In "modern" (AC97/HDAudio) computers, the sound codec is connected to the southbridge. Windows can see the connection (that 8086:266e) but not the codec itself.

You could try to boot with a Linux cdrom and ask asound which cards the laptop has, but (in this case) it's easier to find the drivers on HP website. A Compaq nc6220 has (according to HP) a Soundmax ADI sound card, it's up to you to download HP drivers or try to get alternate (from Soundmax) drivers.

It's AC'97 as listed. Not usable under DOS at all (for games, that is), only inside a DOS box in Win9x.

Zup wrote:

In "modern" (AC97/HDAudio) computers, the sound codec is connected to the southbridge. Windows can see the connection (that 8086:266e) but not the codec itself.

You could try to boot with a Linux cdrom and ask asound which cards the laptop has, but (in this case) it's easier to find the drivers on HP website. A Compaq nc6220 has (according to HP) a Soundmax ADI sound card, it's up to you to download HP drivers or try to get alternate (from Soundmax) drivers.

Well, HP doesn't have any DOS drivers available, was the first thing I checked 😀 There's an XP driver package, also containing what looks like W98SE drivers, but nothing for DOS.

I've found some sites like this. That particular site is just trying to fool unsuspecting users to install some crappy driver manager, probably full to the brim with adware etc, but it suggests that there are DOS drivers available for some SoundMAX chipsets. Would guess the list is ripped from the old driverguide.com site or something.

Finding out what particular chip is used in my laptop, and narrowing down the amount of driver packages to find and try out, would make my life a lot easier 😀

Could perhaps dmidecode be useful for this?

derSammler wrote:

It's AC'97 as listed. Not usable under DOS at all (for games, that is), only inside a DOS box in Win9x.

Oh, okay. So no AC'97 chips has any sort of standalone DOS compatibility? Guess I'll just forget about that then, and see what it can do from within W98SE instead 😀

There are a few later DOS media players that can use AC'97 from pure DOS. Also, VIA has made a DOS TSR for their early AC'97 implementation, but compatibility is bad even with that. And the one you have here is not from VIA anyway.

derSammler wrote:

There are a few later DOS media players that can use AC'97 from pure DOS. Also, VIA has made a DOS TSR for their early AC'97 implementation, but compatibility is bad even with that. And the one you have here is not from VIA anyway.

Indeed, when installing the older VIA Audio drivers (only compatible with VIA integrated AC97 chipsets) under Win9x, it will install a VIAUDIO.COM into the autoexec. You will need the VIAFMTSR.COM as well in order to have both - SB compat as well as FM synth - under DOS, iirc.

kaputnik wrote:

Oh, okay. So no AC'97 chips has any sort of standalone DOS compatibility? Guess I'll just forget about that then, and see what it can do from within W98SE instead 😀

Keep on mind that some brands think that "Sound Blaster compatible" means "it may work if you run a DOS program inside Windows". I'd recommend you to play those games in DOSBox or using VDMSound.

Remember that nothing called AC'97 has pure Dos compatibility.

First drivers search for your laptop show clear it is:

https://www.driverscape.com/manufacturers/hp/ … aq-nc6220/68910

Audio Drivers
Device Name: Vinyl AC'97 Codec Combo Driver (WDM)

MAZter wrote:

Remember that nothing called AC'97 has pure Dos compatibility.

Maybe not genuine. but it at least works for 7 out of 10 games, at the very least, from my experience.
VIAUDIO.COM in conjunction with VIAFMTSR.COM will give you SB and OPL compatibility at the default ports and *should* work without a hitch (This only works with the early AC97 chipsets, as mentioned above). At least from my experience, this is sufficient for the later DOS games, the "late-DOS-must-haves" / classics as DUKE3D, DOOM, etc. For other / older games, it is recommended to have a more matching / suitable machine, anyways.

From my experience, the SB part is working flawlessly most of the time, whereas the FM lacks in compat. and quality, as expected. But it is at least enough to drive an external MIDI controller without any further ruckus, if desired.