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Windows 3.1 Sound problem

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First post, by JeffIrok

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I searched all over before making this post...The posts I found were folks who were pretty much not installing the right drivers. My problem's a little different.

I pulled my old hard drive and copied my old Windows 3.1 files into my new PC, and configured it using DosBox, loading the proper Display and Audio drivers. It works very well except for the sound. The drivers loaded properly (I was sure to change the Irq from 5 to 7), and when I booted up Windows 3.1, Windows greeted me by saying it created a new Program Group, which was the SB suite of applications. However, when I go to play a .WAV or a .MID file, I get an error. The error varies a little depending on what I'm using to play the sound with, but the gist is that Windows thinks the file's in use (which it's not) and I need to wait for it to no longer be used, or that it can't play the file and gives me a list of suggestions (make sure the file exists and is a wave file, make sure the sound device is not already being used, make sure enough memory is available). Of course, none of those is the problem.

I'm using DosBox 0.74 and Windows 10. I hope this can be resolved. It's such a trip seeing Windows 3.1 how I left it so many years ago! I'd love it to be back to fully functional!

Thanks for any help!

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Reply 1 of 20, by Dominus

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Maybe an old driver is still present and causing problems (in the w3.x control panel search through drivers and weed out what is not needed anymore).
I've revived an old Windows 3.x installation through Dosbox as well and it *can* work 😉

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
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Reply 2 of 20, by JeffIrok

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Thanks, Dominus. I took your advice and removed anything that looked like it might be conflicting but no change.

The thing is that I would have thought (and hoped) it would be a driver conflict since my original setup had different drivers to start. But I removed them and anything else that looked like it could conflict.

I was digging deeper in my old hard drive and found the original Sim City for Windows (version 1.1). It works great! Except for when it goes to play the .mid music, I get a an error message saying that it's in use... 🙁

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Reply 3 of 20, by JeffIrok

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Would it be possible for someone to copy and paste a System.ini that's configured to work under DosBox? Ideally, one just after a successful stall, but even if not, I could probably figure out where mine is going wrong (assuming that it can be corrected in the System.ini.)

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Reply 4 of 20, by Dominus

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I think I can do that later...

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
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Reply 5 of 20, by collector

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Here is one from my Win3.1. It is set to use the S3 Trio64V 1.70.04 driver.

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    SYSTEM.INI
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    2.64 KiB
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    220 downloads
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    Fair use/fair dealing exception

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Reply 6 of 20, by Stick

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Here is my system.ini after initial install and another after I installed the SoundBlaster driver -
No video drivers have been installed

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Reply 8 of 20, by JeffIrok

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Well, I tried the different System.ini files, only swapping in things that I needed to keep Windows running like the display drives, but there's no difference. I get the same messages and responses essentially indicating all devices are in use.

I was hoping it was just a system.ini conflict, but it has to be somewhere else. I checked all other .ini files in case something was somehow tying up the audio but I couldn't find anything. It's weird because I use DOSBox to run DOS-based games and get audio with no problem. I suppose it can't be a DOSBox anyway since Windows is finding the problem.

Can there be something obvious I'm overlooking? Should I be doing something before I mount the drives and load Windows? I made sure my Interrupt is set to 7 and not 5...It looks like DOSBox sets the audio card as soon as it loads...I can't figure this out... 🙁

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Reply 9 of 20, by Dominus

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hmm, did you reinstall the SB drivers? (best from the guide)
Maybe before that uninstall the old stuff, perhaps by getting rid of the drivers in the Windows 3.x control panel.

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper

Reply 10 of 20, by collector

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Keep in mind that the drivers specified in the INI do need to be present. What if you exit Windows and run setup.exe?

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Reply 11 of 20, by JeffIrok

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Thanks folks. Yeah, I tried all of that. I've reinstalled several times as well as removed all old drivers from the control panel and even removed the actual drivers themselves. Regarding setup.exe, it doesn't appear to deal with the soundcard.

Is there any way in Win 3.1 that you can tell what is using a device? If I could see that, maybe I could pinpoint a resolution.

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Reply 13 of 20, by Jorpho

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Could be a MIDI Sequencer problem. See Re: Sound Blaster 16 No Midi In Windows 3.1 Or Dos .

You also might want to check that it isn't somehow trying to play a startup sound.

Reply 14 of 20, by JeffIrok

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Thanks guys. My MIDI Mapper appears to be configured correctly. I don't think I mentioned it but I not only don't hear digital audio, but .mid files are not playable either. EXCEPT for the fact that when I try to play a .mid file (with the player that came with the drivers) I hear a little "pop" before I get the error message. At least it's trying...!

I really appreciate the help, and wish I could reward this by saying "It worked!" I'm starting to get discouraged. I was looking forward to maximizing my old Windows 3.1 setup. I even was downloading cool programs from WinWorld.

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Reply 15 of 20, by ripsaw8080

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Why not just install Win3 in DOSBox with the recommended drivers? It's almost certain to be less frustrating than trying to track down and fix what is glitching up the old installation.

Reply 16 of 20, by Jorpho

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Installing a fresh copy of Windows might be a good idea, yes.

If you exit Windows and try to run an ordinary DOS game from DOSBox, do you have sound there?

Reply 17 of 20, by JeffIrok

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Yeah, I have sound when playing a DOS game from DOSBox.

Installing a fresh Windows may be the way to go since I keep hitting a brick wall. If that works, I could probably ease back into my old installation and maybe even find the problem. Any idea where Windows 3.1 install disk images may be?

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Reply 18 of 20, by Dominus

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Don't ask for those here...

Windows 3.1x guide for DOSBox
60 seconds guide to DOSBox
DOSBox SVN snapshot for macOS (10.4-11.x ppc/intel 32/64bit) notarized for gatekeeper