keropi wrote on 2022-04-28, 12:44:

ratsflif wrote on 2022-04-28, 11:44:

I'm having the same problem with Dott on my Pentium 90. Game randomly hangs and I have to reboot the PC. Tried the patches, tried disabling the cache, ran it both in midi mode and sound blaster but will still randomly lock up.

did try setting SB IRQ to 5?

I don't think that setting the Sound Blaster IRQ to 5 would fix that.

Had a similar experience using a real SBPro2 and an Aztech clone on a Socket 7 computer with a different game. I would try adjusting the "I/O Recovery Time", "Passive Relased" and "Delayed Transaction" BIOS settings if they are available as they could help.

keropi wrote on 2022-04-28, 12:44:

ratsflif wrote on 2022-04-28, 11:44:

I'm having the same problem with Dott on my Pentium 90. Game randomly hangs and I have to reboot the PC. Tried the patches, tried disabling the cache, ran it both in midi mode and sound blaster but will still randomly lock up.

did try setting SB IRQ to 5?

Yeah, I have mine at 5 by default. I'm using an ESS Audiodrive 1869 which is basically a soundblaster pro and I have an MT32 pi for midi. I'm using the talkie version, I was going to try it with the floppy version but I would much rather play with the voices.

i had the lock-up issue because of an older ctmouse driver in one of philscomputerlab driver packs. dott would lock up a few minutes into the game. i did everything like slowing down the game, trying different soundcards and settings, memory settings.

changing to the latest ctmouse driver fixed it and i finished the game with no crashes.

foil_fresh wrote on 2022-05-06, 04:05:

i had the lock-up issue because of an older ctmouse driver in one of philscomputerlab driver packs. dott would lock up a few minutes into the game. i did everything like slowing down the game, trying different soundcards and settings, memory settings.

changing to the latest ctmouse driver fixed it and i finished the game with no crashes.

Thanks, maybe that's the problem I'm using ctmouse as well. I'll give it a shot

This might sound all wrong, but since your computer is already too fast (we're talking about a game that's supposed to run in DOS on a 33 MHz CPU or something like that), you might as well just use ScummVM. I use it on Windows 95 for these really old games and it works swell, especially if you direct ScummVM to use your sound card's native FM synth instead of emulating Ad Lib.

foil_fresh wrote on 2022-05-06, 04:05:

i had the lock-up issue because of an older ctmouse driver in one of philscomputerlab driver packs. dott would lock up a few minutes into the game. i did everything like slowing down the game, trying different soundcards and settings, memory settings.

changing to the latest ctmouse driver fixed it and i finished the game with no crashes.

Which version are you using to avoid the lockups, exactly? And from which source?

/Eirik

ltning wrote on 2022-05-06, 22:42:

foil_fresh wrote on 2022-05-06, 04:05:

i had the lock-up issue because of an older ctmouse driver in one of philscomputerlab driver packs. dott would lock up a few minutes into the game. i did everything like slowing down the game, trying different soundcards and settings, memory settings.

changing to the latest ctmouse driver fixed it and i finished the game with no crashes.

Which version are you using to avoid the lockups, exactly? And from which source?

/Eirik

Probably from this site: http://cutemouse.sourceforge.net/

The latest one is version 2.1 beta 4, but that's the worst one in my experience and there is also version 2.0 alpha 4 which uses direct hardware access.

CuteMouse 1.9.1 works for me, 2.0 and 2.1 lock my computer immediately. Can be found from the link Gmlb256 posted above.

Thank you so much. I think it was the ctmouse driver. I copied over the most recent version 2.1 b4 and I played for well over an hour tonight without any lock ups.

leonardo wrote on 2022-05-06, 22:02:

This might sound all wrong, but since your computer is already too fast (we're talking about a game that's supposed to run in DOS on a 33 MHz CPU or something like that), you might as well just use ScummVM. I use it on Windows 95 for these really old games and it works swell, especially if you direct ScummVM to use your sound card's native FM synth instead of emulating Ad Lib.

I only use this PC for dos, I have a hard drive with a windows 95 install but never use it. The only games that have required any slowdown were the first two Wing Commander games.

ltning wrote on 2022-05-06, 22:42:

foil_fresh wrote on 2022-05-06, 04:05:

i had the lock-up issue because of an older ctmouse driver in one of philscomputerlab driver packs. dott would lock up a few minutes into the game. i did everything like slowing down the game, trying different soundcards and settings, memory settings.

changing to the latest ctmouse driver fixed it and i finished the game with no crashes.

Which version are you using to avoid the lockups, exactly? And from which source?

/Eirik

back when i originally had the issue a few years back, it was 2.0 a4 that I changed to which fixed the crashes.
i use 2.1 b4 now and that's been fine so far too.

the sourceforge site is where i get the driver now.

ratsflif wrote on 2022-05-07, 03:36:

Thank you so much. I think it was the ctmouse driver. I copied over the most recent version 2.1 b4 and I played for well over an hour tonight without any lock ups.

hey nice. happy tentacle-ing!

Sorry for the slight pump but I've been doing what I've been meaning to do for ages now, testing DOS games more throroughly on my DOS/Win98SE box instead of just giving them a quick test and I've noticed something peculiar: Day of the Tentacle CD-ROM version is very prone to freeze if spoken voice is enabled and mouse is moved during speech. If mouse is not moved during speech the game is 100% stable. Or if spoken voice is disabled I can move the mouse as much and quick as I want, no issues. I can also move the cursor with keyboard during speech without any issues when voice is enabled, no freezes.

