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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: Damion on February 05, 2010, 04:25:48 AM
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Sorry if this question belongs in 1999, but is it safe to say these cards are a bit unstable?
MP3 streams up to 192k will often play for hours, but anything higher causes a crash, usually within 0-40 minutes. There's a little "pop" in the audio, music dies, and CPU load goes to max if you attempt to quit AMPlifier or reset the Delfina.
The Michael Henke patched libs do help somewhat, as did replacing the leaking SMT caps on the card. It's still a bit unreliable though... any thoughts?
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The Delfina is known to cause a lot of issues. Some users have been lucky enough and it seems their system tolerates well this card. Just search on any old enough Amiga forum, and you will find quite a lot of complaints like yours.
I am sorry i cannot suggest any solutions to your problem, rather than getting rid of it.
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My Delfina Plus also crashes once in awhile but when it does it seems to lock-up at the point of the sound it is playing so you get a continual loud annoying sound until you shut down the computer. I had it happen the other day when I was in the AHI prefs program and I pushed the sample sound button. It locked up making the sample sound. After I shut down the computer and restarted it I tried the prefs program and sample sound button and it worked fine. Go Figure?
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Thanks guys. I had read about some problems, but Michael Henke made a comment about the Lite being the most stable (or something along those lines) so I was hopeful. :)
My Delfina Plus also crashes once in awhile but when it does it seems to lock-up at the point of the sound it is playing so you get a continual loud annoying sound until you shut down the computer.
Mine has also done that. Sometimes it crashes and immediately takes down the whole computer... and from what I'm reading, all Delfina models share similar issues. Really a shame, it's otherwise a nice card, and had some fun software.
Well, maybe I'll finally put a DENEB in the A2000, and try running my Melody Pro on the clockport. The Melody is the exact opposite of the Delfina, perfectly stable 100% of the time. The output is clearer and considerably less noisy as well.
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Mine Delfina DSP Lite creases too...
Unfortunately this is confirmed by most of the users.
And there is no way to improve as the problem is that DSP installed on the board is too weak to decode mp3 stream; DSP usage is bouncing 100% and it's easy to crash any time.
There are few ways to live with this:
1) decode mp3 by software way by main CPU (060@60MHz (060@60MHz) or any PPC)
2) use clockport on Deneb with some nice clockport music card
3) use cheap USB sound card with DENEB! Cheap, reliable, no issues.
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The reason for why it struggles with mp3's higher than 192kbps is that you problebly have a 40MHz DSP. When I had my A4000 with Delfina Lite, I overclocked it from 40MHz to 66MHz. This helped a lot! After the upgrade, even 320kbps mp3 songs worked fine! So, if you find someone that can change crystals for you, do it.
I am a Delfina fan :) Love the sound of it! Best there is...
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You can also try this tool: http://aminet.net/package/driver/audio/DelfTweak
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Appreciate the replies.
Yes, default is 40MHz. I tried overclocking with DelfTweak, which proved unreliable. Since the card handled lower bitrate streams (= no overclocking) more reliably, I had to wonder if the overclocking was causing some of the crashes.
This might sound ridiculous, but I replaced the 40MHz DSP with the 66MHz part as found on the Plus, Flipper, and some of the original clockport cards (NOS part with a datecode of 2002, apparently the last year of the 56002).
It's still crashing, but I'm finding clockrate appears to be a factor. For example, at 44 or 52MHz (both enough for 256k streams with no hiccups) the card repeatedly sh!ts rather quickly. So far at 60 MHz (which the old DSP couldn't handle for long), I'm having far better luck, although not perfect.
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I have quite stable mp3 playback with Delfina Lite... I don't remember that delfmpeg would have crashed even once, but got some rare lockups with AMPlifier. Those might be for any other reason too as they usually happens when you've played music whole day or so.
I have hw overclocked Lite... I'd guess it is 60MHz, but can't remember for sure. I also have DelfInit (http://aminet.net/package/util/misc/DelfInit) to replace original initialization program in user-startup. And also Henke's delfina.library patch (http://jpv.wmhost.com/delflib_patch_2.lzx) in use.
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I also get the occasional Delfina Lite lockups/crashes, but I always took them to be due to the insanely buggy delfina.library rather than the hardware. From what I understand, the patched version of the library doesn't fix the bugs, it just suppresses them (I.E., things are still going bad behind the scenes).
The newer versions of the library made for the Flipper board don't work with the Lite board, at least for me. I would pay money for a compatible and bugfixed version - anyone want to take a crack at it? It's GPLed now...
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Sorry if this question belongs in 1999, but is it safe to say these cards are a bit unstable?
MP3 streams up to 192k will often play for hours, but anything higher causes a crash, usually within 0-40 minutes. There's a little "pop" in the audio, music dies, and CPU load goes to max if you attempt to quit AMPlifier or reset the Delfina.
The Michael Henke patched libs do help somewhat, as did replacing the leaking SMT caps on the card. It's still a bit unreliable though... any thoughts?
the Delfina Lite is a perfect example of what destroyed the Amiga.
Hardware hyped about all it will do when it actually did none of it.
It was the biggest waste of 169 dollars I have ever spent in my life.
At the time I had a warp 040 processor, the idiots that made the delfina lite told me I needed an 060, I bought an 060, it never did work. Not only that it writes crap to your startup file and screws with other programs. (like that wonderful sound on bootup)
I downloaded their web page and if ANY company has any of those names listed as employees I will never buy from them.
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From what I understand, the patched version of the library doesn't fix the bugs, it just suppresses them (I.E., things are still going bad behind the scenes).
