It'll help you greatly to know what sound card you have! But without knowing that, one of the plain "Sound Blaster" entries is probably going to be a safe bet.

Pierre32 wrote on 2023-05-29, 11:16:

It'll help you greatly to know what sound card you have! But without knowing that, one of the plain "Sound Blaster" entries is probably going to be a safe bet.

Alright I'll have to open the computer. I checked DOOM 2's setup configuration and it's just set to Sound Blaster but if I use that in Dark Forces it doesn't detect anything. I have the options;

Port
IRQ
DMA Channel

If I set DMA channel to 3 and test the sounds on any of the Sound Blaster options I get this horrendous electronic sound through my speakers. Definitely not what they intend but it's talking now. I think I have to set the right port and IRQ any idea where I can find that info in the system settings?

Tyrant wrote on 2023-05-29, 11:26:

If I set DMA channel to 3 and test the sounds on any of the Sound Blaster options I get this horrendous electronic sound through my speakers. Definitely not what they intend but it's talking now. I think I have to set the right port and IRQ any idea where I can find that info in the system settings?

This is in Win98 and not dos right? in which case your after Device manager.
Here you'll find what the sound card is, and if you click properties and go to the resources tab you'll find the IRQ, DMA, etc
You may also have a line in c:\autoexec.bat that looks something like:
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
A = port
I = IRQ
D = DMA
H = High DMA
P = Midi
T= Soundcard type (T1 original SoundBlaster, T2 SB 1.5, T3 SB 2, T4 SB Pro, T5 SB Pro with FM Synth, T6 SB16/AWE)

(If your missing this line it doesn't matter, it's not needed for windows and only so dos games can autodetect the sound card)

chinny22 wrote on 2023-05-30, 10:35:

This is in Win98 and not dos right? in which case your after Device manager. Here you'll find what the sound card is, and if you […]
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Tyrant wrote on 2023-05-29, 11:26:

If I set DMA channel to 3 and test the sounds on any of the Sound Blaster options I get this horrendous electronic sound through my speakers. Definitely not what they intend but it's talking now. I think I have to set the right port and IRQ any idea where I can find that info in the system settings?

This is in Win98 and not dos right? in which case your after Device manager.
Here you'll find what the sound card is, and if you click properties and go to the resources tab you'll find the IRQ, DMA, etc
You may also have a line in c:\autoexec.bat that looks something like:
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
A = port
I = IRQ
D = DMA
H = High DMA
P = Midi
T= Soundcard type (T1 original SoundBlaster, T2 SB 1.5, T3 SB 2, T4 SB Pro, T5 SB Pro with FM Synth, T6 SB16/AWE)

(If your missing this line it doesn't matter, it's not needed for windows and only so dos games can autodetect the sound card)

Yep in Win98. I found those settings and it's set to

Port 220
IRQ 5
DMA 1

If I go into the sound settings for the game and I put those in for Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster 2 and Sound Blaster Pro I get a good test result for sound test but neither of them play any music. If I save the setting anyway I still don't get any sounds whatsoever. I started getting the sound test after disabling hardware acceleration. These are suggestions for C-Media PCI Audio Legacy Device. Also listed is CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device and DOS Mode MPU-401 Enulator. Just FYI I had a look inside my PC and it's not a typical card it's attached to the motherboard and isn't removable. Should I try and find a card? All my other games work.

Any suggestions?

Can you identify the sound chip on the motherboard? Get photos of all the chips if you're unsure? It may be something worth persisting with if you can get some specific advice on it.

Tyrant wrote on 2023-05-30, 11:39:

Also listed is CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device and DOS Mode MPU-401 Enulator.

This is what appears in Device Manager? Does it show as working?

I have a CMI8738-based card, and I spent some time on it and never got music working with DOS-based games running under Windows, only digital audio. And if I booted into DOS and tried the DOS drivers (which I think were meant to offer Sound Blaster compatibility), I got even worse results with e.g. DOOM crashing and other games not even starting. I tried a few sets of DOS drivers too.

I think I saw some people on these forums mention patched drivers for that device, perhaps they're worth a try, but I don't think I'll bother trying myself, I'll probably just swap cards.