Disable the printer port & serial ports in the bios, that should free up at least irq 3, 4 and 5 or 7. though it's likely 7 or 5 isn't being used anyway and the diagnose program is just being an ass.

weedeewee wrote on 2024-03-08, 20:25:

Disable the printer port & serial ports in the bios, that should free up at least irq 3, 4 and 5 or 7. though it's likely 7 or 5 isn't being used anyway and the diagnose program is just being an ass.

The diagnose program won't let me manually set the IRQ. I thought I disabled the serial and parallel ports already. Is there another way to set the IRQ ?

does the bios have a section where you can set the interrupts to either PCI... or ISA... ?

weedeewee wrote on 2024-03-08, 20:45:

does the bios have a section where you can set the interrupts to either PCI... or ISA... ?

I think it does I'll check when I get home.

jerezer1985 wrote on 2024-03-08, 20:41:

weedeewee wrote on 2024-03-08, 20:25:

Disable the printer port & serial ports in the bios, that should free up at least irq 3, 4 and 5 or 7. though it's likely 7 or 5 isn't being used anyway and the diagnose program is just being an ass.

The diagnose program won't let me manually set the IRQ. I thought I disabled the serial and parallel ports already. Is there another way to set the IRQ ?

Are you trying to set this up under DOS?

An alternative to the Creative Labs drivers is to try UNISOUND instead: UNISOUND - Universal ISA PnP Sound Card Driver for DOS v0.81b

I use it with an AWE64 on one of my setups. It's much easier to set things than the Creative drivers, which I find can be challenging at the best of times.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-03-08, 21:18:

Are you trying to set this up under DOS? […]
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jerezer1985 wrote on 2024-03-08, 20:41:

weedeewee wrote on 2024-03-08, 20:25:

Disable the printer port & serial ports in the bios, that should free up at least irq 3, 4 and 5 or 7. though it's likely 7 or 5 isn't being used anyway and the diagnose program is just being an ass.

The diagnose program won't let me manually set the IRQ. I thought I disabled the serial and parallel ports already. Is there another way to set the IRQ ?

Are you trying to set this up under DOS?

An alternative to the Creative Labs drivers is to try UNISOUND instead: UNISOUND - Universal ISA PnP Sound Card Driver for DOS v0.81b

I use it with an AWE64 on one of my setups. It's much easier to set things than the Creative drivers, which I find can be challenging at the best of times.

thanks I'll try that driver. yes dos mode on Windows 98.
Does this driver allow the set the IRQ manually.

This is an ISAPNP compliant card, correct?

jakethompson1 wrote on 2024-03-08, 21:41:

This is an ISAPNP compliant card, correct?

How do you know if it is? It's a ct4380 awe64.

jerezer1985 wrote on 2024-03-08, 21:32:

thanks I'll try that driver. yes dos mode on Windows 98.
Does this driver allow the set the IRQ manually.

Yes, UNISOUND allows you specify all settings include the IRQ that you want the sound card to use.

I should note I've only used it in pure DOS, not under Windows 98. So I don't know if it will work under Windows.

jerezer1985 wrote on 2024-03-08, 21:45:

jakethompson1 wrote on 2024-03-08, 21:41:

This is an ISAPNP compliant card, correct?

How do you know if it is? It's a ct4380 awe64.

Your BIOS may print a list of ISAPNP devices during POST, or device manager in Windows 98 can tell you.
If your BIOS has a "Plug and Play OS" yes/no option, flipping it could cause it to be more aggressive at trying to control the card's IRQ. There may be options in the BIOS to mark IRQs (e.g. IRQ 2) as reserved for legacy devices, which may bump the ISAPNP card to a different IRQ like 5.
You may be able to use device manager in Windows 98 to set the IRQ. You can uncheck letting Windows manage its configuration and flip through the alternate configuration 0000, 0001, etc. settings.
ISAPNP is annoying. IMO manual assignment of ISA devices by a competent sysadmin worked better... I have one sound card where if DMA 3 is taken (e.g., because you have put the parport in ECP mode) it bumps it to some alternate configuration with weird IRQ settings rather than preferring IRQ 5 as it should.
It's also possible that it wants multiple IRQs, e.g. one for Sound Blaster compatibility and also an MPU-401 IRQ.

jakethompson1 wrote on 2024-03-08, 21:52:

Your BIOS may print a list of ISAPNP devices during POST, or device manager in Windows 98 can tell you. If your BIOS has a "Plug […]
Show full quote

jerezer1985 wrote on 2024-03-08, 21:45:

jakethompson1 wrote on 2024-03-08, 21:41:

This is an ISAPNP compliant card, correct?

How do you know if it is? It's a ct4380 awe64.

Your BIOS may print a list of ISAPNP devices during POST, or device manager in Windows 98 can tell you.
If your BIOS has a "Plug and Play OS" yes/no option, flipping it could cause it to be more aggressive at trying to control the card's IRQ. There may be options in the BIOS to mark IRQs (e.g. IRQ 2) as reserved for legacy devices, which may bump the ISAPNP card to a different IRQ like 5.
You may be able to use device manager in Windows 98 to set the IRQ. You can uncheck letting Windows manage its configuration and flip through the alternate configuration 0000, 0001, etc. settings.
ISAPNP is annoying. IMO manual assignment of ISA devices by a competent sysadmin worked better... I have one sound card where if DMA 3 is taken (e.g., because you have put the parport in ECP mode) it bumps it to some alternate configuration with weird IRQ settings rather than preferring IRQ 5 as it should.
It's also possible that it wants multiple IRQs, e.g. one for Sound Blaster compatibility and also an MPU-401 IRQ.

