Applicable for PowerSpec models: 4334, 5220, 5333, 5432
Windows 98 - DirectX 5 errors when using Yamaha Soft Synthesizer S-YXG50
Issue
DirectX 5 sound card support for Yamaha emulation causes games to lock up or perform slowly. This problem has been traced to version 1.x of the Yamaha drivers that ship with the sound card. Applications with DirectX support use the hardware device drivers to control and communicate with the sound card. Only when DirectX 5 attempts to use the Yamaha emulation mode will problems occur.

Symptoms
The game may report it is using emulation mode and performance will be degraded. Programs may appear to lock up (no messages or errors). Programs may trigger a dialog window indicating an error has occurred in DDHELP and give an option to Ignore (ALT-I) or Abort. Choosing abort will usually lock up the game and/or Windows 98.

When trying to set up NetMeeting, the setup will fail with an error occuring in DDHELP. In some games the error message is not visible because the game graphic window is displayed over the top of the dialog box. The game or application may appear to lock up or halt. Pressing Alt-I (Ignore) will bypass the error and continue running the application until DirectX tries to access the emulation device again.

Yamaha SoftSynthesizer S-YXG50 Download. Yamaha SoftSynthesizer S-YXG50 for Windows 2000/XP 32-bit. Download Yamaha SoftSynthesizer S-YXG50, File size: 8626, OS: Windows 2000/ XP, Price:0 Download Yamaha SoftSynthesizer S-YXG50 4.0 driver Home Windows Mac Scripts Drivers News.

Explanation
A problem has been isolated to v1.0 of the Yamaha drivers. When the default wave playback device is set to 'Yamaha wave file playback (emulation)' or the DirectX application defaults to the emulation driver, DirectX access to this device generates an error in DDHELP. Pressing ALT-I (Ignore) may bypass the error and continue running the application.

More information: The PowerSpec systems with the ESS 1869 sound chip have the Yamaha Soft Synthesizer S-XYG50 Driver added to give the sound chip 128 voice midi.

Programs tested: NetMeeting, DXTOOL

Solution
Update the Yamaha drivers to version 2.x

Go into Control Panel and double click 'Add / Remove Programs' and find the Yamaha Soft Synthesizer S-XYG50 listing. Highlight it and click the 'Add/Remove' button. This will uninstall the driver.

Updated Yamaha Soft Synthesizer drivers are available.

Click on this link to download the updated drivers.
syxg50.exe

syxg50 is a self-extracting .ZIP file. Download the file and place it in a work directory. Double click on the file syxg50 to extract the contents. The drivers files will be extracted to the c:powerspecdriversyamaha folder. After extracting the files go to the c:powerspecdriversyamaha folder and double click setup to install the new drivers. Restart system after installing the new drivers.

Yamaha Syxg50 Drivers