Driver Search : 1995 Acer Magic V1 - Its a MPEG decoder card for 386 and 486 systems.

OldPcCollector

Hello!

I am a collector of very old computer equipment.
At the moment I am looking for a driver for the 1995 ISA card "Magic V1" from Acer/AESL. FCC ID: IPLV1.
It is an MPEG decoder card for 386 and 486 systems. The card has a chipset with Winbond W9920A-1 and AD ADSP-2105.

I would be very happy about any hints! 😀

Btw. I also own Acer 500+ and Acer 700 Systems from the late 80s. Still working brilliantly. 😉

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/685247/driver-search-1995-acer-magic-v1-isa-mpeg-decoder

There are allot of articles and references for this ISA card on the web, have a look here at HACKADAY or SPECTRUM and see if you can get any results. Or look at FILEPERSUITand the driver is this DiskMagic v1.0 (1995)(MAXON Computer)[WB].zip

OldPcCollector

Wow, this is the first time I've gotten such a bad chatbot response on a forum. 🤨

Let's take a closer look at each statement:

- "There are allot of articles and references for this ISA card on the web…"
There are Basically none. One in a russian forum if you're seraching for hours and one on VOGONS in a thread created by me.

-  "…have a look here at HACKADAY or SPECTRUM and see if you can get any results"
Hackaday is just a random popular webnews page and Spectrum Instrumentation is a random manufacturer of measuring instruments.
They have no connection to any of this.

- "Or look at FILEPERSUITand the driver is this DiskMagic v1.0 (1995)(MAXON Computer)[WB].zip"
Another random popular page and the mentioned driver is for Commodore Amiga.
Again, no connection.

Leostat

This one is going to be hard to find! The part number ( 3502401000 ) of it doesnt exist on the support site we have access to but it does recognise it as a serial number (hey had to try right!) neither does the MM9410319P show anything

Tis a pretty looking card, ive noticed that on the other one its got Vertex M1 on it, could it be possible that that company may offer a driver which is compatible without the audio DSP? (Hardware that old is well outside what im used to looking at!)

My other thought is trying to force the driver you found to install by patching out the audio driver, if its doing something along the lines of checking for the existance of something , it may be possible to binary patch it to negate the check using Ghidra (assuming that it is doing something ala if (!audio) then {throw (error)} . What sort of errors do you get when you try to install it?

billsey

Yes, anything we have access to is going to be for much newer hardware than that. :(

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1202198#Comment_1202198

Well and WOW🙄 yours "is the first time I've gotten such a bad chatbot response on a forum from such an ungrateful person" listen here, this relates to a driver that is 28 years ago and todays Acer does not have any info on, Acer stops their driver listings on their products after 12 years, get on an appropriate forum where they specialize in the dinosaur driver that you want a copy of or information on, I was trying to guide you and help you out in some way and not be rude like you are, don't be obnoxious and rude, have some manners, thank you!🙄

LiberFlex

Finding drivers for the 1995 ISA card "Magic V1" from Acer/AESL can be challenging. Contact the manufacturer directly, check vintage computer forums, and explore archive websites for potential leads. Investigate emulation communities and consider reverse engineering projects on GitHub. Due to the card's rarity, alternative drivers or seeking advice from individuals experienced with vintage hardware may be necessary. Check any existing documentation or manuals for clues on driver sources or installation procedures. Keep in mind the age of the hardware and exercise caution when exploring online resources.