The Hercules 5.1 can do 6.1 for instance.

[james.miller]

it doesnt have the sockets, but it does have the space where the extra socket should go

[MospeadasDark]

In otherwords, it's blank? Nothing there where you could otherwise get 2 more channels?

In that case, yes, your hardware could technically do it. But you wouldn't see a bit of difference.

[james.miller]

whys not? the curcuit board is ready to accept the socket and there are markings where more capacitors should go
and the drivers use for my 4 channel and my frieends 5.1 are exactly the same

[MospeadasDark]

If you're up for a lot of soldering and have plenty of time to look up documents then I think you have a chance.

Just saying, more trouble than it's worth.

[james.miller]

i build boards for a living,its a 5 minute job to put the extra parts in.its just where do i go from there?
i think its worth it - i only paid £10 for the card - if i dies on me then ill just go get an audigy

[MospeadasDark]

Well hey, in that case. It should be easy=)

I'm sure it's possible. Just find parts..you're in the UK so I have no idea where u would get them. But when you get it together, just d/l whatever new drivers, enable 5.1 and it should work.

I had someone talk about rebuilding the wires for the AE. Totally above me.

[james.miller]

lol the part arnt a problem. i use the same capacitors everyday, and because the boss is such an ausome lady,that part are totally free! (honestly she is the best boss in the world!)

i think my main problem is the drivers - they seem to auto detect the card so i probably need to hack them or something. and thats way above me! lol

[MospeadasDark]

Well, it seems that these card have certain things that they look for in the hardware before it is enabled. I'm sure if you get the card's extra output working you should be good to go.

[james.miller]

it'll preety damn good if it does. then ive got myself a 5.1 soundcard for £10!

[GeckoBanzai]

I saw a SB live 5.1 on pricewatch for $33 so if you can modify yours you should save about half that (if the conversion is still $1.70 for each pound that is) for the investment of a little time. Still past my skillz though, I'd just buy the card.

[james.miller]

ah ive gotta try it once

[MospeadasDark]

I reckon it's no different from motherboards.

There's a reference design for all of them. You have have sound, lan, video, scsi, whatever. if you looks at your mobo that has nothing but the mobo, you should see pinouts where all the other optionals would go.

[james.miller]

exacly. and since the hardware autodected i should (in theory) just have to put the extra connectors and other parts in

[Mpegger]

If the software autodetect is anything like the GeForce3 cards, then you may need to find out what caps/resistors would need to be changed, removed, or jumpered.

But if the chip itself is set from the factory with only 4 channels enabled, it might not make any difference. I'd take a really good look at your and your friends chip. Count pins, and compare all numbers, letters and symbols printed on the chips. Even something as simple as an extra letter can mean the chips are not the same.

[james.miller]

thats the prroblem. although my friend's has the same chip, its built by a different company so the layout is slighty different.
i can pretty much tell (for the most part)whats missing for the extra connect by what capasitors and surface-mount (you might call them micro) resistors and caps are used for the other connectors.
im definatly gonna try it