VOGONS


First post, by Tenorman

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Has anyone got these two cards to coexist in a DOS 6.2 machine with a PnP BIOS?

There is some sort of resource conflict here that I can't pin down. I would like to have them both installed so that I can use the Soundscape to drive my MT-32 and have another General MIDI option without the problematic emulation that aweutil provides.

These cards both work together in Windows Me using the same resource settings as below without any issues:

BIOS Settings: PnP OS = Yes
IRQs 5,7,9 set to Legacy ISA
DMAs 1,3,5 set to Legacy ISA
ACPI = Disabled

SB 32 CT3670 settings configured in CTCU:
IRQ7
Low DMA 1
High DMA 5
SB Port 220
Midi Port 300
Adlib Port 388
Awe Port 620

sndscape.ini settings
Port=330
Waveport=338
Ottoport=2000
IRQ=9
SBIRQ=5
JSEnable=false
SBEnable=false

The SB32 works fine and passes all tests in diagnose.exe if the Soundscape isn't initialized.

If the Soundscape is initialized before the SB 32, AWEUTIL /s fails with an "ERR012: AWE32 initialization failed".

If the Soundcape is initialized after the SB 32, both cards will initialize successfully, but the SB32 stops working. The Soundscape will play MIDI, but games will no longer detect the Soundblaster and neither sound effects nor music will work. diagnose.exe cannot set the base port of 220, which doesn't make sense because I have SBEnable=false.

I tried swapping IRQs (5 <-> 7) and got the same behavior. I also tried using IRQ 9 for both the IRQ and SBIRQ in sndscape.ini.

I tried both opening and closing MFBEN jumper on the CT3670.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Last edited by Tenorman on 2018-12-28, 02:37. Edited 1 time in total.

[Compaq Presario 633 | DOS 6.22 / Win 3.1 | DX4 100 Overdrive | 28M RAM | SB16 CT2770A | SPEA Media FX (Soundscape S2000) ]
[GA-6BXC R2.0 | Win98SE | Via C3 Ezra 866 | 384M RAM | TNT2 32M | Voodoo2 8M | SB32 CT3670 | Ensoniq Soundscape Opus]

Reply 1 of 2, by Tenorman

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Thinking about this a bit more, a couple of things I am going to give a try:
-CTCM will only configure Creative cards. If I run CTCM before initializing the Soundscape, it does not show any resources used by it. If I run it after SSINIT, it shows the resources that are used and doesn't detect any conflicts. Regardless, I could try getting rid of CTCM and using the Intel ICU to configure both cards at the same time.
-Switch to PnP OS = No so that the BIOS tries to handle resource assignment and see what happens.

[Compaq Presario 633 | DOS 6.22 / Win 3.1 | DX4 100 Overdrive | 28M RAM | SB16 CT2770A | SPEA Media FX (Soundscape S2000) ]
[GA-6BXC R2.0 | Win98SE | Via C3 Ezra 866 | 384M RAM | TNT2 32M | Voodoo2 8M | SB32 CT3670 | Ensoniq Soundscape Opus]

Reply 2 of 2, by Tenorman

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I figured this out. In this case there was no resource conflict, the key is the order.

SSINIT will clobber the Sound Blaster's PnP resource settings when it is run it no matter how they are allocated: CTCM, Intel ICU, or the BIOS. SSINIT is needed to upload the CodeFile and fully initialize the Soundscape however, regardless of the Opus being a PnP card.

Here is how I got it working:
-Leave the BIOS set at PnP OS = Yes so that ISA PnP cards are initialized by the OS.
-Take CTCM.EXE out of config.sys and run it in autoexec.bat AFTER INITSS.BAT has been called.
-After that, CTCU, DIAGNOSE and AWEUTIL will succeed and the Sound Blaster PnP card will be fully initialized.
-Confirmed that Sound Blaster (SB digital, FM, and AWE) and Soundscape (digital, General MIDI) features all work.

[Compaq Presario 633 | DOS 6.22 / Win 3.1 | DX4 100 Overdrive | 28M RAM | SB16 CT2770A | SPEA Media FX (Soundscape S2000) ]
[GA-6BXC R2.0 | Win98SE | Via C3 Ezra 866 | 384M RAM | TNT2 32M | Voodoo2 8M | SB32 CT3670 | Ensoniq Soundscape Opus]