Yes, it is a deceptive error message. The Gm sound bank is not found. Try placing a copy under the drv directory as well. Make sure the

set sound=...

Line in autoexec.bat points to the correct path you have installed the drivers.

I tried everything last night to get this working, but no go unfortunately.

I renamed the install folder to "sb16" with all the main files installed there, as well as
copying all drivers and sys files to "drv" sub-folder. The midi driver I renamed is the one for the awe card, not the sb16
card. I also copied the GM, MT, GS synthbank files to the SFBANK folder.

Anyone else out there with a AWE64 Value?

I haven't tried to see if it works under a win98 dos reboot yet, and will give a go tonight.

Well I am not "anyone else" (and the voices are saying the same 😀 but still...

...so the drivers and environment are correctly set. You have something like this in your autoexec.bat

1SET CTCM=C:\CTCM
2C:\CTCM\CTCU /S
3SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6
4SET SOUND=C:\SB16
5SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0
6C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S
7C:\SB16\MIXERSET /P /Q
8C:\SB16\AWEUTIL /EM:GM

and in config.sys

1DEVICE=C:\CTCM\CTCM.EXE /T

One other thing to check: run EMM386 with a "standard" configuration, possibly limiting EMS and not using HMA aggressively

1DEVICE=C:\DOS7\EMM386 4096 RAM V

Hopefully it is not your motherboard being incompatible...

Jolaes76 wrote:

Hopefully it is not your motherboard being incompatible...

This made me laugh. Considering that most people buy a computer and then buy expansion cards to enhance it, it seems to be the Vogons way to buy an expansion card then find a computer that's compatible with it.

Thanks for the help Jolaes76. I tried everything You suggested but ERR014 Feedback path error persists.
My Autoexec was the same, just with some lines further down or up the page. I did rearrange them accordingly to match the above post.
I have found that adding Device=ctcm to config sys achieves nothing. I tried it after rebooting to dos from win98 and same error message
there too. EMM386 as suggested didn't help either.

Also removed my Voodoo 1 just in case, but no change. There is only one other weird thing with this mobo, and that is that I got it
without a Bios chip, and burned my own with an eprom, as a result I get a NO NVRAM error message at boot time but would be amazed
if that had anything to do with it. My 486 has a non flashable eprom bios chip too.

I have given up for now, as there is nothing left to try. I have a 486 and also my Abit KT7 I could try it in but I think I'll just
accept that likely it's a compatibility issue with the PC Chips mainboard. I can't believe there is a hardware problem with the card
as AWE32 games all work perfectly. Also General midi works fine when I run the game within Win98 although Windows drivers may
take over there, not sure about that though.

I have ordered another AWE64 Value, a CT4380 model which should arrive next week sometime, so will see if anything changes
with that in.

Run diagnose to make sure the memory checks out.

I've got one Gold card with faulty memory.

philscomputerlab wrote:

Run diagnose to make sure the memory checks out.

I've got one Gold card with faulty memory.

I have done that a couple of times, passed with flying colours.

With respect to Your card with faulty Ram Phil, You can probably get a replacement via Aliexpress. Tricky replacing
SMD parts, but doable with the right equipment.

I might as well have a go with this CT4520 card in my 486, will report back in a couple of days with either success or fail.

Cool, was worth a shot. My card did certain things, but not others. And turned out the RAM was faulty. I still have it.

OK. I received the CT4380 Yesterday and installed it. Didn't have to change any settings whatsoever which is nice. Unfortunately I still got a "ERR014 Feedback path error",
but at least I now knew it wasn't the card but some weird compatibility issue with the PC CHips mobo.

It took me a while to Burn the install folders from the PC CHIPS with IMGBURN, then fitted the card into my 486 and "Hey presto" General MIDI emulation working perfectly in DOS.

I'm going to have to fit a proper bios chip into the PC CHIPS mainboard as it loses time when turned off (that's with a new lithium battery), I do get a "NO NVRAM" error during post. i might use the one from my super 7
Epox board and see if it miraculously fixes the midi problem. I have an eprom burner so the bios can be re-written for the epox board if need be.
Obviously the pc chips board uses the nvram in the bios chip whereas the Lucky Star 486 board only has a ROM for a bios chip which isn't flashable.