Normally, I would say just run CTCU but, since you are running DOS 7.1, CTCM "thinks" you're running Windows 95b or higher and is therefore "looking" for a file called "ctpnp.cfg" in your Windows folder.

I recall that there are ways around it (so that you can run CTCU) under DOS 7.1 but, I would suggest the following:

1) Create just a Wimdows 98 partition with a start up menu configuration that will also enable you to boot straight into DOS 7.1 (refer How to create a boot (start up) menu under Windows 9x/ME) OR,
2) Install DOS 6.22 on your Windows 3.1x partition.

Personally, I would go for option 1, since practically all Windows 3.1x software will run fine under Windows 98.

Thanks jesolo - yes, it was looking for ctpnp.cfg - but it turns out that wasn’t the problem! Loading CTCM in CONFIG.SYS was a bad idea, it turns out - it only needed to be loaded outright in AUTOEXEC.BAT and then AWEUTIL began working properly.

Problem solved!

I had a problem that I solved by taking CTCM out of config.sys and calling it in autoexec.bat as well. I'm curious if you have other PnP hardware that needs to be initialized as well. In my case, I found that order was key, which is why it had be put in autoexec.bat.

SoundBlaster 32 CT3670 + Ensoniq SoundScape Opus

Thanks for this thread; now I have ammunition to use in future discussions about why CTCM should not be loaded in CONFIG.SYS (something that gets recommended frequently around these parts). 🤣

I should note that, although CTCM didn’t need to be loaded in CONFIG.SYS in order to work properly, the INSTALL utility from the driver disk put it in both CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. I may or may not leave it that way. I’m not sure how it would affect performance in Windows 3.1... but it certainly doesn’t affect performance in DOS to only load CTCM in AUTOEXEC.BAT.

I don’t think anything else in the PC is PnP, only the AWE64.

CTCM is not loaded in Autoexec.bat; it just runs, initializes the PnP stuff and exits.

That's the trouble with all these 'Install' utilities; they mess up your startup files because they try to solve for all possible contingencies. It's DOS, man! The entire system configuration is just a few short lines of text. It can and should always be done manually. That's how real power users do it! 😁

dr_st wrote:

That's the trouble with all these 'Install' utilities; they mess up your startup files because they try to solve for all possible contingencies. It's DOS, man! The entire system configuration is just a few short lines of text. It can and should always be done manually. That's how real power users do it! 😁

Well, Creative at least makes a half-hearted attempt to look at what you already have and make appropriate updates. It won't work if you have a boot menu or multiple sound cards, but if you have a relatively simple config it will. I've seen a lot of install utilities from various clone cards that will just throw their lines at the top or bottom of autoexec.bat and config.sys and call it a day.

dr_st wrote:

CTCM is not loaded in Autoexec.bat; it just runs, initializes the PnP stuff and exits.

Yes, I should have clarified that.

Tenorman wrote:

It won't work if you have a boot menu or multiple sound cards, but if you have a relatively simple config it will.

Ah yes, I forgot to mention that - I have a boot menu, so I had to swoop in after the fact and put all the changes where they should be, in this case the [COMMON] section.

Tenorman wrote:

I've seen a lot of install utilities from various clone cards that will just throw their lines at the top or bottom of autoexec.bat and config.sys and call it a day.

Yeah, tell me about it. The Yamaha Audician 32 is the worst I've seen in this regard, because not just the installer, but the main configuration utility - SETUPSA - messes up your Autoexec every time you run it. I have no idea what these people were thinking; I had to hex-edit SETUPSA and change all Autoexec.bat references to some dummy file to stop this nonsense.

Ok, gonna ask for help here instead of opening a new topic:

Having trouble with my AWE64 Value card (CT4520). Can't get the music to work but sound effects work fine.

After adding CTCM to AUTOEXEC.BAT, I can finally get AWEUTIL to initialize but not with the /EM:GM parameter.

What am I missing here? I'm currently testing this under DOS 6.22

Solving other issues with the PC here: Re: Time-machine PC troubles in DOS-land

CONFIG.SYS
==========
DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM ON 2048
BUFFERS=15,0
FILES=40
DOS=UMB
LASTDRIVE=Z
FCBS=4,0
DEVICEHIGH /L:1,18976 =C:\DRIVERS\TRICD.SYS
DEVICEHIGH /L:1,32592 =C:\DRIVERS\AWE64\CTSB16.SYS /UNIT=0 /BLASTER=A:220 I:5 D:1 H:5
DEVICEHIGH /L:1,10160 =C:\DRIVERS\AWE64\CTMMSYS.SYS
DEVICEHIGH /L:1,12048 =C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
DOS=HIGH
STACKS=9,256

AUTOEXEC.BAT
============
SET CTCM=C:\CTCM
C:\CTCM\CTCM.EXE /S
SET SOUND=C:\SB16
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6
SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E
LH /L:1,40352 C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000 /V /M:12
@ECHO OFF
PROMPT $p$g
PATH C:\WINDOWS;C:\DOS;c:\MTCP;
SET TEMP=C:\DOS
SET MTCPCFG=C:\MTCP\MTCP.CFG

SET PATH=C:\E3000II;%PATH%
@CALL C:\E3000II\STARTNET.BAT

You need to initialize the music portion of the AWE64 by running AWEUTIL /S from Autoexec or from the command line.

