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MWave 25H5830 ISA Card in DOS?

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First post, by ThenZero

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I've got the card mentioned in the subject, an MWave 25H5830 ISA card, installed in my Compaq DeskPro (486/25).

The card works in Windows 3.1, meaning I have Windows sounds. However, I can't seem to get it to work in plain old DOS. I've found some posts on it on here, and even links to some drivers (for example, Re: IBM MWave related links to a BUNCH of drivers). I tried some of the mwave drivers labeled "dos" but all that happened was it quit working under Windows and I had to reinstall the system to get it working again.

Any advice on how to get this thing working systematically without borking my Win3.1 install?

Reply 2 of 24, by ThenZero

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Thank you I will try them this evening!

Reply 3 of 24, by ThenZero

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Got those installed but it tells me it can’t find the card at the default base address. I tried all four jumper settings and it just gave me the same error each time. Any ideas/suggestions?

Reply 4 of 24, by ThenZero

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Alright I discovered the jumper config tool and was able to set the address there to the same as mine (the actual jumpers on my boards don’t physically look like the ones in the graphic but they did have some of the same settings). Reinstalled the drivers with the new settings and got the same error 🙁

Reply 5 of 24, by ThenZero

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(Also ran the diagnostics from disk 1, it just says base io error no matter what I put the settings to)

Reply 6 of 24, by ThenZero

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Also tried the mwave win drivers linked from your original post, same error. 🙁

Reply 7 of 24, by ThenZero

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I am almost wondering if the card has some kind of problem or incompatibility with the computer at this point. Going to swap it to another system as a test.

Reply 8 of 24, by ThenZero

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OK have two systems out and tried the card in both. In one of them (Compaq DeskPro 486/25) it works in Win3.1 with WSS and Compaq Business Audio (it's looking at address 530??). I thought that would only run the onboard sound but somehow the sound is coming out of the MWave card. But, as stated earlier, no sound in DOS, with the standard "SET BLASTER=A220..." line in the autoexec.bat. (Should that 220 be 530?)

On the other computer (Gateway 2000 4DX-33, Windows For Workgroups 3.11) it's not working at all under any configuration that I've tried. Installed all the MWave drivers but I just keep getting the IO Bus Address error, even with it set to the same as the jumpers on the card (CE30).

From some Googling around, it seems this card was originally made for an IBM Aptiva that was running on Win95/98, so it's possible that no drivers were ever released for Win3.1 that support it. However, as stated above, the Compaq Business Audio drivers somehow enable the card to work on Win3.1.

Any further ideas on this?

Reply 9 of 24, by ThenZero

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I thought maybe there was a conflict between this card and the SMC network card, but I took out everything but the sound card and still no joy.

Reply 10 of 24, by ThenZero

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OMG so frustrated with this!

I think I'm in the market for an ISA soundcard 🤣

Reply 12 of 24, by ThenZero

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In digging through the config files of the system where the card works, I notice that in SYSTEM.INI, the line "sound.drv=sndsys.drv" is commented out, and there's another line "sound.drv=mmsound.drv" so maybe it's not even using the Compaq Business Audio settings (IO 530) and instead has the real address of the card somewhere. Is mmsound.drv from one of these mwave packages or is that a MS file? I googled but didn't find a good answer.

Reply 13 of 24, by ThenZero

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Apparently mmsound.drv is straight off the Windows 3.11 install disk. So now I'm really confused. Maybe I should try reinstalling Windows 3.11.

Reply 14 of 24, by ThenZero

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Well that didn't work either. Is there a way to get Win3.1 to report what IO base address/interrupt/etc it's using for the sound card?

Reply 15 of 24, by ThenZero

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Anybody ever come across a copy of a file called “mwave_midimed.zip”? It’s stated to be mwave dolphin drivers for win3.1 but I can’t find an actual copy of it…

Reply 16 of 24, by ThenZero

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Another person with one of these computers told me that the riser on his had slots that have become non functional so the next thing I’m going to try is swapping my network card into this slot to make sure it’s good, and/or swapping the sound card to another slot.

Reply 17 of 24, by ThenZero

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Swapped them around with no effect. Network card still worked fine and the sound card still wasn’t recognized. Dang.

Reply 18 of 24, by cyclone3d

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ThenZero wrote on 2022-03-21, 01:27:

Anybody ever come across a copy of a file called “mwave_midimed.zip”? It’s stated to be mwave dolphin drivers for win3.1 but I can’t find an actual copy of it…

I have it.
"This diskette contains the latest MIDI samples for MWAVE sound."

The attachment MWAVE_midimed.zip is no longer available

Looking through the other files I have. Looks like I have the Windows 3.1 disks.

File descriptions:
mww224-1.exe - DOS & Windows 3.1x Version 2.24
mww224-2.exe
mww224-3.exe
mww224-x.txt - Associated read me file

mw95225a.exe - OS/2 and Windows 95 Version 2.25
mw95225b.exe
mw95225c.exe
mw95225x.txt - Associated read me file

mwavent1.exe - Windows nt 4.0 Version 2.00
mwavent2.exe
mwaventx.txt - Associated read me file

mwo224-1.exe OS/2 Version 2.24
mwo224-2.exe
mwo224-x.txt - Associated read me file

mwaudos2.exe
mwave224.txt - Associated read me file

Mwave MIDI Sample files
mwmidiw1.exe - Disk 1 - DOS & Windows 3.1x Version 2.30
mwmidiw1.txt - Associated read me file

mwmidio1.exe - Disk 1 - OS/2 Version 2.30
mwmidio1.txt - Associated read me file

mwmidi-2.exe - Disks 2-6 - DOS, Windows, OS/2
mwmidi-3.exe
mwmidi-4.exe
mwmidi-5.exe
mwmidi-6.exe

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

Reply 19 of 24, by ThenZero

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That’s awesome, could I get a copy of these from you?
mww224-1.exe - DOS & Windows 3.1x Version 2.24
mww224-2.exe
mww224-3.exe
mww224-x.txt - Associated read me file