JK1984 wrote on 2022-08-23, 16:24:

I have a Dell Dimension XPS P120c with a Zoltrix Nightingale SC-8738 PCI card that I'm trying to get installed properly on Windows 95. I was hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction. I couldn't find drivers from the card maker Zoltrix so I went with the chipset drivers, CMI 8738. I tried using the drivers from the vogons driver database and they only partially work. One set of drivers I don't get MIDI output in DOOM. The other two I cannot get to install. It says setup is missing a required .dll file. I have done more searching on google and came up with a driver that the audio works including MIDI, but the gameport doesn't install. It's detected by windows but the driver fails to install. In the device manager I have a yellow ! or sometimes on boot a red x saying windows disabled the gameport. It seems to vary for some reason.

If I can't get this card to work properly I'm probably going to swap the card out, but since it came with the computer I was hoping to use it.

The original Zoltrix drivers are available here : https://web.archive.org/web/20040605190310/ht … 738-drivers.htm

Awesome thank you. I’ll give it a try later tonight

darry wrote on 2022-08-23, 17:11:

JK1984 wrote on 2022-08-23, 16:24:

I have a Dell Dimension XPS P120c with a Zoltrix Nightingale SC-8738 PCI card that I'm trying to get installed properly on Windows 95. I was hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction. I couldn't find drivers from the card maker Zoltrix so I went with the chipset drivers, CMI 8738. I tried using the drivers from the vogons driver database and they only partially work. One set of drivers I don't get MIDI output in DOOM. The other two I cannot get to install. It says setup is missing a required .dll file. I have done more searching on google and came up with a driver that the audio works including MIDI, but the gameport doesn't install. It's detected by windows but the driver fails to install. In the device manager I have a yellow ! or sometimes on boot a red x saying windows disabled the gameport. It seems to vary for some reason.

If I can't get this card to work properly I'm probably going to swap the card out, but since it came with the computer I was hoping to use it.

The original Zoltrix drivers are available here : https://web.archive.org/web/20040605190310/ht … 738-drivers.htm

Well I'm having the same issues as I did before. Everything installs fine with these drivers. Even the game port drivers. But when I try to play doom in dos through windows I get no music under sound blaster. Under general midi I get music but its distorted and the computer lags. I messed with the other devices under doom's setup but no such luck. When I finished the sound card installation a message popped up stating direct x 7.0a was needed for midi playback. I installed direct x 8.0a. I'm not sure if that would matter or not? Regardless this card is cursed. I'm debating about swapping this thing out unless someone has any suggestions?

The SC-8738 only has a General MIDI capable synth on board. The "General MIDI 128 Sounds" mentioned here [1] is a software based synthesizer of some kind and an Pentium 120 CPU may not be fast enough to handle it properly or it may be some other issue. I would not bother with it at this point .

AFAIK, at least earlier revisions of the CMI 8738 chip do have an OPL3 synth, so FM music should work and the card manual does mention it [2], so it should work .
In Doom, with Sound Blaster selected for music, the OPL3 synth should be producing sound, but make sure that the corresponding mixer setting is active (not muted) in Windows .
Also, you could try getting sound to work in pure DOS (outside of Windows), this would eliminate the Windows variable .

[1]
https://web.archive.org/web/20040605111145fw_ … dio/8SB8738.htm

[2]
https://web.archive.org/web/20030927104604/ht … manual_v5_0.pdf

darry wrote on 2022-08-24, 12:14:

The SC-8738 only has a General MIDI capable synth on board. The "General MIDI 128 Sounds" mentioned here [1] is a software based […]
Show full quote

The SC-8738 only has a General MIDI capable synth on board. The "General MIDI 128 Sounds" mentioned here [1] is a software based synthesizer of some kind and an Pentium 120 CPU may not be fast enough to handle it properly or it may be some other issue. I would not bother with it at this point .

