To preserve the floppies, I would create IMG files of them using a floppy image backup program, but first I would just copy and paste their contents to a safe place. Old floppies are unpredictable, sometimes even if stored well will die unexpectedly, in my experience at least.

As for the driver, what happens if you run the .EXE in DOS mode? Often Win 3.11 shares a device driver installer with the DOS version.

If that doesn’t work, please do the following;

open your A: drive in DOS and type

dir/w

And show us a pic of what you see.

Here you are !

The readme.txt states you must run install.exe under windows.

I think the maxid.sys is the driver.

I’ll have a look at those files.

I notice there are three .exe files here

INST95.EXE (This is the Windows 95 installer)
INST31.EXE (The Windows 3.1 installer)
INSTALL.EXE (possibly a dos installer, give it a try)

The sys file is likely relevant yes, let me see what I can find!

I've already tried to run install.exe, it said it must be run under windows (as stated in readme.txt and on the floppy label - in french).

Thanks for your help.

I don't want to install Windows...

You could try copying all the files to a folder on your hard drive, let’s call it c:\sound

then reference the sys files in your config.sys

For instance, the config.sys would include the line

DEVICE=C:\SOUND\CR_ATAPI.SYS

^ As well as all the other .SYS files in the same way

But I’m not sure how you’d configure the autoexec.bat which you’d need to do too.

Certainly include

SET SOUND=C:\SOUND

This is kinda crude and possibly incomplete, I’m sorry, hopefully somebody will come along soon and smack down my basic instructions and tell you how to do it properly.

CR_ATAPI.SYS is a cd-rom device driver.
You don‘t need a driver for DOS, but you will have to set the blaster variable in the autoexec.bat.
Also, try the CONFIG.EXE and MIXER.EXE.

Kouwes wrote on 2024-03-24, 19:40:

CR_ATAPI.SYS is a cd-rom device driver.
You don‘t need a driver for DOS, but you will have to set the blaster variable in the autoexec.bat.
Also, try the CONFIG.EXE and MIXER.EXE.

Indeed, that was a terrible example from me - I just meant all the .SYS files in general. But your answer is much better, thank you for clearing it up.

I've tried to declare the driver in config.sys and add a set blaster line in autoexec.bat.

At boot maxid.sys said it cannot find the soundcard...

It's not uncommon for sound cards of that era (mixed dos & windows environments) to create the dos utilities folder after running the win3.x installation part from within windows.
So I would do the full installation under some temporary dosbox+win3.x to see what it produces. Most likely, apart from the windows stuff, it'll create a folder in C:\ with all the dos stuff that you can then save and move around.

It looks like windows-only for that install disk. You'll note the existence of VBRUN300.DLL - a visual basic runtime that only works in windows.

If this card is capable of running in DOS, you'll need to find the proper driver elsewhere.

Have a look inside SETUP.INF (should be a text file) - sometimes it might include extra info.

In DOS it's rare that a card actually need an OS-level driver. DOS does not have an audio subsystem and applications (games) talk directly to the hardware, so it's the games that contain the drivers.

Some sound cards don't need any software (hardware config with jumpers/dipswitches), others require initialization and a few need TSR programs.

This card looks suspiciously like an OPTi 929-based card with relabeled controller chip. That would need initialization but no TSR. Just try generic OPTi 929 DOS software.

Hi alls,

And thank you for your inputs !

Obviously this card runs under DOS, I had lot of fun with it on my 486sx33 back in the 90's. Manual states that it should run under DOS mode.

Maybe is it just dead ? I should give a try with another one, I think I should have a AWE64 and some noname ISA card. Maybe a SB128 in PCI should work ? But this card is the only one with a true OPL3 that I have.

Regards,

Maybe Unisound is working with that card.

UNISOUND - Universal ISA PnP Sound Card Driver for DOS v0.81b

Grosvince wrote on 2024-03-25, 09:28:

Maybe is it just dead ?

Most probably not, because you haven't done anything to get the card working yet. Either install windows temporarily (even in some VM) to go through the installation and get the necessary files, or share the drivers disk for someone else to extract them since you don't seem to want to install windows. Dionb is almost certainly right, you are missing an initialization utility.

What does CONFIG.EXE do? Will it run in DOS mode?

Robbbert wrote on 2024-03-25, 11:49:

What does CONFIG.EXE do? Will it run in DOS mode?

It runs in DOS but is only related to CDs interface on the card.

That card is a rebadged Gallant SC-6600 that came also with ESS or Crystal chips.
Not much info to be found though but I never had problems with PnP soundcards in DOS so I‘m sure this card will work fine.
Try Unisound like Crusher said.

Hi everybody

So I managed to get sound from the system with an obscure noname card, except in SC2000. I tried a few others with no success (even a SB64 Value and a SBLive).

Back to the origin of the post, I managed to get some sound in Wolf3D with my Guillemot Maxi Sound 16 (aka SC-6600), but it lacks digitized sound. Maybe lack of -5v ?

I'd give a try to Unisound.

Stay tuned.

Hi,

Unisound didn't work with this soundcard, altough it worked well with all my ISA soundcard (an Aztech-based, an Opti-based and a SB AWE64 value).

I think I should give a try to Win95 to install the drivers.

Vincent