Can you tell me what laptops are known to be compatible with PSK31? ...

Q Can you tell me what laptops are known to be compatible with PSK31?

A If a laptop has a built-in sound card with audio inputs and outputs, it should be useable for PSK31. In practice, however, some laptops have sound systems that refuse to work with the PSK31 software. Others lack the necessary processor muscle.

A few months ago Martin Campbell, KB0HAE, conducted a survey on one of the PSK31 e-mail reflectors to determine which laptops were being used successfully with PSK31. The following list represents the reports of reflector subscribers. It is not a comprehensive list of compatible laptops.

Compaq Armada 1572
Dell 3500 Pentium II 266 laptop with 64 MBytes RAM
Gateway 5150 w/ 300 MHz Celeron
Hitachi MX166
Micron Pentium 166 MHz with 32 MBytes RAM
Mitsuba 486/66 DX
Mitsubishi Amity CN1 (P133/48MB RAM)
NEC Versa 486/33
Toshiba 420 CT
Toshiba Tecra 300CDT
Toshiba Satellite
Toshiba Satellite Pro
Winbook XL 266 MHz Pentium II

From QST December 1999

I just installed a Creative Labs “SoundBlaster” AWE64 sound card in my shack ...

Q I just installed a Creative Labs “SoundBlaster” AWE64 sound card in my shack PC to replace my old SoundBlaster 16. My kids use the computer for games and homework and they wanted the enhanced sound capability. I wanted to try SSTV and the new PSK31 HF digital mode using the sound card as well. The problem is that Windows 95 keeps telling me that the AWE64 is not working, even though it detects it, and it insists that my old SoundBlaster 16 is still present! I’m confused.

A So is your computer! It sounds like you need to do a clean sweep of the Windows 95 SoundBlaster driver files, purging the old SoundBlaster 16 drivers and loading the new AWE64 drivers.

1. Grab the file SBW9XUP.EXE on the Web from http:// www.support.soundblaster.com/. This will give you a complete set of the very latest AWE64 drivers.
2. Run the file in an empty directory to unzip it.
3. On your Windows 95 task bar, go to START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL, SYSTEM and, finally, DEVICE MANAGER.
4. Go to the “sound, video, and game controllers” line.
5. Remove all sound card listings.
6. Go back to START and restart your computer in the MS-DOS mode.
7. Go to the “c:\windows” directory.
8. Delete awe*.*.
9. Go to the “c:\windows\system” directory.
10. Delete sb*.*, wfm*.*, csp*.*, and cif*.*
11. Go to the “c:\windows\inf” directory.
12. Rename *.bin to *.cli
13. Reboot the computer.
14. When your PC detects the AWE64 and asks for a CD-ROM or diskette, do not insert it. Instead, click on the BROWSE button and go to the directory where you unzipped the SBW9XUP.EXE file.
15. Let your PC pull the drivers from there.
    

Once your computer pulls the drivers and finishes booting to Windows, you should have everything installed correctly.

From QST May 1999