Making a GUS max 2.1 to work alongside a sound blaster 16 \ VOGONS

Making a GUS max 2.1 to work alongside a sound blaster 16

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First post, by Deksor

Posted on 2017-09-09, 16:01

Deksor Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 3389
Joined: 2016-06-07, 14:37

Hi everybody !

I have recently rebuilded my 5x86 (it was in a big case but the PSU died so I took a smaller case that I had laying around and I've put my sound blaster 16 CT1740 and my gus max 2.1 in the same machine)

But I keep getting problems. The SB 16 seems rather fine when the GUS is in the computer, but it seems that the GUS hates the sound blaster.

Here are the adresses, IRQS and DMAs used for each card :

Sb 16 :

Address 220
Irq 7
DMA 1 and 5

GUS MAX :
Address : 240
IRQ 11x2
DMA 7x2

I've tried other configurations for the GUS such as
IRQ 11 + 5
DMA 7+6

etc ...

When I did set up the gus without the sb in the computer, everything was ok (except for windows 3.11, I'll explain this later), games launched properly, etc.

Then I did put back in the sb 16. Doom 1 and 2 were still working using the GUS, however one must fall 2097 now crashes.

I tried to re-run the setup for the GUS, everything is fine at first, (I can select irqs, dmas, etc, the tests are okay) but once all the tests are made, it goes to another screen where the scrolling text says that it's testing the roland emulation. And then it says that DMA1 can't be used ... except that I never ever chose DMA1, and I can't even touch that setting.

After this, Doom and Doom 2 don't start anymore.

What should-I do ? This is my first GUS, I might be missing something there. Should-I take out the SB16 again to set up once again the GUS ? Should I forget to use these two sound cards in the same machine ?

Also, like I said I can't get windows 3.11 to output sound. The setup program did install everything for me under windows, but when windows wants to play sound, all I can hear is a short "pop!" and that's all.

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Reply 1 of 1, by Vallenrod

Posted on 2017-09-17, 03:32

Vallenrod Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 35
Joined: 2017-08-24, 01:45

Let me list my somewhat similar setup maybe it will help you in some way:

CPU:
Pentium III 500MHz (Katamai).

Mobo:
Asus P3B-F 1.04 (2 ISA slots model)

Memory:
768MB (3x256 Registered ECC ram)

Sound cards:
Gravis Ultrasound rev. 3.74 (ISA non-PnP)
Sound Blaster AWE32 CT3900 with 32MB Ram (ISA non-PnP)
Aureal Vortex 2 8830A2 (PCI)

Video Card:
3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP 16MB

Network card:
3com 3C905CX-TXM PCI

All the hardware is installed and fully functional.
Here is my autoexec.bat section for audio:

REM C:\WINDOWS\AU30DOS.COM this line is there on purpose

SET ULTRASND=240,7,7,7,7
SET ULTRADIR=C:\ULTRASND
C:\ULTRASND\ULTRINIT.EXE -DJ

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0
SET SOUND=C:\SBAWE32
C:\SBAWE32\DIAGNOSE.EXE /S
C:\SBAWE32\MIXERSET.EXE /P /Q
C:\SBAWE32\AWEUTIL.COM /S /R:10 /C:0

I am able to play games using both cards at the same time for instance Doom II is set to use GUS for sfx and AWE32 for music (I use a small audio mixer to merge the outputs from all three audio cards).
The Aureal vortex card is only used in windows where its sb pro emulation is disabled (in device manager) for obvious reasons. AWE32 is also installed in windows as a secondary audio device mostly for dos games general midi emulation with custom sound fonts. GUS is not installed in windows at all.
All serial and parallel ports are disabled in BIOS, legacy usb is also disabled (don't need it if you use ps/2 mouse and keyboard), os is set to non-pnp in bios to help manage the irqs manually - IRQ 5 and 7 are reserved for ISA use in (mainly to prevent Aureal vortex or Network card using the IRQs as they are PnP cards). This BIOS has more settings that can help with managing IRQs assigned to PCI slots however in my rig BIOS assigned them automatically rather well (see list below) so I didn't have to use those.
As you can see capable bios was the key to make all this mess work. Previously I tried an Intel SE440BX-2 mobo with limited success.
Some video cards like to use an IRQ (in my system Voodoo 3 uses 11) so I would look out for that.
Windows device manager can tell you what device uses what resources which may be helpful in figuring out any potential conflicts.
I don't remember if Win 3.11 has this feature or not (I use Windows ME with DOS patch): while in Device Manager right click on "Computer" on top of the list and select properties.

In my case IRQs are assigned as follows:

00 System Timer
01 Keyboard
02 Interrupt controller
03 PCI to USB controller
04 Aureal Vortex
05 SB AWE32
06 Floppy controller
07 windows does not list anything here but GUS sits here
08 CMOS/rt clock
09 ACPI
10 3com NIC
11 Voodoo 3
12 ps/2 mouse
13 numeric data processor
14 Primary IDE channel
15 Secondary IDE channel

You may also see ACPI IRQ Holder for PCI IRQ Steering listed on some of those IRQs which allows IRQ sharing in windows however your goal is to have all the cards run on separate IRQs for best DOS compatibility.

Tym

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