Any idea what on earth could cause this and is there anything I could try to fix it? Things I've tried:

- Updated the game with official patches meant for fast PC's (Digital Sound Update + Music Update), they did fix the garbled sound if the game is run without L1 cache disabled or by slowing the PC down with throttle
- Disabling L1 cache
- Slowing the system down with throttle
- Tried three different mouse drivers and two different CD-ROM drivers
- Increased the default buffer size of 8 to 64 in DOTT config

System:
- Abit BX133-RAID
- Intel Pentium III 866MHz 133MHz FSB @650MHz 100MHz FSB
- 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000
- 128MB PC133 SDRAM @100MHz
- Orpheus Sound Card

The game is using Sound Blaster for SFX and music, port 220 IRQ 5 that are what Orpheus sound card is set to. This is not a major issue as I can just not touch the mouse during speech or even disable voice completely, but if there is a way to fix it I'm all for it. Also I'm really curious what the heck is causing this.

Sombrero wrote on 2022-09-04, 07:17:

Sorry for the slight pump but I've been doing what I've been meaning to do for ages now, testing DOS games more throroughly on my DOS/Win98SE box instead of just giving them a quick test and I've noticed something peculiar: Day of the Tentacle CD-ROM version is very prone to freeze if spoken voice is enabled and mouse is moved during speech. If mouse is not moved during speech the game is 100% stable. Or if spoken voice is disabled I can move the mouse as much and quick as I want, no issues. I can also move the cursor with keyboard during speech without any issues when voice is enabled, no freezes.

Any idea what on earth could cause this and is there anything I could try to fix it? Things I've tried:

Make sure "STACKS=9,256" is in config.sys.

jmarsh wrote on 2022-09-06, 12:01:

Make sure "STACKS=9,256" is in config.sys.

It is.

As I've continued testing my games I also noticed Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis has the exact same issue, so either there's something specific about my hardware that is causing this or this is simply a symptom of having too new/fast hardware for these LucasArts classics. I'm fully expecting Sam & Max Hit the Road having the same problem. The first two Monkey Islands work great, not having any spoken voicelines.

Don't know is this related in any way but The incredible Machine freezes all input if I move the mouse at all in that game, what's with the mouse issues on this PC 🤣

Sombrero wrote on 2022-09-04, 07:17:

- Tried three different mouse drivers and two different CD-ROM drivers

Which mouse drivers have you tried? I'm still trying to get to the bottom of this. Some say switching to another mouse driver helps, others (you? me?) have less luck with that.

I'm on a 386DX-40 - no cache or other funky stuff - and still having this issue :(

/Eirik

ltning wrote on 2022-09-06, 13:09:

Which mouse drivers have you tried? I'm still trying to get to the bottom of this. Some say switching to another mouse driver he […]
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Sombrero wrote on 2022-09-04, 07:17:

- Tried three different mouse drivers and two different CD-ROM drivers

Which mouse drivers have you tried? I'm still trying to get to the bottom of this. Some say switching to another mouse driver helps, others (you? me?) have less luck with that.

I'm on a 386DX-40 - no cache or other funky stuff - and still having this issue 🙁

/Eirik

CuteMouse 1.9.1 (later versions lock up my PC immediately)
Microsoft MOUSE.COM 6.02 (the oldest MS driver I have)
Microsoft MOUSE.COM 8.20 (the newest MS driver I have)

I noticed you have previously mentioned that for you the game crashes at seemingly random places, for me it's definitely having voice on and moving the mouse during speech. And apparently not on every piece of dialogue, during my testing I've noticed clicking the exit door on the left at the beginning of the game is the easiest place to make the game crash, have voice on and wave the mouse around during speech = almost certain crash (but not 100%), have the voice turned off or don't touch the mouse = game works just fine.

Edit: and by clicking the exit door I meant trying to open it making Bernard go all "I'm not leaving" etc

Managed to fix the issue I was having, it was the mouse driver. I was looking for switch commands for mouse drivers to increase mouse sensitivity and happened upon this topic: Moving Mouse dramatically slows down CPU

There AvalonH managed to fix completely different issue he was having by using Microsoft Mouse 9 driver, and lo and behold, Microsoft Mouse 9.01 fixed my issues with DOTT and Indy4. I could make DOTT crash within seconds with earlier Microsoft mouse drivers and with cutemouse 1.9.1, with MS 9.01 driver both DOTT and Indy4 seem work flawlessly. Either they are now 100% stable or at the very least so stable it's no longer a problem. Interestingly Sam & Max didn't suffer from the same issue after all.

Didn't fix The Incredible Machine though 🤣

Give drmouse.com from DR-DOS a go, it will work with every dos flavor
I had similar issues, even made a thread about it as well , for me drmouse works fine in several builds

keropi wrote on 2022-09-07, 21:55:

Give drmouse.com from DR-DOS a go, it will work with every dos flavor
I had similar issues, even made a thread about it as well , for me drmouse works fine in several builds

Does it have switches to adjust both horizontal and vertical sensitivity? I kinda need that and also a switch to remove any acceleration, mouse sensitivity is all over the place with some games without adjustment.

But a smaller driver would be nice, MS 9.01 eats memory like there's no tomorrow.