Did you run aweinit? (going by memory)

I think you might mean aweutil

I use this syntax -
aweutil /S

in order to get the awe effects working, but this doesn't get soundblaster or adlib music working.

Strange, maybe you should try a different isa slot.

try typing aweutil /?
or aweutil /h

it may give you a list of switches

found this :

Your sound directory contains a DOS utility called AWEUTIL which
allows you to perform the following operations on your Advanced
WavEffects audio card:

* Initialize AWE hardware to play music synthesis effects
* Use MIDI Emulation to support computer games
* Control Music Synthesis Effects
* Troubleshooting

To get more information on your AWEUTIL options, please follow the
steps below:

1. Change to your sound directory.
2. Type AWEUTIL /? and press <Enter>.

The AWEUTIL options available for your audio card will appear:

/U Unload
/S Initialize only
/R:nnn Set Reverb level to nnn
/C:nnn Set Chorus level to nnn
/KEY Enable keyboard controls (default)
/KEY- Disable keyboard controls
/EM Enable MIDI Emulation
/EM- Disable MIDI Emulation
/EM:GM Enable MIDI Emulation using General MIDI
/EM:GS Enable MIDI Emulation using GS Emulation
/EM:MT32 Enable MIDI Emulation using MT32 Emulation

where nnn ranges from 0 (no effect) to 100 (maximum effect).

NOTE (1): Your audio card may or may not support the control of
music synthesis effects. If it does not, the /R:nnn,
/C:nnn, /KEY, and /KEY- options would not be displayed.
In this case, please skip the following sections
related to music synthesis effects: * Initialize AWE
hardware to play music synthesis effects * Control
music synthesis Effects

NOTE (2): Your audio card may not have DRAM (either built-in,
installed in SIMM socket or installed using DRAM
daughterboard). In this case, you can only have GM mode
MIDI emulation and not GS and MT32.

NOTE (3): If your audio card cannot support features stated in
NOTE (1) or NOTE (2), the respective options will not
be displayed when you query AWEUTIL with /? switch.

Initializing AWE Hardware to Play Music Synthesis Effects
---------------------------------------------------------

Before you can play music synthesis effects, you need to initialize
the AWE hardware by typing this command line:

AWEUTIL /S

NOTE: This command initializes the AWE hardware only and does not
leave the program resident in system memory.

Using MIDI Emulation to Support Computer Games
----------------------------------------------

Although protected mode software does not support MIDI Emulation, you
can still play music from this software using the 4-operator
synthesizer chip.

AWEUTIL allows you to enable the MIDI Emulation feature of your audio
card. This feature allows games and other software that do not
support wavetable synthesis to play wavetable music from the sound
card. Note that you also need to enable the MFBEN jumper on your
audio card for MIDI Emulation to work.

For more information, see the section "MPU-401 MIDI Emulation" in the
chapter "Knowing Your Audio Card" of your Getting Started.

The command line for specifying the type of MIDI Emulation is :

AWEUTIL [/EM] [/EM-] [EM:xx] [/U]

The parameters for this command line are as follows:

/EM:xx Specifies the type of MIDI Emulation where xx
represents GM, MT32, or GS.
/EM Enables MIDI Emulation.
/EM- Disables MIDI Emulation.
/U Unloads the program from memory.

NOTE: The /U command leaves the program resident in memory. The
Windows driver (SBAWE32.DRV) disables MIDI Emulation if you run
Windows. Therefore, you will need to enable MIDI Emulation again
after you exit from Windows.

Controlling Music Synthesis Effects
-----------------------------------

The command line to set music synthesis effects is:

AWEUTIL [/R:nnn] [/C:nnn]

The parameters for this command line are as follows:

/R:nnn Sets Reverb level to nnn
/C:nnn Sets Chorus level to nnn

where nnn ranges from 0 (no effect) to 100 (maximum effect).

NOTE: If you get an "Unrecognize command switch" message when you
specify the parameters discussed in this section, your card
does not support the control of music synthesis effects.

Using the Hot Keys
------------------

The following are hot keys which you can use to control your music
synthesis output effects when AWEUTIL is resident in memory.

KEY FUNCTION
<Ctrl++> Increments Reverb level by 3 %.
<Ctrl+-> Decrements Reverb level by 3 %.
<Alt++> Increments Chorus level by 3 %.
<Alt+-> Decrements Chorus level by 3%.
<Shift+Alt+-> Sets Reverb and Chorus levels to zero.
<Shift+Alt++> Restores Reverb and Chorus levels.

NOTE: Both Reverb and Chorus effects in this case apply only to music
synthesis. If your audio card does not support the control of music
synthesis effects, the above hot keys will not be applicable.

You can enable or disable your keyboard controls using the following
switches:

/KEY Enables the keyboard controls (default).
/KEY- Disables the keyboard controls.

Troubleshooting
---------------

This section provides tips for resolving some of the problems that you
might encounter with AWEUTIL.

