Do you get a message, or does the sound just not work?

It's possible you still don't have enough free memory. Type MEM in a DOS Prompt and post the output.

no error message, it just doesn't work. Other games with a proper setup utility like tyrian or doom detect the card and work fine.

here's the output, upped it to 600+

1
2Microsoft(R) Windows 98
3   (C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1999.
4
5C:\WINDOWS>mem
6
7Memory Type        Total       Used       Free
8----------------  --------   --------   --------
9Conventional          640K        32K       608K
10Upper                  75K        75K         0K
11Reserved              384K       384K         0K
12Extended (XMS)     64,437K       149K    64,288K
13----------------  --------   --------   --------
14Total memory       65,536K       640K    64,896K
15
16Total under 1 MB      715K       106K       608K
17
18Largest executable program size       608K (623,072 bytes)
19Largest free upper memory block         0K       (0 bytes)
20MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area.
21
22C:\WINDOWS>

edit: also might be of interest: when I just uninstalled the soundcard driver in windows, and would run commander keen before restarting the PC it would not allow me to select the soundblaster option, only no sound or PC Speaker. Once restarted and after canceling the installation of new windows soundcard drivers the game would allow me to choose these options again (and then it worked).

So if you restart in msdos everything works fine yes ?

Yes, just tried it, all games seem to work fine in DOS mode (except for aladdin perhaps, forgot to try it though)

AdamP wrote:

What sound configuration do you have those games at?

j'ordos wrote:

Both these games have in common that they don't have any options to setup the soundcard. You just select soundblaster. There is no dialog to enter IO, IRQ & DMA.

As I've mentioned before: Keen4 and Stunts only use AdLib/FM synth for sound/music, so they don't need any IO/IRQ/DMA settings or BLASTER variables. AdLib only has one I/O range at 388h, and it's the same for all compatible sound cards, there is nothing to configure.
Something in the ES1869 windows drivers breaks AdLib detection for these DOS games.

I've looked and looked but so far I can't find other drivers that work. Maybe I'll try installing windows 95 instead.

The chances that Win95 will change anything are rather slim. There might be simpler ways to fix the problem, but I can't help you with that since I don't have a ES1869 card to test.

However, running old DOS games in the Win9x DOS shell may cause more problems than just broken sound support. Eventually you will come across games with timing or graphics issues, and many of those can't be fixed other than kicking back to DOS mode.

OK, thanks for all the help! Appreciate all your efforts

j'ordos wrote:

Yes, just tried it, all games seem to work fine in DOS mode (except for aladdin perhaps, forgot to try it though)

Aladdin on my PC won't work on DOS mode (or even in DOS 6.22), displaying "XMS allocation error". I found that this is happening if the system has more than 32MB RAM. I have 64, so in DOS 6.22 I solve the problem by creating a 32MB ramdrive disk. However if I run the game within windows 98SE, it runs fine, but the sound isn't working.

Yes, I tried aladdin in DOS mode now and I got that XMS allocation error as well. The laptop has 64MB RAM. I'll have a look at the RAMdisk solution, but in the end I'll probably just stick with whatever games work fine from within windows 98.

HimemX might be a slightly more elegant solution than the RAM disk.
http://www.japheth.de/Jemm.html

I used for generic setup is to add "SETBLASTER=" and thats all you need for universal support and no need to add ports and stuff but you will need to use generic Midi/Wave blaster in setup on other games!

5u3 wrote:

As I've mentioned before: Keen4 and Stunts only use AdLib/FM synth for sound/music, so they don't need any IO/IRQ/DMA settings o […]
Show full quote

AdamP wrote:

What sound configuration do you have those games at?

j'ordos wrote:

Both these games have in common that they don't have any options to setup the soundcard. You just select soundblaster. There is no dialog to enter IO, IRQ & DMA.

As I've mentioned before: Keen4 and Stunts only use AdLib/FM synth for sound/music, so they don't need any IO/IRQ/DMA settings or BLASTER variables. AdLib only has one I/O range at 388h, and it's the same for all compatible sound cards, there is nothing to configure.
Something in the ES1869 windows drivers breaks AdLib detection for these DOS games.

To this dude in 2013, I hope you eventually found your answer. Six years later I ran into your exact problem tonight when trying to play the old DOS game MegaRace under Windows 98 with my ES1869f. I noticed that if I uninstalled the windows driver and configured the game in dos suddenly the adlib would work. That's when I found this thread suggesting the VxD driver. I tried what I think is the one from the Win98 disc but it said something about needing a "Driver Disk". That's when I found this link: https://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=21438

I extracted the zip file, used the Have Disk option and manually selected the non-WDM drivers for both the Sound and Controller devices listed under device manager. I rebooted and now under Windows 98 the game's adlib music works!!! I attached the zip here for future readers as well. Hopefully this helps someone!

