VOGONS

Search

Common searches

ESS1688 Causing Trouble: Wolfenstein 3D freezes/Monkey Island-No Sound

Topic actions

First post, by Galacnor

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Hello everyone,

With this new coronavirus thing I'm staying inside a-lot and messing with some computers of mine.

On the table right now is a nice 386 class system equipped with an AMD 386DX-40.

I previously had this computer working like a champ; but, a failure of the 30 year old hard drive in December meant that I had to rebuild the system. This time I opted for a compact flash based solution for file storage because of how scarce working IDE drives small enough for DOS to use reliably are getting. (Overall I'm very happy with the compact flash solution I've installed!)

I rebuilt the system on the compact flash card, and everything is running as intended-for the most part. The final problem I am now having is related to the sound card.

The system is equipped with an ESS1866. My specific card has an IDE controller integrated onto it, as well.

Since rebuilding my system I've been unable to get the card working correctly again and need a little help getting things back off the ground.

Right now the card is set to:

Port:220
IREQ:7
DMA: ?

Using the ESS1688 config program it also asks me to configure an MPU-401. I'm not sure exactly what that is or if my card even has one, as it seems to give the option to disable it!

I've tried testing a few games on it that I had running before without problems. 1.Monkey Island 2. Wolfenstein 3D 3.DOOM

Monkey island simply starts and plays without any sound

DOOM, once configured, runs perfectly with all sound effects and music

Wolfenstein 3D is the really prickly one, and it freezes as soon as I try to shoot my gun or open a door if digital sound effects are enabled. With digital sound effects disable the game runs correctly.

I remember when I first tried to run this card it gave me a-lot of trouble before I got it working! What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for your help, guys!

Alex

Reply 1 of 6, by derSammler

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Why "DMA: ?"..? What DMA are you using? I'd recommend setting the card to 220, IRQ 5, DMA 1, HDMA 5. MPU-401 is for MIDI. You can disable it if you don't have a MIDI device connected. Also, when using ESSCFG, let it do the autoexec.bat modification it asks for.

Reply 2 of 6, by Galacnor

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
derSammler wrote on 2020-03-19, 07:31:

Why "DMA: ?"..? What DMA are you using? I'd recommend setting the card to 220, IRQ 5, DMA 1, HDMA 5. MPU-401 is for MIDI. You can disable it if you don't have a MIDI device connected. Also, when using ESSCFG, let it do the autoexec.bat modification it asks for.

Hello DerSammler,

I put DMA ? because I am unsure of what it is. I will need to look at the jumpers on my card one more time and get back to you from there. My card supports plug and play; but, it also is jumper selectable. I think in my situation, the jumper select solution is the safer one!

I will try your suggestions and get back to you with a result.

P.S.
I am also now living in Germany!

Alex

Reply 3 of 6, by BinaryDemon

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I think your issues are probably DMA related as well. Try configuring with a non-standard DMA like 3.

Check out DOSBox Distro:

https://sites.google.com/site/dosboxdistro/ [*]

a lightweight Linux distro (tinycore) which boots off a usb flash drive and goes straight to DOSBox.

Make your dos retrogaming experience portable!

Reply 4 of 6, by derSammler

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I think the issue is rather that he's using jumpered config and not knowing the DMA, since this also means there's no BLASTER variable set (otherwise he'd know the DMA) and in turn means games have to guess the DMA, which may or may not be the correct one. Some games also don't play sound at all if there's no BLASTER variable set.

So: check the jumpers, set it to 220, IRQ 5, DMA 1, HDMA 5, and add to your autoexec.bat:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 T4

If the card allows jumper-less config as well, that is to prefer. Because that way, you can change resources on-the-fly using ESSCFG.

Galacnor wrote on 2020-03-19, 10:09:

P.S.
I am also now living in Germany!

Hope you enjoy it. 😀

Reply 5 of 6, by Galacnor

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
BinaryDemon wrote on 2020-03-19, 11:49:

I think your issues are probably DMA related as well. Try configuring with a non-standard DMA like 3.

derSammler wrote on 2020-03-19, 11:56:
I think the issue is rather that he's using jumpered config and not knowing the DMA, since this also means there's no BLASTER va […]
Show full quote

I think the issue is rather that he's using jumpered config and not knowing the DMA, since this also means there's no BLASTER variable set (otherwise he'd know the DMA) and in turn means games have to guess the DMA, which may or may not be the correct one. Some games also don't play sound at all if there's no BLASTER variable set.

So: check the jumpers, set it to 220, IRQ 5, DMA 1, HDMA 5, and add to your autoexec.bat:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 T4

If the card allows jumper-less config as well, that is to prefer. Because that way, you can change resources on-the-fly using ESSCFG.

Galacnor wrote on 2020-03-19, 10:09:

P.S.
I am also now living in Germany!

Hope you enjoy it. 😀

Hello BinaryDemon, Hello again, DerSammler!

Good news! Your advice prevailed. Things are now running as they should be again, thanks very much for the tip! I believe you were both right and that my DMA was set incorrectly, as I checked my card and it appears during the reinstall I neglected to jumper a selection for the DMA and it was set to the "X" position! I used the settings DerSammler recommended to me after taking a look at my resources and its a very happy computer!

Thank you both very much for the help!

Regarding how I like Germany:
Yes, its a fine thing for me. I'm from a German family and moved back to Niedersachsen, so now I have a nice wife, and I'm with my family again here. Its going great! Thanks for asking! I think the only problem for me is the language as I spent most of my life in the United States, now I'm behind the curve on my German skills; but, I'm getting by!

Cheers to you both!

Alex

Go to top of page Go to top of page
Back to Sound
Close window
Close window