AFAIK, at least earlier revisions of the CMI 8738 chip do have an OPL3 synth, so FM music should work and the card manual does mention it [2], so it should work .
In Doom, with Sound Blaster selected for music, the OPL3 synth should be producing sound, but make sure that the corresponding mixer setting is active (not muted) in Windows .
Also, you could try getting sound to work in pure DOS (outside of Windows), this would eliminate the Windows variable .

[1]
https://web.archive.org/web/20040605111145fw_ … dio/8SB8738.htm

[2]
https://web.archive.org/web/20030927104604/ht … manual_v5_0.pdf

That’s what I was thinking. I’ll end up swapping the card out. I may look into trying pure dos first but it seems like it may not be worth to pursue a fix. I appreciate the help!

JK1984 wrote on 2022-08-24, 19:35:

I’ll end up swapping the card out.

Welcome to the club ... 😁

JK1984 wrote on 2022-08-24, 19:35:

darry wrote on 2022-08-24, 12:14:

The SC-8738 only has a General MIDI capable synth on board. The "General MIDI 128 Sounds" mentioned here [1] is a software based […]
Show full quote

The SC-8738 only has a General MIDI capable synth on board. The "General MIDI 128 Sounds" mentioned here [1] is a software based synthesizer of some kind and an Pentium 120 CPU may not be fast enough to handle it properly or it may be some other issue. I would not bother with it at this point .

AFAIK, at least earlier revisions of the CMI 8738 chip do have an OPL3 synth, so FM music should work and the card manual does mention it [2], so it should work .
In Doom, with Sound Blaster selected for music, the OPL3 synth should be producing sound, but make sure that the corresponding mixer setting is active (not muted) in Windows .
Also, you could try getting sound to work in pure DOS (outside of Windows), this would eliminate the Windows variable .

[1]
https://web.archive.org/web/20040605111145fw_ … dio/8SB8738.htm

[2]
https://web.archive.org/web/20030927104604/ht … manual_v5_0.pdf

That’s what I was thinking. I’ll end up swapping the card out. I may look into trying pure dos first but it seems like it may not be worth to pursue a fix. I appreciate the help!

On that note, getting an ISA card would afford better DOS (Sound Blaster) compatibility .

darry wrote on 2022-08-25, 01:34:

JK1984 wrote on 2022-08-24, 19:35:

darry wrote on 2022-08-24, 12:14:

The SC-8738 only has a General MIDI capable synth on board. The "General MIDI 128 Sounds" mentioned here [1] is a software based […]
Show full quote

The SC-8738 only has a General MIDI capable synth on board. The "General MIDI 128 Sounds" mentioned here [1] is a software based synthesizer of some kind and an Pentium 120 CPU may not be fast enough to handle it properly or it may be some other issue. I would not bother with it at this point .

AFAIK, at least earlier revisions of the CMI 8738 chip do have an OPL3 synth, so FM music should work and the card manual does mention it [2], so it should work .
In Doom, with Sound Blaster selected for music, the OPL3 synth should be producing sound, but make sure that the corresponding mixer setting is active (not muted) in Windows .
Also, you could try getting sound to work in pure DOS (outside of Windows), this would eliminate the Windows variable .

[1]
https://web.archive.org/web/20040605111145fw_ … dio/8SB8738.htm

[2]
https://web.archive.org/web/20030927104604/ht … manual_v5_0.pdf

That’s what I was thinking. I’ll end up swapping the card out. I may look into trying pure dos first but it seems like it may not be worth to pursue a fix. I appreciate the help!

On that note, getting an ISA card would afford better DOS (Sound Blaster) compatibility .

I tried a different pci card I had but for some reason the system didn’t like it. I got it installed but on reboot I had weird artifacts on the screen during boot and it locked the system up. I ended up swapping that one out for an ISA card. I have a bunch of pci cards but limited ISA cards. I figured I’d try using the pci cards but in the end ISA wins.