Hello,

i am hoping someone on here can direct me or help me resolve a sound issue i am having. i recently saw my sister in law was throwing away an older PC she has had for awhile. It's an AMD 1100mhz Nvidia enforce mother board. Which has the Hercules 3d prophet 7000 graphic card and a Sound Blaster 24 bit sounds card.

I asked her if i could have it, so i could run some of the old games for windows 98 i still had laying around. Mainly Star Trek Armada. So i figured why stop there, why not play Myst, Doom, Quake for old times sake.

The computer came with Windows XP and i was able to get windows 98 installed and running and was able to find the video drivers (after days of downloading and testing wrong ones 🤣)

The issue i have now is that i cant seem to find any drivers for windows 98 that works with Sound Blaster live 24 bit. I have been searching now for some time and all the threads i have found on different sites haven't gotten me anywhere. I've checked on creatives site, tried suggestions i found to no avail.

My question is, does anyone know if a certain sound Blaster driver would let me get away with getting some sound out of the sound card? I dont have to have all the features. I did try installing Sb 16 driver but that didnt work.

Hoping someone can help so i can play some of my games.

To be specific its Creative Labs Model SB0410

thank you

Shaheed

As per the description of this forum: "Getting old DOS games working on modern hardware. (DOSBox topics belong in DOSBox areas below, not here)." Ask old hardware and driver/configuration questions in Marvin. Marvin, the Paranoid Android

Moved to Marvin -> Sound.

protivakid wrote on 2019-12-07, 04:08:

5u3 wrote:

As I've mentioned before: Keen4 and Stunts only use AdLib/FM synth for sound/music, so they don't need any IO/IRQ/DMA settings o […]
Show full quote

AdamP wrote:

What sound configuration do you have those games at?

j'ordos wrote:

Both these games have in common that they don't have any options to setup the soundcard. You just select soundblaster. There is no dialog to enter IO, IRQ & DMA.

As I've mentioned before: Keen4 and Stunts only use AdLib/FM synth for sound/music, so they don't need any IO/IRQ/DMA settings or BLASTER variables. AdLib only has one I/O range at 388h, and it's the same for all compatible sound cards, there is nothing to configure.
Something in the ES1869 windows drivers breaks AdLib detection for these DOS games.

To this dude in 2013, I hope you eventually found your answer. Six years later I ran into your exact problem tonight when trying to play the old DOS game MegaRace under Windows 98 with my ES1869f. I noticed that if I uninstalled the windows driver and configured the game in dos suddenly the adlib would work. That's when I found this thread suggesting the VxD driver. I tried what I think is the one from the Win98 disc but it said something about needing a "Driver Disk". That's when I found this link: https://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=21438

I extracted the zip file, used the Have Disk option and manually selected the non-WDM drivers for both the Sound and Controller devices listed under device manager. I rebooted and now under Windows 98 the game's adlib music works!!! I attached the zip here for future readers as well. Hopefully this helps someone!

Wooow!, I'm not speak english, I'm speak spanish.

Thanks!, I'm happy!
Works on my Pentium II laptop, Compaq Presario 1650 with sound card ES1869 with Windows 98SE
It worked in games (run in dos mode of Windows 98SE)

Lotus, Wolfestein 3D, Lemmings...

Thanks!

This is an old topic but the Win9x driver problem still persist with v1317. If I remove all drivers (no wdm, no antoher vxd driver) I can not use the sound card on Windows sounds as expected, but when I start an adlib game in Windows 98 dos box like Volfied or Supaplex it works without any problem and Sound Blaster Pro diagnostic tool find the sound card with default PnP BIOS settings (220 IRQ7 DMA1,3). After installing the 1317 driver SBPro diagnostic tool and some DOS games are unable to find the sound card especially games with adlib option (like Volfied, Supaplex). Card is working great in pure DOS mode.

Here is the interesting thing, when I change es1869.drv and es1869.vxd with any new version (ex. v1207) of es1868.drv and es1868.vxd and rename them as es1869.drv and .vxd, the above games works perfectly from Windows 98 Dos box. But there is a catch. With Es1868 drivers I lost Spatial Audio in Windows (because 1869 has integrated spatial audio and in 1868 it's a different external module) and in some Windows games it gives me a stuttering sound (3D Pinball etc.).

I think Es1869 drivers (I tested 8 or 9 drivers and all Win9x versions) has a bug like this. I tested 2 different Es1869 ISA card (one has an integrated FM Radio Module) and they are exactly same results.

It's not a life and death issue to not able to run DOS games from Windows but is there any modified version of Es1869 drivers around or any other trick to enable sound from Windows?