Problem getting sound working on old PC \ VOGONS

Problem getting sound working on old PC

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First post, by tranoidnoki

Posted on 2013-11-13, 21:08

tranoidnoki Offline

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Location: Bellmore, NY

Hello all!

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for getting sound working on an old PC I acquired from my job. It's a MicronPC Model D810E2-FLEXLP. I installed 98SE and got it working, however the only thing that I cannot get working is the sound. I did a ton of googling, and found the alleged drivers for the onboard sound of the board, an Intel D810E2CB, but when I go to install them, a white error box comes up stating that msgsrv32 has encountered an error and needs to close, and refuses to let me install the drivers. I have tried several things, including unknown devices etc, and it just won't allow me to install the driver. Any ideas?

Also I think instead of a BIOS battery, there is a 6.3v 3300uf cap on the board that has failed and my bios won't save settings on disconnecting it from power. If I replace this cap, is there a threat to the bios being erased or anything like that?

Reply 1 of 7, by Jorpho

Posted on 2013-11-13, 23:33

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It's a MicronPC Model D810E2-FLEXLP.

Not too helpful, that. How much RAM? What CPU? ISA slots? PCI slots?

Whatever it is, odds are it should at least boot Puppy Linux from a live CD. Try that and check if sound works correctly there; it may help to diagnose the problem.

Onboard sound was kind of crappy back in the early days and you should consider obtaining a PCI or ISA sound card if at all possible.

Reply 2 of 7, by tranoidnoki

Posted on 2013-11-13, 23:48

tranoidnoki Offline

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Oops sorry! It's a pentium 3 933mhz with 512MB RAM, 2 PCI slots. I am assuming something may have borked in the install, so I wiped the drive and starting over, I will def give the puppy Linux suggestion a shot though

Reply 3 of 7, by tranoidnoki

Posted on 2013-11-14, 00:07

tranoidnoki Offline

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Progress! Instead of msgsrv crashing, it now fails to install the drivers with an error code 69.

Edit: all I did was ask it to reinstall again, and it's working! Retro gaming g goodness here I come!

Last edited by tranoidnoki on 2013-11-14, 00:13. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 4 of 7, by Jorpho

Posted on 2013-11-14, 00:11

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Windows 98SE tends to get a little unstable with 512MB RAM. See for instance >512MB with Windows 98... .

I like to resolve the problem using HIMEMX to restrict the total accessible RAM to something lower, like 448 MB.

Reply 5 of 7, by d1stortion

Posted on 2013-11-14, 03:04

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512? I thought that was the last safe amount and above that you need tricks...

Reply 6 of 7, by bristlehog

Posted on 2013-11-14, 06:25

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I had two Win98SE systems with 512 Mb (one P3-based 4*128 Mb DIMM and one P4-based 1*512 Mb DDR), and had no issues.

Hardware comparisons and game system requirements: https://technical.city

Reply 7 of 7, by d1stortion

Posted on 2013-11-14, 14:19

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Same... never needed any tweaks for 512 megs on 98SE. Can't speak for amounts above that, but that's where it to me gets quite pointless anyway.

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