First post, by Rawit
- Rank
- Oldbie
Perhaps the same issue as in this thread but didn't want to hijack it:
High DMA Woes (GUS, SB16, etc)
I built a DOS/Win 3.11 system around a Cyrix MediaGXM board. The mainboard has a legacy sound option (Cyrix XpressAudio based) in the BIOS where you can set the address, MPU address, IRQ, DMA and High DMA. I've set it to 220, 5, 1, 5 (forgot the MPU address) and it indeed works as a Sound Blaster 16 compatible device. I even installed the Creative Labs SB16 drivers, which work in both DOS and Windows 3.11. Mixer works, audio works in games, no issues there.
Then I installed a Gravis UltraSound ACE 1.1 in the system. Detection during the setup didn't went well, but I forced the install anyways. I configured it to 240, 7, 7, 7, 7, using 4.11 drivers, ULTRINIT 2.16 -DJ and it works... Until I use the Sound Blaster device, even as Adlib only (not using High DMA). After this, Doom, Blood, playmidi or any software that uses the GUS hangs or give an error that it can't find the UltraSound card. When I switch the configuration to 240, 3, 3, 7, 7 I have no issues, so it seems that utilizing the Sound Blaster device does something with the availability of the High DMA.
What is even stranger, on a fresh boot, with a game configured to use SB16 for FX and GUS for music, both cards using High DMA, there are no problems. It's after I exit the game and starting it again the GUS inits of games hang and other software hangs or can't find the GUS anymore.
What I've tried so far:
- No drivers for the SB16, SET BLASTER only;
- Switched between AUTO configure/manual configure legacy ISA/PCI in the BIOS for the needed resources;
- Tried all 16-bit / 8-bit IO recovery clocks to see if it makes a difference;
- Disabled/Enabled Adlib on the GUS ACE;
- Tried installing/using the GUS Extreme drivers/utilities but that doesn't work;
- Disabled as much hardware as possible (serial ports, parallel, USB controller, FD controller to free resources and avoid conflicts.
The system works with DMA 3, but I would like the GUS to use High DMA, as it seems just a bit faster when it does.
Some notes with this system which are probably unrelated:
- Both the Cyrix XpressAudio device and the GUS think they have MPU-401/joystick port, but it's missing on both physically;
- ULTRINIT 2.26 with the -DJ switch is needed to make the GUS work at all;
- Some ticker/timer/speed seems off; FT2 music playback is slow/inconsistent using the GUS, Jazz Jackrabbit music is very slow when using SB16 (it might be VGA related);
Anybody more ideas that I can try?