Now it works under pure DOS FX and music, nice but honestly, this mobo has one ISA slot so I guess will be easier and more efficient to use it for DOS gaming but having choice is always nice. I hope HP Compaq T5700 (I forgot first letter xD) will work either with this amazing small app or SOLO-1. 😁

javispedro1 wrote on 2022-02-27, 21:33:

Also it would be useful to be able to set volume levels _without_ reinitializing the AC97 part, which confuses viafmtsr.
I already made a small Watcom C tool to set the AC97 / SBPro mixer settings separately but I've just tested it on my T5710. May release it if there's interest.

Your tool to set the mixer settings in DOS would definitley be useful if you are able to release a version of it. Thank you!

georgel wrote on 2021-09-20, 20:42:

To avoid choppy sound and other hangs with protected mode (DOS4GW and similar) DOS extended games/software you must also use DOS32AWE despite it was designed initially for AWE Sound blasters. It is fixing the VIA's SB emulation for protected mode games and now you will get sound without being choppy . You can download the DOS32AWE from here:

DOS32AWE - DOS/4G compatible DOS Extender with Sound Blaster AWEUTIL MIDI synthesizer support for Protected mode,VIASB

Thanks for this tip.
I got my sound working with this extender, without it doom would just freeze and duke3d would play only sfx.

My board
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/fic-fr35-hp-oem
I've got 512mb mem and 1.1Ghz celeron installed

Next problem is speed. As we know older adlib games like monkey island 1 are very speed sensitive.
So I used setmul to disable l2 cache but the machine would still be too fast.
But after disabling l1 cache machine is too slow to run the tsr.
I could just change cpu, I've got 466 celeron it might be more suitable, and might work with just disabling l2 cache.

Hello
Many thanks for this cool tool.
I can confirm that it works on thin client Fujitsu Siemens FUTRO B210 (VIA VT8231).
I had windows xp on it, but now it is my retro gaming pc running ms dos 6.22 .
I posted some system specs from winxp, for some details about this little machine that has option to disable L1 or L2 cache in bios.

I got a NEC versa s260, laptop with VT82C686B south bridge. The VIASBCFG and VIAFMTSR runs ok but games have no sounds at all.
Is there any extra setting to test it a little bit? Does the volume setting help?

Edit
Tried A240 and d0 and i5, no luck.
When running skyroads, there's a message showing "parity error on pci b/d/f 0000h" before switching to graphics mode.
My guess is that the audio controller located at bus dev func 0000 on the laptop.

EDIT 2
I use a220 i7 d1 and it worked in win98 with vxd driver(from HP t5710). DOS still no music nor audio. I5 will freeze win98 on startup. I'm kinda satisfied since win98 works good. Tested a few games warcraft2, prince of persia1&2, skyroads, doom, all working.

RichB93 wrote on 2020-05-10, 18:17:

Just tried on my NEC Versa C140 laptop (which has been stuck on a pile for ages because it's not the most amazing spec, but this would make it somewhat useful), and it initialised okay (VT8231), plus the FM Emulation loaded, but I couldn't get any sound output sadly. Anything I can do to help troubleshoot?

Looks like the NEC versa laptops are out of luck. Same here. Yesterday I bought the NEC versa s260 on purpose, just because it had vt82c686b south bridge, but it gets the same results as yours.
My HP T5710 works good BTW.

Action Replay wrote on 2022-06-23, 11:53:

Your tool to set the mixer settings in DOS would definitley be useful if you are able to release a version of it. Thank you!

Oops I missed this message.
I am attaching this program (exe and srcs inside .zip file) . I called it "VIAS". I was using it to diagnose my issue with very poor FM quality on my T5710 with MI2,but you can actually use it to:

• enable SBPro emulation (as an alternative to VIASBCFG), by first configuring your BLASTER env variable as desired (e.g. "set blaster=A220 I7 D1 T5 P0 J0") and then running "vias enable". (there's also "disable").
• manipulate mixer values of the AC'97 side. E.g. for PCM (which will also change the volume of VIAFMTSR) use "vias pcm 60" to set it to around 60%, or "vias pcm" to see the current value. The only mixer elements supported are "master" (which seems useless on my T5710), "pcm" and "pcspkr".
• "vias reset_mixer" to reset both the AC'97 and SB mixers, in case some command or game messes them up.
• "vias stereo" enables stereo output on the SB side, which was the eventual cause for my MI2 FM issues.
• "vias dump" to see the current values of all relevant AC97 and SBPro registers, for debugging.

