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Sound blaster DOS help

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First post, by thewidow13

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Hi,
I've been trying everything I can think of and reading every forum post on setting up isa sound blaster cards in DOS to no avail. I successfully set up a sb16 vibra on a 486sx dos pc with no issues with all the default blaster values. On my socket 7 p133, I am having no luck with a awe64 or sb16. Both keep giving me irq 10 and I am unable to change it to irq 5. I looked all throughout my bios and the only options for irq values are "pnp-isa" or "legacy" and I've tried all manual and auto settings. I even tried setting my lpt 1 to irq 10 (gives me a choice of 7 or 10), but then my sb changes to irq 9. When trying to force it to 5, it says 5 is occupied. Msd.exe says lpt2 is using 5, but I don't have a 2nd parallel port, and there's no option in bios regarding lpt2. Another issue is that my mt midi won't set to h330, only to h300, so midi won't work in most games either. Is anyone able to help me with this issue?

Thanks,
Joe

PS: Sorry for the wall of text, just wanted to be thorough

Reply 1 of 28, by Mau1wurf1977

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The 2nd parallel port could be on another card, like a controller card.

For starters I would disable onboard devices like serial and parallel ports and any IDE controllers you don't need. Some boards even have USB and soundcards. Disable all of this.

The BIOS should have an option that says something like PnP OS. Set this to NO

All the IRQs should be set to PNP-ISA. Only set the ones to legacy that you have configured with jumpers.

What other cards have you got in the system?

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Reply 2 of 28, by Gamecollector

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The first question - the PnP versions of the SB cards or not?
If the answer is "Yes" - download, install and configure the card in the CTCM.

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Reply 3 of 28, by Mau1wurf1977

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I made a video tutorial for installing PnP Sound Blaster cards under DOS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9GSYgarPs4

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Reply 4 of 28, by thewidow13

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Thanks for the replies. I tried all of those settings, including toggling pnp os. USB are off, only one parallel port shows up in bios and it's off too. Both cards seem as if they can function as pnp cards, and were both recognized by my pc before even loading the drivers. I've been using ctcm, but it keeps assigning non-standard blaster settings like i9 or i10 d0 h300. Also, ctcm works for both cards fine on my 486 and the settings are fine on it. For the p133 I can't even force settings via set blaster because it keeps reverting.

Reply 5 of 28, by AdamP

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Have you tried IRQ7?

And how are you trying to force it to certain settings?

Which version of DOS are you using?

What are the contents of your autoexec.bat and config.sys files?

Reply 6 of 28, by Mau1wurf1977

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Hmm that's quite interesting...

Seeing it's Socket 7, what brand? I would update the BIOS and most Socket 7 boards are well documented with the latest BIOS for download.

MSD and CTCM seeing IRQ 5 as taken is quite weird. Could it be a hardware issue?

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Reply 7 of 28, by thewidow13

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I'll have to see if I can find a floppy so I can copy my autoexec.bat and config.sys over, but I'll post them when I can. I'm trying to force them via set blaster. My dos version is 6.22. I'd use 7.1 if it weren't for several compatibility errors with older games. IRQ5 is taken by LPT2, but from what I've read that seems to be standard. However, IRQs can be shared by pci, but not sure about isa.

Reply 9 of 28, by Mau1wurf1977

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SET BLASTER is just a environment variable.

You can reassign resources through CTCU which will be in C:\CTCM if you installed everything like in my video.

Curious, what games gave you issues with DOS 7.1? There is a thread were we discuss differences between 6.22 and 7.1 so your input is greatly appreciated!

This thread: "Pure" DOS benefits over Windows MS-DOS Mode?

Reply 10 of 28, by thewidow13

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The games I remember struggling with in 7.1 were System Shock, some of the Ultima games (especially 7) and a bunch of obscure rpgs and roguelikes. As far as the video goes, I followed every step perfectly, still sets up interrupt and other settings incorrectly. Diagnose reports "DIAG8002 The BLASTER environment settings are invalid"

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6

Reply 12 of 28, by Mau1wurf1977

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So you updated the SET BLASTER variable yourself right?

Any luck using CTCU to change resources?

What mainboard have you got? Did you try another ISA slot?

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Reply 13 of 28, by thewidow13

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Same issue with both the sb16 and awe64. Yes I updated SET BLASTER myself, tried changing it in autoexec.bat and entering it manually at prompt. My mainboard is DMS Micronics C200. Tried all 3 slots.

Reply 15 of 28, by Mau1wurf1977

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Load BIOS defaults / clear CMOS?

But yea this sounds like a really weird issue. Something is blocking resources. Any other cards in this machine?

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Reply 16 of 28, by thewidow13

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AdamP wrote:

Did your SET BLASTER have E620 when using the AWE64?

I did with the awe64, not the sb16. I set each one depending on their natural defaults.

Reply 18 of 28, by thewidow13

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Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Load BIOS defaults / clear CMOS?

But yea this sounds like a really weird issue. Something is blocking resources. Any other cards in this machine?

Haven't tried clearing CMOS yet. Only other card is an agp gfx card, s3 savage 2000 I think.