Maybe something is messing with IRQ9, video adapter or ACPI? I'm just guessing...

Jura Tastatura wrote on 2022-05-19, 15:17:

Maybe something is messing with IRQ9, video adapter or ACPI? I'm just guessing...

Awesome catch, I haven't messed with ATX boards in a while and completely forgot about that! Reserved all the IRQs and DMAs for ISA, no issues now. Thank you so much — I've been literally messing with cables and connectors for hours yesterday, thinking it was a hardware issue 😀

Still can't get most games to give sound. Dark Forces setup hangs when testing sound, Blood only gives test for MIDI, but not SB, etc.

I wonder if I actually need to properly set up DOS drivers and add CS32MIX there in autoexec.bat. Simply putting cs32mix there did nothing.

I have one in my collection but never used it, had my doubts about compatibility so always ended up with something like gus, ess or awe32/64 for my retro rigs.
Apparently they're a bit trickier to setup:
http://www.studio4all.de/htmle/main33.html

Yeah, I'm actually using the guide from that page (also tried adding SET BLASTER to autoexec), but it changed nothing.

The weird thing that I discovered by accident is that I get sound in Doom if I start the game while a MIDI file is playing in Windows Media Player.

Also reinstalled drivers and all apps from scratch. Originally I installed the apps from Terratec disc and then upgraded with the D version distribution, but this time around I went straight to the latest versions. Somehow it seems like the mixer is a bit more predictable now, no difference otherwise.

Oh, seems like I figured it out now. Added these lines as per Vogonswiki to autoexec.bat:

1C:\EWS64\EWSINIT -F -V -B SOUNDSET.94B -M MIXER.TTM
2C:\EWS64\FMON
3SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4
4C:\EWS64\CS32MIX /M=15,15 /W=13,13 /L=0,0 /X=1 /F=7,7 /C=11,11 /I=L

Also changed mixer settings to use route A and saved it (no real idea how it works for now, but it works). Now I get sound in DOS games, finally.

The only problem for now is that Windows mixer doesn't affect settings to switch between CD input (Yamaha on MIDI-2) or linear input (Roland on MIDI-1). If I want to change that, I have to use CS32MIX. So I made two bat files and put it on my desktop:

Switch to Roland (mute CD and set linear input to 15, switch input to linear):

1C:\EWS64\CS32MIX /M=15,15 /W=13,13 /L=15,15 /X=1 /F=7,7 /C=0,0 /I=L

Switch to Yamaha (mute linear, set CD to 11, switch input to CD):

1C:\EWS64\CS32MIX /M=15,15 /W=13,13 /L=0,0 /X=1 /F=7,7 /C=11,11 /I=L

If I want the DOS game to use Dream chip, I set the MIDI device to 300h.

Works finally. Dark Forces still hangs (both imuse.exe and the game itself), but Abuse, Blackthorne, Doom, Descent, Descent 2, Raptor, Blood all work.

I recently installed a 'Guillemot Maxi Sound 64' ISA card in a P3 / ASUS p2b-s 440BX which has a bios that doesn't allow disabling ACPI.

with Windows 98 SE installed in ordinary ACPI mode, the card was very odd, trying to assign the wavetable to IRQ 11 or just not working properly.
I found in the end, not reserving anything at all in the bios DMA & IRQ and forcing the install of Windows 98 SE in non-ACPI with

1setup.exe /p i

allow the card to function perfectly!