PROBLEM -- System hangs when you play games under MIDI Emulation.

CAUSE -- 1. AWEUTIL cannot co-exist with games that use DOS extender.
2. Some games require a MPU-401 'Smart' mode that is
different from the UART mode used by your audio card.
So, you have to use AWE's music synthesis capabilities
instead.

SOLUTION - 1. Type AWEUTIL /S and press <Enter> to set your audio card
to Adlib compatibility.
2. Change your game's software setting to "Adlib or Sound
Blaster compatible".

PROBLEM -- Not enough memory after you have installed the audio card's
software or loaded AWEUTIL.

CAUSE -- Applications that make use of MIDI Emulation require a lot
of conventional memory to run. So do some games.

SOLUTION - Use a memory manager to optimize your conventional memory.
We recommend that you use a third-party memory manager such
as QEMM, 386MAX, or MEMMAKER.

However, should you still face memory shortage after
optimization, remove two DOS drivers named CTSB16.SYS and
CTMMSYS.SYS from your CONFIG.SYS file if you have them
installed. This will help you gain 37 KBytes of
conventional memory. But you will not be able to play or
record .VOC or .WAV files under DOS.

PROBLEM -- "Feedback path error" message.

CAUSE -- The hardware might be incompatible.

SOLUTION - Type AWEUTIL /S and press <Enter> to set your audio card to
Adlib compatibility.

PnP models need to be initialized with the Creative PnP Configuration Manager first.
The utility is called CTCM.EXE, there should be a copy in your SB driver folder. If it isn't there, visit this Creative support page and download the tool from there (it's the last file listed).

Unpack the archive, execute CTCM.EXE, followed by AWEUTIL.EXE /S.
SB and AdLib sound should work now. If it doesn't, please post the console output from CTCM here.

And one more issue with AWE family cards. Sometimes in some obscure cases FM synthesis get muted if you listen midi through native AWE EMU8K chip before and required to initialize with aweutil again for work. Unfortunatelly only in pure DOS it helps because aweutil.com won't work under windows environment.

Thanks so much for everyone's help.

I have run a series of tests on my AWE32 PnP (CT3990) to try and get SoundBlaster or Adlib music to work. I am using the sound setup found inside the freely downloadable 3D Realms game called "Shadow Warrior", because I find it quite useful for testing purposes, and it's free!

I do the following tests:

Inside Windows98, I shutdown to "pure DOS".

Inside my autoexec and config files, I have these important lines -

DEVICE=c:\ct\ctcm.exe

c:\sb\aweutil /S

As DOS is loading, I see that the Creative PnP manager has successfully configured 2 out of 4 devices - and I think that just 2 successfully configured devices is OK because I have disabled both the Creative IDE controller and the gameport, which leaves just the SB and the AWE effects.

I also notice that the BLASTER environment is properly set, and the aweutil does not output any error messages.

I then try out Creative's diagnose.exe utility - and all tests are 100% OK, including the FM music test.

So far, so good.

I also notice with interest that when I do this action at the c: DOS prompt -

aweutil /?

I do not see any of these options -

/R:nnn Set Reverb level to nnn
/C:nnn Set Chorus level to nnn
/KEY Enable keyboard controls (default)
/KEY- Disable keyboard controls

These 4 options do not appear.

Now, inside the sound setup found inside "Shadow Warrior", I select either SoundBlaster or Adlib for music, I receive this error message -

Could not locate FM chip.

Please note that I have tried all of the above tests both with and also without the MFBEN jumper enabled. (I'm so sorry but I find all of this very confusing - I really don't know whether enabling or disabling this jumper would help or not.)

I don't want to overwhelm the reader of this message with additional tests done inside Windows98 "dos box mode", so I will stop now, but I may include these extra tests inside a new post.

Thank you very much for any additional thoughts and suggestions. Best regards, Robert.

retro games 100 wrote:

As DOS is loading, I see that the Creative PnP manager has successfully configured 2 out of 4 devices - and I think that just 2 successfully configured devices is OK because I have disabled both the Creative IDE controller and the gameport, which leaves just the SB and the AWE effects.

You normally don't get this messgage even if IDE and gameport disable
I think your awe32 is not configured properly
With win98 CTCM stores its configuration in C:\WINDOWS and C:\CTCM (iirc it is called ctcm.ini)
You must remove both after removing your awe32 from win98 device manager
Disable PnP OS from bios
configure awe32 eprom with CTCU from a dos 6.22 bootdisk, be careful to select a configuration with io port 388 enable otherwise opl3 will be disable
Restart win98 and let it detect your awe32

I tried setting my BIOS PnP OS setting = No. Unfortunately, my BIOS now loses an IRQ because of this new setting. I strongly believe this lost IRQ is being consumed by the Creative AWE32 PnP card for its onboard IDE controller. However, if I use the CTCU utility, it tells me that the IDE controller is disabled. If I change the BIOS PnP OS setting = Yes, then inside my BIOS, my lost IRQ is given back to me.

