With "Update 2" installed you would have to try:

1) manually running DOSDRV.EXE from a regular DOS prompt (assuming the game doesn't have itself a .pif that Windows uses)
2) setting VDMS.INI to IRQ5 and tryng (1) again.
3) checking VDMS.LOG for funny stuff.

Cheers,
V.

Why setup IRQ 5 in the .ini file since the VDMS Launchpad provides the option ? Is that part of the panel not fully functionnal at this time ?

No, the panel *is* fully-functional thank you, it's just that using dosdrv.exe+vdms.ini (i.e. manually running VDMSound) is much easier to get "as close as possible" to the WinXP native emulation than enabling and disabling stuff in Launchpad.
V.

Originally posted by vladr No, the panel *is* fully-functional thank you,...

Patience when dealing with mere mortals, Vlad. *heh*

Ok, just for "Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective" (with text from it's "read me" as well:

When run with VDMSound (GUI or not)
ERROR - Have detected a problem with your sound board. There may be an IRQ or DMA conflict with your sound board and another board in your system. Please refer to your sound board users manual and the README.TXT file on your Sherlock Holmes disc for further information.

From the README:

FORCE SOUND CARD COMPATIBILITY To force Sherlock Holmes to look for only one particular sound card, insert the following line i […]
Show full quote

FORCE SOUND CARD COMPATIBILITY

To force Sherlock Holmes to look for only one particular sound card, insert the following line into the AUTOEXEC.BAT file:

SET ICOMSND=xx

substituting 'xx' with a number from the following table:

0 - Microsoft Windows Sound System
1 - Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum
2 - Creative Labs Sound Blaster
3 - AdLib Gold
4 - Tandy Sensation
5 - COVOX Sound Master II

Tried SET ICOMSND=2 (and 02, just in case...)
resulted in:
ERROR - Could not find a compatible sound card to play Sherlock with.

Ooo...bad error and bad English.

Changed IRQ to 5, no difference.

Tried different SB emulation (1.0 to SB16), no difference.

Placed
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T4
(and SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4 with IRQ 5)
in the startup batch file. No change

From the LOG
ERRORS and WARNINGS only:
@E - 01:05:57.199 - SysExIndicator An invalid value ('Scroll Lock') was provided for the led identifier ('led'). Valid values are: 'NUM', 'CAPS', 'SCROLL' and 'none'. Using 'none' by default.

For "EVERYTHING" see the attached text.

Starting to suspect that the issue may be that the game can't tolerate more than one sound card, active or not.

I've noticed this also. Could it be that, w/out VDMS, Sherlock loads a Windows Sound System 1.0/2.0 (2.0 runs on any hardware) compatible driver (which, I guess, WinXP emulates). When loading WSS 1.0/2.0 driver, Sherlock probably makes no direct calls to the hardware. If you load VDMS, Sherlock probably sees a conflict with the WSS 1.0/2.0 driver, and provides an error message without making any device calls. However, if you force Sounblaster or compatible, then Sherlock probably ignores WSS and makes a direct hardware call to the non-existant Soundblaster card - hence the message about not seeing a card in the system.

It might be interesting to force WSS to load w/out VDMS, and to also try forcing SB drivers to load w/out VDMS, and see what happens. If I find time this weekend, I might try it. I won't be hurt, however, if someone else wants to try it first and report the results.

Originally posted by edelbeb Could it be that, w/out VDMS, Sherlock loads a Windows Sound System 1.0/2.0 (2.0 runs on any hardware) compatible driver (which, I guess, WinXP emulates).

No, the emulation is only for SoundBlaster (2.0, I think).

It might not be just the "2 sound card" issue. I tried the CD with DosBox v0.58 and got the exact same error. So does Bochs.

Virtual PC runs it fine, but the audio quality seems about as poor as native XP audio.

Hrrmm...

A side note, "Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective" and "Dracula Unleashed" are being re-released on DVD.

The interface has been (slightly) redone, but the videos are the same. It's just that now they are MPEG2. Glad to see them, but I still want them to be cheaper ($20).