trying to use 2 sound cards (Phillips, Yamaha)

It's almost impossible to use two sounds cards in a standard PC.  There usually are not enough IRQs or DMA lines available to accomodate two and these resources cannot be shared.  You also often run into software/driver limitations where you may have an available IRQ or DMA but not be able to choose that one for the card.  It ends up being a "catch-22" situation.

not even just one for recording and one for playing???  I got a fast computer.  900mhz 133 frontside bus along with 256 megs of ram.

Speed has nothing to do with this.  The PC architecture is severaly hampered by IRQ and DMA line limitations.  They cannot be shared and there are not enough free.

What's keeping you from getting one card that can handle your situation?  Many cards can play and record at the same time.

This is probably a job for Macintosh.  I hate Macs, but they don't seem to suffer from many of the limitations of PCs.

Hi , can you explain what you are looking for ,is it a Philips soundcard as in Philips TVs videos etc ...same comapny ?

It is doable.  Here is a link discussing one person's experiences

http://www.pgmusic.com/071698a.htm

I ran a query on Google

http://www.google.com/search?q=two+soundcards&btnG=Google+Search

and the links show people who have  done it (many using Linux).

dbrunton, that first person's website lists his cards as a pair of soundblasters: An SB16 and an AWE32.  Having owned both of those models, I know they are both single IRQ, single DMA cards if you don't want the full backwards compatibility in the AWE32.  It would be a relatively easy task to set them up, especially if you don't need any serial ports in the computer.

So, what are the requirements for this Philips and built in Yamaha?  It's perfectly possible that these are both multi-IRQ and/or multi-DMA models that will run the computer out of resources.  The worst sound card I've ever used took 3 of both IRQs and DMAs.  Forget running two of those.  You could pretty much forget running one, as I recall...

i don;t agree with jhance. I have used two cards those too isa based at a time.
one was creative awe64 and other old ess1868
they work fine

i have a phillips acoustic edge card.  it has spdif and regular computer speaker wires coming out of it.  should I just buy another card that can handle it?

Your new card should be suffecient.  As far as the PC not recognizing the On-Board card, open Contro Panet>System>choose the tab for Device Manager, on the sound card icon for on-board, click on it to highlight it, then go to the bottom of the box, and choose properties, and a box will appear with options, choose Disable in this Hardware Profile.

Thanks

Although a lot of you aren't going to get the 200 points  I still am very greatful for everyone's help.  People helping other people for free is a hard thing to find these days.  

nationnon, has no one actually helped, or are you still having a problem?

I don't know it's not recording and playing at the same time.  

Question.  Does the software concerned support the use of two sound cards at the same time?

I know that there is software out there that does?  Does your software do this?