Can't get SoundBlaster AWE32 PNP (ISA) working \ VOGONS

Can't get SoundBlaster AWE32 PNP (ISA) working

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First post, by fronzel

Posted on 2009-10-04, 18:24

fronzel Offline

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Hi there!

I have seen there are loads of people with knowledge of MS-DOS and such old stuff around here, so i registered in the hope someone can help me solve my problem.

OK i try starting with what it's about.

I have an old Virtuality SU3000 Virtual Reality arcade machine. This beast is my favorite, but unfortunately it is based on MS-DOS 6.2 and my knowledge about it is a bit weak.

Recently the Main Board had to be swapped as it was defective. I got everything working again but the soundcard. The new board does not have an onboard soundcard, so this can not be the problem.

However, when i run the old SOundblaster diagnose utility (DIAGNOSE.EXE) it just tells me "Failure setting Base I/O Address at 220h".

by looking at the soundcard i noticed it says "PNP" (Plug and Play", ), so it should configure itself???

Is there any trick to set it up properly? The Problem is that the games are based on the AWE32's wavetable and will not accept any other soundcard. If it's broken i have no problem buying a new (used rather) one, but i think it is some configuration problem. I looked at the card but as it is PNP it does not have any jumpers to set... How can i determine if it's broken? CD Audio still plays well, so it might really be the settings. But i got no idea what to do, the tools aweutil and diagnose are both extremely unhelpfull, they just tell me it cant be initialized on 220h. Help!!! =(

Reply 1 of 4, by filipetolhuizen

Posted on 2009-10-04, 19:23

filipetolhuizen Offline

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You'll need to install drivers for Win 3.1, which installs aditional drivers for DOS.

Reply 2 of 4, by Jorpho

Posted on 2009-10-04, 19:23

Jorpho Offline

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If I had to take a wild guess, I would suggest that the easiest solution would be go to into the motherboard's BIOS and disable things that you won't be using in an arcade machine: serial ports, parallel ports, floppy drive, and so on. (If you're not sure what something is, you should probably leave it alone, of course.)

Your BIOS also might have a "Plug and Play OS Installed" toggle that might have to be flipped.

Do you have a complete set of AWE32 drivers? There's a bunch of weird little PNP utilities (CTCU and CTCM, I think) that you might need. See Creative Labs Sound Blaster ISA Cards' Drivers Collection (Old Thread) .

Reply 3 of 4, by fronzel

Posted on 2009-10-04, 22:38

fronzel Offline

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Thanks for the tips! I will try to download and install these CTCU and CTCM utilities. The board itself does not have many periphals but a network card and as it is DOS i thought it was better to choose "Not a Plug and Play OS" and let the BIOS handle stuff automatically. but if i get it right the board settings are only for reserving IRQ. Thanks for the input so far, imma burn the stuff on a CD and transfer it to the machine tomorrow (past midnight here). I'll drop you another note tomorrow evening. =)

Reply 4 of 4, by Jorpho

Posted on 2009-10-05, 01:50

Jorpho Offline

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fronzel wrote:
The board itself does not have many periphals but a network card

Even if there's nothing plugged in, if the serial ports and parallel ports are there at all, they may be taking up resources that the sound card is trying to use. (It is a little unlikely, I'll admit, but like I said, it's an easy fix.)

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