You have 2 options:

1. Boot from floppy
2. Boot into Windows, and then select "Restart to MS-DOS". But option 2 will only work if the computer doesn't completely reboot. In other words you will be utilizing dosstart.bat with the default "Exit to DOS" PIF.

Hi there! Thx for your answer.
I have already tried going to dos from windows. Sadly, that didn't work either.
I even tried installing the "dos only" drivers from Phils computer lab. It's always the same:
Soundblaster sounds are playing fine, but no midi what so ever...
There is no midi playback under windows either. Sure, I can FM synthesize it and it works just fine, but as soon as I try to output over 401 to the sc-88 I'm greeted with total silence.
Is there maybe any possibility to troubleshoot such a divice?

Have a nice evening!

Have you tried a factory reset for the SC-88?

What outputs are you using on thew SC-88? Have you tried all the outputs?

RFR wrote:

Hi!

The SC-88 is switched to midi, too and all the cables should be in order, as far as I can tell.
RFR

So it is connected to your soundcard via a gameport to MIDI cable, with the cable's MIDI OUT plug connected to one of the SC-88 MIDI IN ports? Have you tried all MIDI IN ports on the SC-88? If you're using the front MIDI IN port, make sure the SC-88's settings are correct.

Thx for your answers!
I am using a gameport to midi cable. The cable goes into midi in a on the backside. I have also tried midi b. I have also tried the midi in cable in both ports (just to make sure they were not labled the wrong way).
The SC-88 is set to recieve from the backside midi in a and I have set the option to standart.
The output should not be the issue either, as I can hear the SoundBlaster sound, that is routed through the SC-88.
I think I have also made a factory reset... it was called initializing if I remember correctly. But just to make sure I will try to google how to make a factory reset and give it a try this evening.

Thx for your help, and keep those suggestions coming 😀

I gave the Factory Reset a try, but it didn't help (turned out it's what I did before, too.)
I even initialized the SC-88 for GM... but that didn't help either.

Well, I still could not figure out the issue. I replaced all the cables, except for the midi cable, I'm still waiting for that. I also bougth one of those USB to midi cables, and connected it to my modern computer. I'm hoping to, that way figure out whether it is an hardware issue with the SC-88.
However, Win10 refuses to recognize the USB cable (of course...). Today, I'll have a little time to play with it, so I'll let you know if I get it to run.
In the mean-time, all helpful input is greatly appreciated.
If you got any idea what I could be doing wrong, or even just a suggestion what to try, please let it come my way.
At this point, I'll even try the local voodoo lady's magic incantation or beating it with a wrench.

Thank you!

I've made a few photos, to let you see what's going on. It's the SC-88 itself and a copy of my autoexec and the audician setup.

Can you post a picture of the back of the sc-88? I know on my sc-55mkII there's a switch for determining how to interface with the midi module.

He's already said that he has changed the switch in the back.

In Windows, have you gone to the midi tab under multimedia settings? Also go through the device manager to ensure that there are no conflicts.

Please post your entire system's specifications.

Hi!
Thanky for your response.
There are no conflicts in Windows, I did check that. The switches and cables should be in order too, but I'll try to get a quick pic in there later tonight.
The retro pc is a Fujitsu Siemens scenic, 166Mhz with Mach64 Graphics card & an audician 32 soundcard running Win 95 & DOS 6.22.
Addidtional specs I'll have to look up later tonight. I'll post them with the pic, hopefully.

Thank you, guys!

So, I'm back with the pictures. I don't have many more stats, though, except for the fact that it's got 64MB of ram.
One interesting thing I noticed though, is an error message on bootup. I don't remember that being there. Sadly it speeds through the message too fast to really see what it says (except for the last line I got on the picture, obviously). I'm thinking there might be a problem with "residual" drivers from the soundcard I had in there before the audician. But I'm just guessing here. Does anybody know how I could find out? Or see anything else wrong here?
Thx!

The error prior to the set blaster line is most likely in your config.sys file as the BLASTER line is the first of your autoexec.bat.

Booting to DOS and running setup for something like Descent lets you select your MIDI out port and test MIDI. 330 is the defacto default MIDI port. So long as your sound card doesn't have any resource conflicts, you should be fine.

What on-board stuff does this "Fujitsu Siemens scenic" have? What is enabled/disabled? What about resource configuration in your BIOS? If you had IRQ or address conflicts, I am fairly certain you would be having bigger sound and software issues than MIDI output.

With 330 as the MPU output on your sound card, the joystick->MIDI OUT cable connected to MIDI IN on the SC-88 is pretty much all you need. Your switch on the SC-88 looks good (all the way to the left).

Sadly, I really don't know what it has on board. But I'll see what I can find out. I'll take a photo of the resource configuration in the bios, too. However, I'll have to get back to you with that, today after work. Thanky for trying to figure out my mess 😀

So, back with all the info I could find. First things first: It's a Siemens Nixdorf, not a fujitsu. It should be the Scenic C5. Though I can't be entirely sure about the version, this should be the datasheet containing all the stats:

http://www.itema-pg.com/PC/Desktop/SCENIC-Pro-C5.htm

I also took pictures of the bios, though I'll have to admit I don't really know much about what I'm doing there.
So I hope one of the pictures shows what you were asking me for ^^
If there is anything else, or I gave you the wrong pics, just give me directions and I'll get the right ones 😀

Greetings!

& thx!