VOGONS


First post, by retrogamerguy1997

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I just got a AOPEN AW744L II, but having some issues. So far in my testing, I have not been able to get sound effects in Ultimate doom. I'm running windows 98se and the driver cd installed the vxd drivers.

opening up doom's setup.exe in a dos window I was able to set up MIDI fine but picking sound blaster for sound effects and I get nothing. SB link cable is connected. I've only tested one Windows game and it works fine

Reply 1 of 14, by retrogamerguy1997

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so the issue I think is due to the fact that the IRQ as seen my dos games is too high. Thing is though, i don't know how to change the irq. I originally used the top most pci slot and the irq was 11, dropping it to the lowest one by the SB-Link header and isa slots only dropped the irq to 10. Even disabling serial and parallel didn't help. the only other card in the pc is the AGP graphics card.

Reply 2 of 14, by cyclone3d

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I would say to install the DOS "drivers"... Not really a driver as it just initializes the card and doesn't stay resident. After initializing the card, you can go into SETUPDS to change settings in DOS.

It should automatically choose PC-PCI for the DMA and the IRQ should be 5 I think.

You are using an Abit BH6 motherboard, right?

I tested using the PCI slot right next to the PC-PCI header.

I didn't change any BIOS settings before I tested.

There should also be a Yamaha utility in Windows that lets you configure the settings for running DOS games from Windows though I haven't really messed with it much.

You should also be able to set the IRQ assignment to from PnP to manual in the BIOS and then select the specific IRQ you want for each PCI slot. That may be what you need to do to get it to work from within Windows for DOS games.

I can do a bit more testing if you would like.

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 3 of 14, by retrogamerguy1997

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I try to set it to manual in the bios but then I have no clue how to change anything. the manuals I've found are no help because despite the board being the same the bios screeens for pci pnp are totally different than what I see on my board. And the card is plugged into the slot between the header and isa slot right now.

Reply 4 of 14, by cyclone3d

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Ok, I'm setting one up on my side so we can get you going.

What BIOS version is installed on your board? It should say it right at the first POST screen.

What video card are you using? It shouldn't really matter but I want to make sure I have as close to possible the same setup you have.

Last edited by cyclone3d on 2021-04-20, 03:28. Edited 1 time in total.

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 5 of 14, by retrogamerguy1997

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It seems to be the "HN" revision of the bios. my video card is the diamond media viper v550

Reply 6 of 14, by cyclone3d

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retrogamerguy1997 wrote on 2021-04-20, 02:55:

It seems to be the "HN" revision of the bios. my video card is the diamond media viper v550

Ok, good. That means we at least have the same revision series and our boards can take the same BIOS. I am running version SS.

I would upgrade your BIOS to version SS if I were you. The version you have doesn't even have the Y2K fixes.

You also don't have the IRQ assignment fix that is in version LN

I like how the notes on version NV say:

Supports 40GB harddisks and above . However we aren't quite sure what the precise capacity is,
since the current maximum harddisk on the market is 40GB.

I mean.. .they could have looked at the controller datasheet and probably done some math to figure out the maximum supported.

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 7 of 14, by cyclone3d

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Ok, so in Windows, the driver install from the CD should have also installed a utility that is loaded in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. If you mouse over it, it scrolls AOPEN.

If you right click on that, it will come up with a list. One of them should be named AW744 Configuration.

Click on that one, and the DOS-BOX tab will show you what to set in DOS games for Sound, FM, and MIDI

Some games will get the settings from the SET BLASTER statement in AUTOEXEC.BAT.

Should be:
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4

If running the DOS games though Windows, you can use the hardware assisted wavetable for MIDI as well. In real mode DOS, you "only" get OPL3 FM for music.

What are some games you want me to test?

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 8 of 14, by retrogamerguy1997

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cyclone3d wrote on 2021-04-20, 05:31:
Ok, good. That means we at least have the same revision series and our boards can take the same BIOS. I am running version SS. […]
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retrogamerguy1997 wrote on 2021-04-20, 02:55:

It seems to be the "HN" revision of the bios. my video card is the diamond media viper v550

Ok, good. That means we at least have the same revision series and our boards can take the same BIOS. I am running version SS.

I would upgrade your BIOS to version SS if I were you. The version you have doesn't even have the Y2K fixes.

You also don't have the IRQ assignment fix that is in version LN

I like how the notes on version NV say:

Supports 40GB harddisks and above . However we aren't quite sure what the precise capacity is,
since the current maximum harddisk on the market is 40GB.

I mean.. .they could have looked at the controller datasheet and probably done some math to figure out the maximum supported.

I'm not sure how to update the bios. Don't these old motherboard usually require a working floppy drive to boot from (which is not something I have)

Reply 9 of 14, by retrogamerguy1997

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And now my system is fucked. I flashed the bios in dos mode and now It's not booting properly. apparently the BIOS ROM checksum is bad now and wants to boot from A but there's no working floppy drive and I don't have one.

Reply 11 of 14, by retrogamerguy1997

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nope, still the same error. also tried removing the battery and having the system unplugged for a few minutes and it didn't help.

Reply 13 of 14, by retrogamerguy1997

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This is the error and there's no way to get into the bios and I don't have a floppy drive either.

EDIT: I have no way of actually verifying the board version but one site I found says that the HN bios that was on there before was for the 1.0x boards

The attachment IMG_20210420_130123[1].jpg is no longer available

Reply 14 of 14, by cyclone3d

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retrogamerguy1997 wrote on 2021-04-20, 18:04:

This is the error and there's no way to get into the bios and I don't have a floppy drive either.

EDIT: I have no way of actually verifying the board version but one site I found says that the HN bios that was on there before was for the 1.0x boards

IMG_20210420_130123[1].jpg

You have a PM

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK