No FM sound in Windows 95 DOS mode for ESS AudioDrive 1869 on Compaq Deskpro 2000 5133 \ VOGONS

No FM sound in Windows 95 DOS mode for ESS AudioDrive 1869 on Compaq Deskpro 2000 5133

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First post, by songoffall

Posted on 2025-03-27, 09:35

songoffall Offline

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I was restoring this Pentium-133 (non-MMX) Deskpro 2000 5133.

The specs are currently the following:
Chipset: Intel 430HX PCISET (Triton II)
CPU: Intel Pentium 133 (non-MMX)
Graphics: onboard Cirrus Logic CL-GD5436
System ROM: 06/01/99 586C

In BIOS, under Add-In Devices\PNP ISA Devices, it shows the three components of ESS ES1869 Plug and Play AudioDrive (#00, #01, #02).
Component #00 has one setting - I/O Ranges 800-807
Component #01 has I/O Range 220-22F, 388-38B, 330-331, IRQ5, DMA1, DMA0 (surprisingly, I can only have either DMA0, DMA1, DMA3 for these settings - usually I'd go for DMA1/DMA5, but those settings are unavailable in the BIOS).
Component #02 has Dependencies 201.

Here's my AUTOEXEC.BAT, which was also my DOSSTART.BAT, before I changed it:

1@ ECHO OFF
2SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H0 P330 T6
3SET PATH=C:\; C:\WINDOWS; C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
4ESSCFG /A:220 /I:4 /D:1 /E:0 /B:330 /J:D
5ESSVOL /V:10 /L:0 /W:15 /M:0 /C:15 /S:15 /A:0

Here's my DOSSTART.BAT:

1@ ECHO OFF
2SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H0 P330 T6
3SET PATH=C:\; C:\WINDOWS; C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
4C:\UTIL\UNISOUND\UNISOUND.COM

This is a tested known good card.

First problem - even under Windows, the volume is way too low, and I am using powered speakers. Even compared to the LINE OUT of other sound cards I have.

But the game FM music mostly works under Windows. Games tested:
Jazz Jackrabbit
Vinyl Goddess from Mars
Duke Nukem 3D
Doom
Monkey Island 2
Tyrian2000

The FM music does not work under Windows in following games:
The Lost Vikings
Monkey Island 1

Second problem - FM music does not work at all under DOS.

Vinyl Goddess from Mars - SFX work, no music, game hard locks computer in the menu
Doom - SFX works, no music
Duke Nukem 3D - SFX works, no music

So, what could be the problem here?

P2 300MHz/Matrox Mystique/Sound Blaster AWE 32 Value
Pentium 3 733MHz/3dfx Voodoo 3 3000/Aureal Vortex 2 (Diamond Monster Sound)
Pentium 4 HT 3.0GHz/GeForce FX 5500/Creative Audigy 2
Core2 Quad Q9400/GeForce 8800GT/Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty

Reply 1 of 9, by keropi

Posted on 2025-03-27, 09:41

keropi Offline

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not sure about the volume and fm issues in DOS but under windows give the "Windows 9x modded (VXD drivers)" a try , they are available to download in the MK1869 homepage , this will surely help with the dos-under-windows issue

🎵 🎧 ⏳ ⚡ MK1869, PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 2 of 9, by songoffall

Posted on 2025-03-27, 09:44

songoffall Offline

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keropi wrote on 2025-03-27, 09:41:

not sure about the volume and fm issues in DOS but under windows give the "Windows 9x modded (VXD drivers)" a try , they are available to download in the MK1869 homepage , this will surely help with the dos-under-windows issue

Thanks, friend, I'll give it a try and report on the results.

Reply 3 of 9, by Joseph_Joestar

Posted on 2025-03-27, 09:49

Joseph_Joestar Offline

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songoffall wrote on 2025-03-27, 09:35:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H0 P330 T6

Those aren't the correct settings for an ESS card. You want T4 and don't need H0. These cards aren't SB16 compatible.

ESSCFG /A:220 /I:4 /D:1 /E:0 /B:330 /J:D

You have the IRQ set to 4? Shouldn't it be 5?

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Core 2 Duo E8600 / Foxconn P35AX-S / X800 / Audigy2 ZS
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 980Ti / X-Fi Titanium

Reply 4 of 9, by songoffall

Posted on 2025-03-27, 10:18

songoffall Offline

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-03-27, 09:49:
Those aren't the correct settings for an ESS card. You want T4 and don't need H0. These cards aren't SB16 compatible. […]
Show full quote

songoffall wrote on 2025-03-27, 09:35:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H0 P330 T6

Those aren't the correct settings for an ESS card. You want T4 and don't need H0. These cards aren't SB16 compatible.

ESSCFG /A:220 /I:4 /D:1 /E:0 /B:330 /J:D

You have the IRQ set to 4? Shouldn't it be 5?

Mistype (the computer has no USB, so I just look at the screen and type what I see there, and sometimes make mistakes 😁 ). It's /I:5 in the file.

Reply 5 of 9, by songoffall

Posted on 2025-03-27, 10:46

songoffall Offline

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-03-27, 09:49:
Those aren't the correct settings for an ESS card. You want T4 and don't need H0. These cards aren't SB16 compatible. […]
Show full quote

songoffall wrote on 2025-03-27, 09:35:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H0 P330 T6

Those aren't the correct settings for an ESS card. You want T4 and don't need H0. These cards aren't SB16 compatible.

ESSCFG /A:220 /I:4 /D:1 /E:0 /B:330 /J:D

You have the IRQ set to 4? Shouldn't it be 5?

T4 isn't doing it either 😀) removed T4/H0, does nothing. I think those are some "desperation settings" I put in because I couldn't get the damn thing working in DOS mode.

Reply 6 of 9, by songoffall

Posted on 2025-04-07, 11:53

songoffall Offline

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So, just to make sure that I wasn't dealing with a hardware issue, I just booted the computer into DOS from a floppy with just Unisound. The FM sound worked as expected. Guess Windows 95 is doing something it's not supposed to that spreads to "restart in MSDOS mode" and certain games even in Windows.

Will test with modded drivers.

Reply 7 of 9, by songoffall

Posted on 2025-04-07, 18:35

songoffall Offline

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So after a bit of research, I may be an idiot.

Apparently the loss of FM synthesis is a known bug in ES1869. And apparently I already knew that, because I had used ES1868 drivers in my Pentium 2 system a couple of years ago.

I can confirm that a clean Windows 95 install with MK1869 modded drivers cleared the issue for me.

Thanks for your advice, keropi.

In the process, I found AudioRack32 for AudioDrive on the MK1869 homepage, and unlocked a core memory from the 90s.

Reply 8 of 9, by keropi

Posted on 2025-04-07, 19:00

keropi Offline

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hehehe glad this was resolved in the end!
had a fun time searching old archives and pages to get these latest version drivers/audiorack 😁

🎵 🎧 ⏳ ⚡ MK1869, PCMIDI MPU , OrpheusII , Action Rewind , Megacard and 🎶GoldLib soundcard website

Reply 9 of 9, by songoffall

Posted on 2025-04-08, 08:03

songoffall Offline

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keropi wrote on 2025-04-07, 19:00:

hehehe glad this was resolved in the end!
had a fun time searching old archives and pages to get these latest version drivers/audiorack 😁

You're doing awesome job, man. Much appreciated. Except now I also saw that MK1869 XTREME card prototype 😁 and I'm greedy when it comes to sound cards.

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