You can try this modded initializer where I exchanged PCI ID 2420 with 2440 (ISA Bridge), the value can be found at offset 4ADEh.

Thank you.
I tried this, but still the same. It seems on this system the ID for ISA Bridge is 2410... so I changed that in hex editor and it still refuses to initialize. Weird.

The 2410 ID is allready in there, it's located a little bit earlier in the initializer. Can't check the location right now since I'm in a pub.

Oh, I didn't know that. In that case it should have worked even before these modifications. Enjoy the pub 😁

Did you check out Phil's video regarding this card and setup for DOS gaming on his mainboard with SB-Link? https://youtu.be/e14dFZWi2eI

MN_Moody wrote on 2021-11-14, 16:47:

Did you check out Phil's video regarding this card and setup for DOS gaming on his mainboard with SB-Link? https://youtu.be/e14dFZWi2eI

At 11:15 or so in Phil's video, you can clearly see the driver is loading for him in TDMA mode, so he is not using SBLINK, eventhough he mentions it earlier in the video.

EDIT:

I found this very useful comment by viewer "no u" on Phil's video:

Hey, that ESSOLO.INI file can be modified with a hex editor such as Hexit to change the IRQs and addresses to whatever you want (within the card's limits). You won't have to fight with PNP assigning values again. These are what the bytes do and the values you can enter...

00: SB IO (Little Endian, 20 = 220, 40 = 240)
01: SB IO (Big Endian, 02 = 200 (Cannot be changed))
02: DMA (00, 01, 03)
03: DMA (Big Endian, not used and don't change, default 00)
04: FM Address (Little Endian, Default is 88 for 388h (Cannot be changed))
05: FM Address (Big Endian, Default is 03 for 388h (Cannot be changed))
06: IRQ (05, 07, 09, 10 (0A), 11-14 (0B-0E))
07: IRQ (Big Endian, not used and don't change, default 00)
08: Gameport Address (Little Endian, default 01 for 201h (Cannot be changed))
09: Gameport Address (Big Endian, default 02 for 200h, change to anything else to disable)
0A: MPU401 Address (Little Endian, default 30 for 330h, can be 00, 20, 30, 40)
0B: MPU401 Address (Big Endian, default 03 for 300h, change to anything else to disable)
0C: DDMA/TDMA/SB-Link (00 (DDMA), 01 (TDMA), 02 (SB-Link aka PC/PCI))
0D: DDMA/TDMA/SB-Link (Big Endian, not used and don't change, default 00)
0E: Not Used
0F: Not Used

Set "PNP OS Installed" in your BIOS to Yes, so when you run ESSOLO.COM no TSR remains in memory (if using SB-Link).
Also, no need to have ESSOLO.SYS in Config.sys. You only need ESSOLO.COM in Autoexec.bat and ESSOLO.INI in your main C:\ directory. (This will allow games that require you to not have a memory manager installed to work such as Zone 66)

Hopes this helps someone configure their card! (Psst, Phil, you should mirror the ESSOLO.INI information on your site in your driver/info page for the card!)

I hate to necro this thread, but I just recently put together a build with a VC820 and was attempting to use an ESS Solo-1 with SB-LINK. I've tried installing the card in Win98SE and using it in DOS, but I have had the same issue, and even in Windows DOS boxes it doesn't seem to work for DOS games. IRQ 5 will sometimes be assigned after the first install and then it just magically vanishes upon reboot, and even if it's there under the Device Manager, digital sound is garbled and distorted.

To be clear, the card definitely works, as I can get AdLib sound, Windows wave sounds, and even sounds via a MIDI daughterboard attached to the header I added for such.

I can't seem to get TDMA to work either, although it did at one point pop up in the DOS driver's initialization briefly when I was tinkering. It still didn't work.

havli, or any others who've tried this, have you had any success in getting this combination to work?

QUICK EDIT: I used the ESSINIT.BAT package from here, and that's how I got TDMA to initialize, however digital sound was distorted. Upon exiting Duke3D, which I was using to test TDMA sound, I encountered a hard lockup and had to reset.