VOGONS


First post, by Demolition-Man

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Hi!
I have a strange problem. I don't know if it's a Windows problem or a hardware failure. It affects two similar KT133 boards. Windows is the same. Only the AC97 onboard sound works properly. For maximum DOS compatibility I had two sound cards installed. On the old board an ESS Solo, the current board even has an ISA slot so I was able to get my old CT4180 to work, partially. But the same problem occurred both times. The MIDI sound is missing. DirectX does not recognize the sound card or the drivers for it. Wave works, but MIDI (220) doesn't. There are no resource conflicts, and it's not the drivers' fault either. DirectX was installed again. Is there anything else I could test without reinstalling Windows? I would appreciate any help and please ask if you need further details. Thanks!
Edit: The onboard sound was completely deactivated and the drivers uninstalled.
Edit2: I`ll add some pics later.

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Reply 2 of 9, by Demolition-Man

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Onboard Ac97 or CT4180?

The AC97 driver has both types. Edit: CT4180 only has VXD.

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Reply 3 of 9, by Demolition-Man

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Can`t believe it. It was a faulty DirectX Instalaltion or maybe just one File. Dsound.dll or something? (error message during reinstall)
Did a DX rollback and now its working. Its not my primary retro pc but still after all this time.
Thx @stanwebber you give the right idea. 😀

If you encounter a simular problem, try a dx rollback and a new DX version.

A early Socket A with ISA is interessting, but the 900 MHz Duron is a bit to much. Two game are not working anymore: Jazz cd (200 error) and Descent 2 (too fast).
400 - 450 MHz is the sensible limit for a DOS/Win 98 system.

And maybe the most important thing: Please use a native DOS whereever possible. It really only has advantages, especially in combination with Win 98.

It's a shame that the QDI motherboard has a few more errors. (AGP 2x/4x) But definitely an interesting project.

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Reply 4 of 9, by stanwebber

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this page is a great resource for compatible directx versions: http://falconfly.3dfx.pl/directx.htm

the kt133 should be a great candidate for acpi slowdown utilities under dos and windows. the 686 southbridge will give you 16 increments of very smooth slowdown. i can get my 1.7ghz athlon down to upper-end 486 speeds. also, disabling the l1 cpu cache in the bios (or software) will instantly get you down to early pentium speeds or lower.

Reply 6 of 9, by Demolition-Man

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Do you have a slowdown crash course for me?^^
Tyrian for example. Error 200. With slowdown and crtl + alt + 1, the games works, but its really slow, barely playable.
Little more speed like the crtl + alt + 2 setting and error 200 again.
How do i get the right speed setting? Just random?

Reply 7 of 9, by stanwebber

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have you tried cpuspd?
CpuSpd - A Hardware Based CPU Speed Control Utility for DOS/Win9X Retro Gaming

if i remember the -t switch is what you want. value should be 1-16 (slow-fast) for a via 686a/b southbridge. i think acpi should be enabled in the bios if it's not already on by default.

Reply 9 of 9, by Demolition-Man

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I tested cpuspd but on a different machine. Works quite well. What I don't understand is that a game runs on a K6-III 400 but not on a 450. Not a big difference in terms of frequency. But with cpuspd I have to go down to level 6 of 16 until the game works. According to the benchmark, 6 out of 16 corresponds to the speed of a Cyrix with 233 MHz. Strange or what do you think?
I'm also testing this on socket A. The program can't be integrated automatically (autoexec.bat/config.sys), can it?