Read this and the posts below: YMF744+DSDMA+DOS+P965(and other PCIe chipsets)=success

I've read through that. I apologize, I'm a bit of a beginner here.

Still have no idea where to start or what I should be trying. I have 1 GB of ram in my system - I can't go any less as they literally don't make anything smaller in this ram type. I wouldn't even know where to begin trying to use JEMMEX to manage ram. When I try to use it it tells me I already have a memory manager running (namely - emm386). Again, all stuff beyond my comprehension.

Also as I noted, I cannot free up IRQ 5 on my motherboard no matter what I try.

Try editing the SETUPDS.INI to change the IRQ to 7 instead of 5 but my guess is that DSDMA is freaking out the board because of having more than 512MB of RAM.

What is the brand and model of motherboard you are using?

Please also post the contents of config.sys.

Motherboard is a Lenovo-branded L-IG41m

No luck with the DS.ini file. No matter what I set it to, running SETUPDS.EXE /s always yields IRQ5, even though running it to display info (SETUPDS.EXE /d) yields whatever IRQ the BIOS assigns it (currently 11)

config.sys has only 2 lines - DEVICE setting HIMEN.SYS as well as EMM386.EXE /FRAME=NONE.

If I disable literally everything I can get away with disabling in the BIOS (basically everything except USB) it will give the sound card an IRQ of 4, and in that instance some games (such as DOOM) actually play fine under Windows 98 DOS. The problem with IRQ 4 is that a lot of games that require manual configuration won't let you choose 4. And if I enable literally anything else in the BIOS, it gets pushed down to IRQ 10 or higher and a lot of games won't run with that high of an IRQ. The USB ports are holding on to IRQ 5 with a kung-fu grip.

You can try using the YMFIRQ utility to change the PCI IRQ of the YMF744: http://vsynchmame.mameworld.info/ymf724_dos.zip

Don't care about the IRQ 5 that SETUPDS shows, you have to use the PCI IRQ in your games instead.

Looks like the bottom line here is that the PCI IRQ can only be 4 or else 10+ depending on what devices I do or do not have enabled in the BIOS. The onboard USB always takes IRQ 3 and 5 and then from there other devices take 4, 6, etc. If I have the front USB ports enabled, they get IRQ 4. If I disable USB entirely, I cannot use USB at all, even if I have a USB PCI card installed. So IRQ 5 or 7 for the sound card appear to be out of the question - as such, even if I were able to get real DOS sound, compatibility would still be quite limited.

Compatibility in real DOS mode on this machine was never a top priority - quite frankly I'm surprised how well I was able to get Windows 98SE working. So I guess the games that do work under Windows 98 DOS mode will just be an added bonus to the wide variety of 98/XP-era games that do play fine.

UPDATE - The short version is I GOT THIS WORKING.

The long version:

Upon installing a network card in the other PCI slot, my sound card magically took IRQ 5, albeit shared with one of the USB devices.

By adding JEMMEX.EXE to my config.sys folder with 2 options - MAXEXT set to 256000 and also NOVME, I was then able to successfully run DSDMA from the Yamaha DOS folder and upon doing that, I successfully got full audio working in Duke Nukem 3d. I haven't tested anything else yet but it was nice to finally have audio and no more of that stupid DMA conflict error!

The issue this causes, however, is that with JEMMEX in my config.sys file, Windows 98 will no longer boot. So I added 2 user-selectable menu items in the config.sys file - one for DOS and one for Windows. If the user chooses Windows, then nothing else is run. If they choose DOS, however, then the JEMMEX line executes.

Right now with this being a DOS/98/XP hybrid machine, booting up is kind of messy since you first have to choose XP or 98, and then from there if you choose 98, you have several more things you have to choose whether you want DOS or 98. If you want DOS, you have to hit F8 immediately, choose command prompt only, and then choose DOS from the config.sys menu described above. If you want 98, you don't hit F8, but then have to choose 98 from the config.sys menu. It all works correctly (and DSDMA doesn't cause any problems by being added to the autoexec file because even though it would normally crash without JEMMEX loaded, if it tries to run under 98 it simply fails to load because of no memory manager being loaded and Windows 98 goes on its merry way).

If I come up with a more elegant boot option solution, I'll post full details here.

On a side note, restarting from 98 directly to DOS (selecting reboot to DOS during Windows 98 shutdown) causes the system to crash. Not a big deal since DOS runs fine from the command prompt option from the F8 startup menu, but an odd quirk nonetheless.

Sweet!

