First post, by csavko
I need to pick the collective brain. After having a working retro PC for months, it has now decided that it is going to freeze when playing any sound effect. The hardware or setup has not changed. Period.
The system is:
Abit motherboard w/ Intel 440LX chipset (I forget the exact model)
P2 233 underclocked to 133
64 MB ram (one DIMM)
Voodoo 3
SB 16 CT1740 + Yamaha DB
DOS 6.22 and Windows 98 dual boot
I have done the following:
Ran Memtest
Tried different sticks of RAM
Moved RAM to different slots
Swapped the SB16 into a different slot
Swapped the SB16 for an SB32 PnP CT3760
Tried different IRQ configs
The freeze happens in any DOS game under DOS 6.22 or Windows 98. The system also freezes if I play a WAV file in Windows. My test game for this problem is Descent. If I have a sound card configured, Descent loads and then freezes before getting to the Interplay splash screen. If I configure General MIDI only and no sound effects, the game plays all day long. I get similar results on the SB16 and SB32. Similar problem on other DOS games.
From the testing I have done, I've drawn the following conclusions:
1. Duplicated with different RAM and no errors in Memtest means it is not bad RAM.
2. Freeze on different IRQS means it's not an IRQ problem. I've been handling legacy hardware since the days that it wasn't legacy. I wouldn't post if it was an IRQ problem.
3. Different sound cards means it is not a bad sound card.
Any thoughts? Bear in mind this literally cropped up overnight. Thanks!
Charlie