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First post, by C0deHunter

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Do I only need the SOFTMPU.EXE file to be copied to the root of C:\ ?

Then add this line into my Autoexec.bat:

LH SOFTMPU.EXE /MPU:330 /SB:220 /IRQ:5

PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)

Reply 1 of 10, by dionb

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Exactly that as a minimum. Requirement is that you already have a sound card with resources set as in the example (A220 I5 P330)

I'd generally put it in its own directory for orderliness, but that doesn't affect functionality.

Reply 2 of 10, by C0deHunter

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Awesome, thanks!

PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)

Reply 3 of 10, by C0deHunter

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UPDATE:
I just replaced my IDE CD-ROM drive with a SCSI one, on an Adaptec AHA-2940UW PCI adapter. Whenever I boot the system, I get this error message:
MPU-401 detected at port 330
! Error: Sound Blaster not detected at port 220 IRQ 5

This is my current SOFTMPU.EXE entry in Autoexec.bat file:

LH C:\UTILS\SOFTMPU\SOFTMPU.EXE /MPU:330 /SB:220 /IRQ:5

Also the Blaster environment loads at is set at: A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6

I haven't touched my sound card at all, I am not sure why I get this message. Any help would be appreciated!

PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)

Reply 4 of 10, by vetz

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What kind of display adapter do you got in the system? I know this might sound strange, but PCI bios settings can cause ISA cards to lockup the system or not be detected.

3D Accelerated Games List (Proprietary APIs - No 3DFX/Direct3D)
3D Acceleration Comparison Episodes

Reply 5 of 10, by C0deHunter

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These are the messages in BIOS / DOS:
I am using Phil's Computer Lab DOS menu.

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Last edited by C0deHunter on 2020-10-28, 23:42. Edited 2 times in total.

PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)

Reply 6 of 10, by C0deHunter

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And the last two messages:

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PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)

Reply 7 of 10, by C0deHunter

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vetz wrote on 2020-10-28, 22:50:

What kind of display adapter do you got in the system? I know this might sound strange, but PCI bios settings can cause ISA cards to lockup the system or not be detected.

I have an AGP Rage Pro 128 .

OBSERVATION 1)
I just tested the system with Quake, and inserted the actual CD-ROM (has Trent Reznor's Red-book audio):
Both sound effects and CD audio works flawlessly.

OBSERVATION 2)
MUNT seems to be working fine, even with the SoftMPU error message.

PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)

Reply 8 of 10, by dionb

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Hmm, sounds like PnP hell. Does your BIOS let you see IRQ allocation for PnP devices? Wouldn't surprise me if the AHA-2940 is conflicting with the AWE64 somehow.

Perhaps you could try moving the AHA-2940 to a different PCI slot.

C0deHunter wrote on 2020-10-28, 23:46:
[...] […]
Show full quote

[...]

I have an AGP Rage Pro 128 .

OBSERVATION 1)
I just tested the system with Quake, and inserted the actual CD-ROM (has Trent Reznor's Red-book audio):
Both sound effects and CD audio works flawlessly.

OBSERVATION 2)
MUNT seems to be working fine, even with the SoftMPU error message.

OK, but MUNT and Quake don't need SoftMPU as they support MPU-401 UART MIDI...

What happens if you try to run a game that does require SoftMPU?
(don't know what old stuff you play, but I assume you're running SoftMPU for a reason - I generally test for intelligent mode with Ultima 6)

Reply 9 of 10, by C0deHunter

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What happens if you try to run a game that does require SoftMPU?
(don't know what old stuff you play, but I assume you're running SoftMPU for a reason - I generally test for intelligent mode with Ultima 6)

As I mentioned, all MT-32 games sound great in MUNT. The reason I mentioned Quake was to make a point that AWE64 is working.

PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)

Reply 10 of 10, by C0deHunter

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C0deHunter wrote on 2020-10-29, 17:07:

What happens if you try to run a game that does require SoftMPU?
(don't know what old stuff you play, but I assume you're running SoftMPU for a reason - I generally test for intelligent mode with Ultima 6)

As I mentioned, all MT-32 games sound great in MUNT. The reason I mentioned Quake was to make a point that AWE64 is working.

UPDATE:
I just ran AWE64 DOS based diagnose utility, and it fails at setting IRQ 5 to my card. I even moved the Adaptec to a different PCI slot, and it did not help.

UPDATE2:
I think I have isolated and fixed the issue, went into the BIOS, and under the Resources Controlled By, changed it from Auto to Manual, and under IRQ 5, changed it to Legacy ISA for my AWE64.

Upon a reboot, I no longer get the SoftMPU error message, and when I also run AWE64 DOS diagnose utility, no conflict is reported.

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PIII-800E | Abit BH-6 | GeForce FX 5200 | 64MB SD-RAM PC100 | AWE64 Gold | Sound Canvas 55 MKII | SoftMPU | 16GBGB Transcend CF as C:\ and 64GB Transcend CF D:\ (Games) | OS: MS-DOS 7.1-Win98SE-WinME-Win2K Pro (multi-OS menu Using System Commander 2K)