Note it's hardcoded to only work with the VT82C686 PCI IDs as in the T5710, but it's easy enough to change the PCI IDs in the source.

To change SBPro mixer values (not AC97), I was using the standard SBP-SET utility from the SBPro drivers. Note it's not clear to me how the AC'97 and the (virtual) SBPro mixers interact with each other, but from my experiments they seemingly just add on top of each other. The AC'97 side's "PCM" control (changeable via "vias pcm xx") kind of acts as a "master" volume that most games won't be able to change.

I don't plan to continue with this program now that I'm happy with my setup.
But I think this is the first source code release showing how to enable the SBPro emulation on VIA devices.
Hoping it's useful if someone wants to investigate.
Can be built with OpenWatcom .2.x

I'd also like to port this to a GRUB4DOS module (or something like that) so I can enable the SBPro emulation with other, non-MS-DOS OS "transparently" before they boot. Or WinME, which won't run autoexec.bat , and SBPro emulation is still useful for the FM emulation from VIA VXD drivers.

crazii wrote on 2022-11-05, 03:58:

RichB93 wrote on 2020-05-10, 18:17:

Just tried on my NEC Versa C140 laptop (which has been stuck on a pile for ages because it's not the most amazing spec, but this would make it somewhat useful), and it initialised okay (VT8231), plus the FM Emulation loaded, but I couldn't get any sound output sadly. Anything I can do to help troubleshoot?

Looks like the NEC versa laptops are out of luck. Same here. Yesterday I bought the NEC versa s260 on purpose, just because it had vt82c686b south bridge, but it gets the same results as yours.
My HP T5710 works good BTW.

See my other post - I did eventually get it working - Re: VIASBCFG - VIA SBPro configuration tool for VIA VT8231 & VT82C686/A/B chipsets (v0.10a)

RichB93 wrote on 2022-11-10, 17:00:

crazii wrote on 2022-11-05, 03:58:

RichB93 wrote on 2020-05-10, 18:17:

Just tried on my NEC Versa C140 laptop (which has been stuck on a pile for ages because it's not the most amazing spec, but this would make it somewhat useful), and it initialised okay (VT8231), plus the FM Emulation loaded, but I couldn't get any sound output sadly. Anything I can do to help troubleshoot?

Looks like the NEC versa laptops are out of luck. Same here. Yesterday I bought the NEC versa s260 on purpose, just because it had vt82c686b south bridge, but it gets the same results as yours.
My HP T5710 works good BTW.

See my other post - I did eventually get it working - Re: VIASBCFG - VIA SBPro configuration tool for VIA VT8231 & VT82C686/A/B chipsets (v0.10a)

I've tried that and unfortunately it didn't work. Guess I have to stick to win98 for now.

Work's very good on a VT82C686A kt133 motherboard but only after :
Long story short , i got the motherboard , it has an ISA slot but i also knew about SB compatibility feature from the bios . I activated it , set the blaster environment in autoexec and nothing else (no via.com and nothing in cfg.sys) and i got a working sound blaster with no audio output . Tried a few dos programs (games also) and the sound blaster was detected ok , but there was no sound . Tried via.com , a few different versions and still no luck , and then i tried VIASBCFG and i got sound but it was glitchy . There was sound for ~2-3 sec. an then quiet for ~1 sec and so on and on , repeating . That was fixed by replacing the Realtek ALC 100P codec with a Via 1616A (pin to pin compatible , second better on paper an it seems also in real applications ) . I guess the reason i got no sound is that you can't control the sound volumes of the audio codec with the usual dos apps ( tried mixerset also with no luck ) .

Works fine on my Asus CUV4X.
😁

@JazeFox, thanks so much for VIASBCFG. I have been happily using it for a couple of years now on my VIA desktops.

I have a unique requirement to enable and disable the individual features of the SB emulation on the fly. For example, disable Digital Audio, but enable FM, MPU and Gameport.

Thanks to @javispedro1 releasing the source to his VIAS utility above, I was able to hack together a utility that does just that! But it would be nice if this feature could be added to VIASBCFG.

Again, huge thanks to both @JazeFox and @javispedro1!