What about using HIMEMX instead of JEMMEX ?

HIMEMX and JEMMEX have different purposes.

gdjacobs wrote:

HIMEMX and JEMMEX have different purposes.

Ok.. then HIMEMX (so you can limit the amount of RAM seen by the OS, high memory, and Extended memory).

And then EMM386 for Expanded memory.

There has got to be a better way to do it then to have to have a special boot process because Windows 98 doesn't like JEMMEX.

I have some ideas how to clean up the boot. I think the easiest way to do this from the dual-boot screen (XP/98) is to have it so that if you choose 98, it automatically boots straight to DOS (MSDOS.SYS can be configured to make this the default option) and then from there a menu can automatically run where you choose 98 or DOS and all the appropriate stuff loads based on that choice. Ideally I want it so upon boot, you only have to choose XP or 98, then if you choose 98, you then choose DOS or Windows. Maximum of 2 menus as well as no need to press F8.

cyclone3d wrote:

Ok.. then HIMEMX (so you can limit the amount of RAM seen by the OS, high memory, and Extended memory). […]
Show full quote

gdjacobs wrote:

HIMEMX and JEMMEX have different purposes.

Ok.. then HIMEMX (so you can limit the amount of RAM seen by the OS, high memory, and Extended memory).

And then EMM386 for Expanded memory.

There has got to be a better way to do it then to have to have a special boot process because Windows 98 doesn't like JEMMEX.

I suspect Win98 requires EMM386. IIRC, Win 3.x did as well versus JEMM386.

gdjacobs wrote:

I suspect Win98 requires EMM386. IIRC, Win 3.x did as well versus JEMM386.

Yes, it does.. and here is why:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMM386

Windows can't take over memory management from JEMMEX.

Ok so I've managed to get the boot process cleaned up.

First menu upon turning on the computer:

If you choose Windows XP, then it boots into XP. If you choose 98 or DOS, then you get a second menu:

And that is it. I edited boot.ini on the XP side to change the wording on the first menu as shown above to reflect the DOS option and also add "98" as opposed to the generic "Microsoft Windows."

boot.ini

1[boot loader]
2timeout=30
3default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
4[operating systems]
5multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
6C:\ = "Windows 98 or DOS"

On the Windows 98 side, I edited MSDOS.SYS, CONFIG.SYS, and AUTOEXEC.BAT.

MSDOS.SYS

1[Paths]
2WinDir=C:\WINDOWS
3WinBootDir=C:\WINDOWS
4HostWinBootDrv=C
5
6[Options]
7BootMulti=0
8BootGUI=0
9DoubleBuffer=1
10AutoScan=1
11WinVer=4.10.2222
12;
13;The following lines are required for compatibility with other programs.
14;Do not remove them (MSDOS.SYS needs to be >1024 bytes).
15***** (removed for this post, but they're still in the file) ******
16Network=0

config.sys

1[MENU]
2MENUITEM=WIN, Windows 98
3MENUITEM=DOS, DOS
4[COMMON]
5[WIN]
6[DOS]
7Device=C:\Windows\JEMMEX.exe MAXEXT=256000 NOVME

autoexec.bat

1GOTO %config%
2
3:DOS
4SET  BLASTER=A220 I5  D1 T4
5copy C:\DS-XG\DOS4GW.EXE \
6chcp 437
7C:\DS-XG\SETUPDS.EXE /S
8del \DOS4GW.EXE
9C:\DS-XG\DSDMA.EXE
10GOTO END
11
12
13:WIN
14WIN
15:END

Hello. I am running a G41/ICH7 machine with a YMF744B-R card and would like to ask for advice and help on Westwood Studios games.

While FM and MIDI work fine, I am unable to get digitized samples work correctly at all. I can hear sound and speech, but it gets cut off (Lands of Lore Talkie) and sometimes (Dune II intro) does not start at all after being cut off this way, or the game locks up eventually at a certain point during the introduction (Kyrandia I and Kyrandia II talkies). This is the same in DOS, Windows 98SE and with Windows versions of the games that utilize a Westwood vxd for digitized samples playback.

I run DMKIT 150 to test sound and it plays test digital sounds ok. Also other games (Cryo's Dune Talkie, Doom, Apogee s/w like Wacky Wheels) run and sound fine.

EDIT: After havinh poked around with the games a bit more I suspect the issue is not related to sound setup as such, but rather to the fact I am trying to run them on a modern architecture. So will open a separate thread for the question.

Still, will appreciate if someone who had positive experience with these games on this particular hw setup shared that. Thanks!