Jade Falcon wrote:

I been trying to build a all in one PC that I can use as a server, home system and retro pc and I'm having a hard time with the […]
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I been trying to build a all in one PC that I can use as a server, home system and retro pc and I'm having a hard time with the dos ends of things. Manly the sound card. I know that AC97, live and the audigy have dos support.

Just wondering how they work and if it will work with dos apps in 2k.

If I don't have to use dosbox I will not, but I'm thinking that I will have too.
As far as the dos games go, it will be only the late stuff like descent and what not.

Based on my understanding only ISA soundcards will work with DOS apps as they can't detect PCI cards that lack the legacy IRQ resources unless you use a motherboard and card with SB-Link

then how do onboard AC97 chips work?
And couldn't you set you pci sound card to IRQ 5 or 7 in the bios? or dose it need dma/ports and what not to be right too?

PCI-based cards will work if they have special drivers. But if the card has an OPL3 chip, it's likely to work with minimal effort (maybe an initialization driver) since all it requires is I/O ports and no IRQ or DMA. It's digital sound that messes things up.

Jade Falcon wrote:

|I know that AC97, live and the audigy have dos support.

There is no universal "AC97" DOS driver, if I'm not mistaken. If a motherboard supported AC97, it would only be usable in DOS if the motherboard manufacturer provided DOS drivers for the motherboard.

Jade Falcon wrote:

Just wondering how they work and if it will work with dos apps in 2k.

DOS apps never worked particularly well in Windows 2000. That's why VDMSound was created. And VDMSound is depriciated in favor of DOSBox.

(And Descent is playable in DX Rebirth, I might add.)

Jorpho wrote:

There is no universal "AC97" DOS driver, if I'm not mistaken. If a motherboard supported AC97, it would only be usable in DOS if the motherboard manufacturer provided DOS drivers for the motherboard.

china Dos union had a universal AC97 driver for dos

Jorpho wrote:

DOS apps never worked particularly well in Windows 2000. That's why VDMSound was created. And VDMSound is depriciated in favor of DOSBox.

I never had much troble with dos apps in 2k with a real isa sound card.

If it's anything like how the SB Live! works in Win98, then there are separate resources configured in Device Manager and EMM386 is required for sound to work in MS-DOS mode. But I don't know if that applies to a) the Audigy or b) Win2k. Maybe try downloading the Audigy Win2k drivers and see if there is a readme:
http://support.creative.com/downloads/downloa … DownloadId=9497

Jade Falcon wrote:

china Dos union had a universal AC97 driver for dos

Where is it? I've been searching for that for years, and have never found it.

keenmaster486 wrote:

Jade Falcon wrote:

china Dos union had a universal AC97 driver for dos

Where is it? I've been searching for that for years, and have never found it.

It was apart of there custom MS-DOS OS cd version if I recall.
I attached the diver folder in my copy of china Dos union drivers that I have. I don't think my copy has the AC97 drivers.
I think the via drivers are the ones you want.

clueless1 wrote:

If it's anything like how the SB Live! works in Win98, then there are separate resources configured in Device Manager and EMM386 is required for sound to work in MS-DOS mode. But I don't know if that applies to a) the Audigy or b) Win2k. Maybe try downloading the Audigy Win2k drivers and see if there is a readme:
http://support.creative.com/downloads/downloa … DownloadId=9497

I don't have any such card yet 🙁 . I was asking so I don't go and waste money. I have a nice card already.

The VIA drivers are only vendor supported on a VT8231 south bridge or earlier.

SB Live! and Audigy 1 have dos drivers, Audigy 2 and 2 zs can be made to work with the audigy 1 drivers but I've not tried that there's a patch floating around for it, I've only tried the Live! in dos and it seems to work well.
Some motherboard audio will be soundblaster compatible but depends on the chipset and manufacturer support and normally on older hardware. No experience using windows 2000 for dos based apps I tend to stick with DOS 7.10 or Windows 98se.

If I understand Jade Falcon's question correctly he's wanting to know what they are like as in how the sound? Is this correct? I'd be interested in this as well as I've not tried to use one in DOS.

Not really, but it would be nice to now. Like does it use what ever sound font that's loaded or emulates opl3?

I'm more so wandering how well it works.

Jade Falcon wrote:

Not really, but it would be nice to now. Like does it use what ever sound font that's loaded or emulates opl3?

I'm more so wandering how well it works.

under windows it will use a soundfont of your choice if you set it in the settings(duke3d sounds cool with piano), under pure dos it'll operate like waveblaster / general midi and SB16 emulation

The cards are dirt cheap really so not losing much by getting one to try out

synrgy87 wrote:

under windows it will use a soundfont of your choice if you set it in the setting

I like the idea of that.
Now to find away to load up big sound fonts in 2k like 1-2gb

Using Live!, I haven't been able to load a soundfont in Windows and be able to use it for DOS game run from. Windows DOS box (e.g. Duke 3D). No matter which soundfont I load, the default soundfont is the ECW patch set.

With my AWE32 with 32MB, however, I can use nice 28MB soundfonts with DOS games run from a Windows DOS box.

boxpressed wrote:

Using Live!, I haven't been able to load a soundfont in Windows and be able to use it for DOS game run from. Windows DOS box (e.g. Duke 3D). No matter which soundfont I load, the default soundfont is the ECW patch set.

This only works with WDM-drivers, I heard, not with VXD.

falloutboy wrote:

boxpressed wrote:

Using Live!, I haven't been able to load a soundfont in Windows and be able to use it for DOS game run from. Windows DOS box (e.g. Duke 3D). No matter which soundfont I load, the default soundfont is the ECW patch set.

This only works with WDM-drivers, I heard, not with VXD.

Yeah I recall having driver problems with soundfonts with such cards