You don't need CTSB16.SYS or CTMMSYS.SYS or anything like that.

dr_st wrote:

You need to initialize the music portion of the AWE64 by running AWEUTIL /S from Autoexec or from the command line.

You don't need CTSB16.SYS or CTMMSYS.SYS or anything like that.

"After adding CTCM to AUTOEXEC.BAT, I can finally get AWEUTIL to initialize but not with the /EM:GM parameter."

So, that didn't really work...

Sorry, but I don't understand you. Please be clearer about what you did, what you are trying to do and what the current problem is.

Edit:

OK, I get it now after reading your other thread. It's kinda annoying that you're cross-posting and I have to go to your other thread to see the full picture.

In any case:

CTCM is required to use any Creative SB PnP card, as you discovered.

AWEUTIL /S is required on AWE cards to initialize the FM/MIDI synthesizer portions. You won't get any music without it.

Once you get both working (which is what you have now), you can get FM music in games by selecting Adlib / Sound Blaster options, and you can get MIDI music by selecting the "AWE32" option in games (only in games that support it).

You still won't get General MIDI to work. You need /EM:GM for that, but this option works rather poorly in DOS, and I would just advise to steer clear of it and forget about it altogether. If you want good and reliable General MIDI in DOS games on AWE32/64 cards, run the games from within Windows.

dr_st wrote:

Sorry, but I don't understand you. Please be clearer about what you did, what you are trying to do and what the current problem is.

Edit:

OK, I get it now after reading your other thread. It's kinda annoying that you're cross-posting and I have to go to your other thread to see the full picture.

Yeah, sorry about that. I just figured it would be better, if I put the "sound problems" in a separate thread.

dr_st wrote:

In any case: […]
Show full quote

In any case:

CTCM is required to use any Creative SB PnP card, as you discovered.

AWEUTIL /S is required on AWE cards to initialize the FM/MIDI synthesizer portions. You won't get any music without it.

Once you get both working (which is what you have now), you can get FM music in games by selecting Adlib / Sound Blaster options, and you can get MIDI music by selecting the "AWE32" option in games (only in games that support it).

You still won't get General MIDI to work. You need /EM:GM for that, but this option works rather poorly in DOS, and I would just advise to steer clear of it and forget about it altogether. If you want good and reliable General MIDI in DOS games on AWE32/64 cards, run the games from within Windows.

Well, in this particular case X-Wing sound configuration utility detects the card as AWE32 but no matter what I do, I get sound effects but no music. I'll try removing ALL the sound stuff and reinstall. I did use AWEUTIL /s but it hasn't changed anything.

I made a big post in your other thread before you diverted to this one.

dr_st wrote:

Tenorman wrote:

I've seen a lot of install utilities from various clone cards that will just throw their lines at the top or bottom of autoexec.bat and config.sys and call it a day.

Yeah, tell me about it. The Yamaha Audician 32 is the worst I've seen in this regard, because not just the installer, but the main configuration utility - SETUPSA - messes up your Autoexec every time you run it. I have no idea what these people were thinking; I had to hex-edit SETUPSA and change all Autoexec.bat references to some dummy file to stop this nonsense.

I usually set both CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT as read-only to avoid things like this. Windows 98 sometimes likes to mess around with my custom startup files so setting them read-only also works for that.

I see there may be some confusion here. Please handle this thread separately from the other one.

This is about running DOS 6.22 off a CF card in conjunction with a Sound Blaster AWE64 Value CT4520.

I just downloaded ctcm.zip and sbbasic.zip from https://www.philscomputerlab.com/drivers-for-awe64-gold.html

Installed both, music still doesn't work! I don't know why people keep recommending AWE cards when they are such a pain in the ass to get to work?

ctcu is the key. I never had troubles. go into bios into pnp, set chosen irq+dma to legacy. run ctcu and set profile, it creats ctpnp.cfg, load ctcm from config.sys, it configures 4 of 4 devices etc. done.

if I ran ctcm from autoexec.bat it would only ever configure 3 of 4 devices. in config.sys, it does 4 of 4 for me.

Half-Saint wrote:

Installed both, music still doesn't work! I don't know why people keep recommending AWE cards when they are such a pain in the ass to get to work?

They are not; either yours is somehow defective or you have some settings wrong.

BloodyCactus wrote:

ctcu is the key. I never had troubles. go into bios into pnp, set chosen irq+dma to legacy. run ctcu and set profile, it creats ctpnp.cfg, load ctcm from config.sys, it configures 4 of 4 devices etc. done.

if I ran ctcm from autoexec.bat it would only ever configure 3 of 4 devices. in config.sys, it does 4 of 4 for me.

See here - in this very thread the OP explains that running CTCM from Autoexec actually solved some issues that he was having when he tried to load it in Config.sys. I guess there is not a one-size-fits-all solution...

Half-Saint wrote:

Well, in this particular case X-Wing sound configuration utility detects the card as AWE32 but no matter what I do, I get sound effects but no music. I'll try removing ALL the sound stuff and reinstall. I did use AWEUTIL /s but it hasn't changed anything.

It would help to understand if the problem is specific to X-Wing or to all games. I suggest trying one of the other games that has native support of AWE or basically any game in FM/Adlib mode to narrow down the issue.