Sound effects in doom only work on IRQ 2 dma 3. I know some games look for IRQ 5 or 7 which is why I ask my question.

jerezer1985 wrote on 2024-03-08, 21:45:

How do you know if it is [Plug and Play]? It's a ct4380 awe64.

The CT4380 is PnP.

Take note of any other ISA PnP devices; I recall that often the US Robotics 56K modems would take IRQ up IRQ5 (generally used by LPT2 and very frequently by Sound Blaster Cards) for some reason. If there are two PnP configuration managers loading (I think it was CTCM or CTCU that one would use for the Creative card; I forget the name of the USR utility, but you may be able to manage both cards with Creative's software) then the extra one may be stealing IRQ 5 from the AWE64.

IRQ2 just cascades to the second interrupt controller for IRQs 8-15; a device on IRQ2 in an AT-class is really on 9 (and vice versa); so having one device on IRQ2 and another on IRQ9 would be as much of a conflict as a printer and a sound card both on IRQ7. (Another note: If your printer port is an Extended Capability Port (ECP), that could mean it's taking a low (that is, 8-bit) DMA channel (often 3 but it could be configurable). DMA conflicts can be particularly fun, too, if you like NMIs or "rebooting for 'no reason'.")

AlaricD wrote on 2024-03-08, 22:09:

The CT4380 is PnP. […]
Show full quote

jerezer1985 wrote on 2024-03-08, 21:45:

How do you know if it is [Plug and Play]? It's a ct4380 awe64.

The CT4380 is PnP.

Take note of any other ISA PnP devices; I recall that often the US Robotics 56K modems would take IRQ up IRQ5 (generally used by LPT2 and very frequently by Sound Blaster Cards) for some reason. If there are two PnP configuration managers loading (I think it was CTCM or CTCU that one would use for the Creative card; I forget the name of the USR utility, but you may be able to manage both cards with Creative's software) then the extra one may be stealing IRQ 5 from the AWE64.

IRQ2 just cascades to the second interrupt controller for IRQs 8-15; a device on IRQ2 in an AT-class is really on 9 (and vice versa); so having one device on IRQ2 and another on IRQ9 would be as much of a conflict as a printer and a sound card both on IRQ7. (Another note: If your printer port is an Extended Capability Port (ECP), that could mean it's taking a low (that is, 8-bit) DMA channel (often 3 but it could be configurable). DMA conflicts can be particularly fun, too, if you like NMIs or "rebooting for 'no reason'.")

There are no other ISA cards installed. No other pci cards installed either. Just an agp GeForce 2 400 mx

jerezer1985 wrote on 2024-03-08, 22:17:

AlaricD wrote on 2024-03-08, 22:09:

The CT4380 is PnP.

There are no other ISA cards installed. No other pci cards installed either. Just an agp GeForce 2 400 mx

If you don't find controls in the BIOS for IRQ assignments, you may need to use CTCU to account for the other used resources, then CTCM to change the settings on the card itself-- it should then allow you to set more sane values (however, it's been AGES since I've used it or supported other people using it so I'm hazy on the details).

I *still* prefer jumpers on ISA cards even though it is something of a chore to set them all. But you get the absolute surety that only jumpers can provide.

AlaricD wrote on 2024-03-08, 22:34:

I *still* prefer jumpers on ISA cards even though it is something of a chore to set them all. But you get the absolute surety that only jumpers can provide.

+1

That's why I like the noisy, old CT17xx series of SB16s and the 8-Bit Sound Blasters.

They also work on non-DOS operating systems. Like for example, OS/2.

The DOS box of 16-Bit OS/2 is especially tricky, I think.
Trying to load some DOS drivers there is hit and miss.

I once tried to run a VESA VBE TSR in that DOS box to get VBE compatibility and it didn't work (it worked on real DOS).

However, if the VGA card had a VBE integrated in its VGA BIOS, VBE compatibility was available inside that DOS box.

So the more tedious, hardware-based solutions may also cause less stress during troubleshooting sometimes.

I know, this isn't exactly helpful here, it just came to mind.

I'd try shuffling around the cards in the slots and see how the PnP BIOS assigns the resources.
Maybe it will eventually settle on a good configuration.

As far as I recall, under Windows 98 Dos mode the IRQ assignments will match those in the device manager. And I think something fishy is going on with the computer saying that IRQ2 is working since all modern systems with ACPI enabled will not actually allow IRQ2 to be used. IRQ 2 was traditionally used for interrupt cascading in 8-bit ISA systems. When the move to 16-bit ISA slots occurred, IRQ 2 was re-assigned to IRQ 9 to make room for additional interrupt lines. This re-assignment allowed for a more flexible and scalable interrupt system, enabling better management of interrupt requests from various peripherals and devices because systems became more complex with the introduction of new peripherals and expansion cards. In other words, since IRQ2 was used for interrupt cascading, it was because of that specific function that it was chosen to be moved to IRQ9 so more interrupts can be used to prevent interrupt conflicts. So now IRQ2 is used by ACPI and it’s not advisable to disable it in the BIOS since it’s required for the installation of certain drivers. When using Windows 98, and its Dos mode, one should be using *.pif files. On a lot of motherboards even if one disables ACPI IRQ2 is not 100% free. In Windows 98, a *.pif (Program Information File) serves as a configuration file for MS-DOS programs. It allows customization of settings such as memory allocation and compatibility options. To create or modify a *pif file, right-click on the executable file of an MS-DOS program, access the properties, and adjust the settings in the "Program" tab. This customization helps optimize the performance and compatibility of MS-DOS programs running on Windows 98. If that doesn’t work, plan B is to go to your local Home Depot and buy a hammer.

Thanks for all the replies I found the setting in my bios to manually set IRQ 5 to my ISA slot