This makes sense, as the same errors happen with the patched lib, it only goes longer intervals before it happens. (Although, the "instant crash" with skipping audio is about eliminated.) As far as net radio, the interval is directly related to the bitrate of the stream. I haven't tried streaming from CD or disk, but will give it a go eventually.
Interestingly, running executive has helped tremendously. Audio still predictably quits, but in almost all cases, I've been able to restart the stream, or select another one without the Delfina crashing and CPU load going 100%. I'm using the "feedback" scheduler, but I have no idea if one might be better than another, or why executive has made a positive improvement at all.
Another thing I've noticed - there appear to be at least 2 versions of the Lite. A later one with two buffer ICs by the edge connector, and the earlier one (mine) with only one IC. As moving the card further down the bus seems to have a positive affect, I wonder if the v1.2 cards ("eXtreme buffers edition") are more stable?
@jsixis
Dude, had I bought one when they were new, I would have been equally annoyed! My A3000 is more tolerant of problematic Zorro cards, maybe it'll work better there. :/
edit: Made it 6 1/2 hours before it finally tanked, only had to restart the audio four or five times in between...
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OK, over 10 hours without a hiccup on the same 96k stream, and that includes some IBrowse use as well. Basically it only chokes over 160k, not too bad considering the card is known to be a little problematic. I've also managed several hours of 192 and 256k streams, although it's risky. :)
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Mine Delfina DSP Lite creases too...
3) use cheap USB sound card with DENEB! Cheap, reliable, no issues.
In which usb sound card instead of Delfina? I can connect to it amiga audio and cd-rom drive? MP3 will be decode by CPU not DSP?
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In which usb sound card instead of Delfina? I can connect to it amiga audio and cd-rom drive? MP3 will be decode by CPU not DSP?
Look here:
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=50506
To be honest I'm using Delfina Lite still, but I will buy USB sound card soon; beleive me :)
MP3 stream is decoded by main CPU for $3 card; but it seems that for more advanced USB cards all decoding is done by music card hardware. And I'm targeting to have Creative Labs SoundBlaster X-fi on USB.
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Sorry for hijacking this thread but can someone point me to what drivers are best to use with the Delfina Lite?
I bought one several years ago and have hardly used it and the drivers that came with it are probably ancient
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I have been on Creative web site and there is no info about hardware decoding for MP3...
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I have been on Creative web site and there is no info about hardware decoding for MP3...
Bad news...
It means no reason to spend more money for Creative; better to buy 2-3 different cheap USB cards with hope that at at least 1 will be ok.
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Sorry for hijacking this thread but can someone point me to what drivers are best to use with the Delfina Lite?
I bought one several years ago and have hardly used it and the drivers that came with it are probably ancient
Use the patched libs pVC linked to earlier in the thread. The card will be about as stable as it's going to be, with the downside that DelfLoad no longer works.
Mine is good now with bitrates up to 192k, but will crash sooner than later if I do anything else simultaneously. Hoping the Melody works on the DENEB clockport.
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Just an update. After a little hiatus from Amigaland, I had a real desire to figure this problem out and enjoy some netradio from my A2000 + Delfina card. :-) Despite my last post, the thing started crashing again, even with low-bitrate streams - it just took longer. In short, bitrates up to 128k are entirely safe, at least for my test period of a few days.
The long story...
The Ariadne 2 card was my biggest problem. I had reproducible crashes during times of high Zorro bus load, which would lock the Delfina, and sometimes the whole system. (Narrowed this one down by process of elimination.) Replaced with an original Ariadne (thanks to a nice Norwegian fellow), and aside from performing measurably better, no more crashes under the above conditions.
-- Sidenote -- Actually, the Ariadne is the only network card I have that works in my A2000 alongside the TekMagic and PIV. Both my A4066 (fastest of the bunch) and Ariadne 2 cause problems, though they're perfectly fine in my A3000D. The issues with the Ariadne 2 in the A2000 were far more subtle, and it took a looong time to figure out WTF it was.
Delfinit was causing the Delfina to freeze, as soon as it was ran... but only on 2 of 3 resets. :-/ Not sure what the issue was (verified this one over and over), but everything is fine using Delftweak alone.
I also quit overclocking my Amigas. Returned the TekMagic from 60 to 50MHz :-) Too risky wrt the programmable logic, IMHO, and who knows what other kind of weird problems might be caused, especially in a loaded Zorro system. Can't say whether or not this had any real effect, aside from my peace of mind. However, along with replacing the Ariadne 2, the thing -- as far as Amigas go -- is absolutely ROCK SOLID now, just like my A1200 and A3000.
Unfortunately, bitrates above 128k are still not reliable. Oddly, one 256k stream will predictably crash within minutes, while another runs for several hours. No idea why. I figure the card is simply old tech, sw a little buggy... just the legend of the Delfina... :shrug:
To summarize:
Got card, replaced obviously leaking capacitors
Installed Micheal Henke patched lib
Replaced DSP with 66MHz rated part <--in hindsight this was kind of dumb, fortunately everything went *perfectly* , but I easily could have ruined some rare hardware! Overclocking the card, even mildly, made no difference in the frequency of crashes, with either DSP
Replaced Ariadne 2 with Ariadne
Quit using Delfinit, just Delftweak
Returned accelerator to original clock
and
Stick to 128k bitrate. This just seems to be the reliable limit, same exact behavior in my A3000 as well. At least I know it's usable under certain conditions, just don't ask _too_ much from it and it's a pretty nice old card.