Also, I tried something else - I ran the sound setup utility inside the DOS game called "Dark Forces", and I could hear Adlib music OK, and I could also hear OP4 (I think it was labelled this) music OK too.

Also, when I run the ctcm utility, it now says that 4 of 4 devices have been configured successfully, rather than just 2 of 4.

Unfortunately, sound setup in "Shadow Warrior" still cannot play either SoundBlaster music or Adlib music.

I'm wondering if I am having this trouble because I also have a SoundBlaster PCI-based Live! card in my PC? (But please note that I do not have *any* SB emulation devices or drivers installed.)

What I am going to do is -

Reformat my HDD, reinstall Win98 and then *just* insert the AWE32 PnP card, and then do a full range of tests on it. Then, if every test works, I will insert the Live! card, and then re-run all tests.

Thank you.

Best regards, Robert.

I have reformatted my HDD, and then only installed DOS 6.22 on to it.

I notice that whenever my PC boots up, it says my AWE32 PnP card is using IRQ 7.

When I run ctcu (in DOS 6.22), it tells me that my AWE32 PnP card is using IRQ 5, and if I try to reconfigure this setting, it will only offer me one choice, and that choice is ... 5!

In my PC, I also have a GUS Classic and as mentioned previously, a SB Live! card. I haven't pulled all of these cards out yet, but I think that now is the time to do this, because I think it is possible that ctcu and ctcm are getting confused with my other hardware components.

Thanks, regards, Robert.

PS - I'll post back with any significant observations.
PPS - Shadow Warrior still won't play the Adlib/SB music, although I do now get more command line options when I run aweutil /?

I know what the problem is. It's because I have a GUS Classic card in my system. I tried removing it, and all was 100% OK with the pnp awe32. I put the GUS back in, and the adlib / SB music problem came back again.

I need to do some further tests to see if it is just the pnp awe32 card that cannot live with a gus classic card. If I can get a non-pnp awe32 living in harmony with a gus classic, then that would solve my problem.

I'll try this out, then I'll post back with the results.

I was able to test out a non-PnP AWE32 (model CT2760) alongside a GUS Classic quite quickly because I already had this configuration inside another working legacy machine. Basically, it all works. I have no adlib or SB music problems with this awe32 model, and it also works fine alongside a GUS classic.

You forgot to say that you use GUS and AWE together, huh? 😀
Move all SB strings in autoexec,bat AFTER all GUS strings. I think, permanent SB emulation of non-PnP GUS'es (CLASSIC & MAX) overwrite SET BLASTER string with their own values. I already have deal with this situation. Check this first and move all SB initialization strings after GUS strings. Hope it helps.

Hello. Please note that for my recent testing purposes, I had these two cards in the same PC -

awe32 pnp
gus classic

However, the autoexec and config files had no mention of anything related to the gus card.

When the gus classic card was present, I had adlib and sb music problems with the awe32. As soon as I removed the gus, those problems went away. But my autoexec and config never once referred to the gus. Do you think my testing was sufficient? Do you think that if I retry my tests, but specifically insert gus related commands in to my auto/config files (albeit *AFTER* the SB strings), that might solve this problem (and also change/affect my testing?)

Thank you, best regards, Robert.

Hmmm, seems that it is really hardware only problem. No, putting gus strings into config files can't help in this case. 🙁

Yes, I believe it is a type of hardware conflict problem. Also, changing the GUS's IO address jumper from 240 (which is SB compatible) to 250 (which is not SB compatible) did not help solve the problem either.

I had a similar configuration for a while (CT3980 + GUS classic). I think the trick was to force CTCM into using the correct settings by editing the ctpnp.cfg file and set the file permissions to read-only afterwards.

Here is an example:

1[PNP]
2ReadPort=20b
3MaxCSN=255
4BypassPnPOS=0
5
6[SB16]
7Disable=0
8Csn=2
9CardId=CTL0042
10Serial=00007b74
11LogDev=0
12Port0=220
13Port1=330
14Port2=388
15Irq0=5
16Dma0=1
17Dma1=5
18
19[IDE]
20Disable=1
21Csn=2
22CardId=CTL0042
23Serial=00007b74
24LogDev=1
25
26[GAMEPORT]
27Disable=0
28Csn=2
29CardId=CTL0042
30Serial=00007b74
31LogDev=2
32Port0=200
33
34[AWE]
35Disable=0
36Csn=2
37CardId=CTL0042
38Serial=00007b74
39LogDev=3
40Port0=620
41Port1=a20
42Port2=e20

Good luck!

P.S.: I never succeeded in completely deactivating the IDE port on PnP cards, no matter what I tried.

That's very interesting. During testing yesterday, I had reached the stage whereby I was manually editing the ctpnp.cfg [ and was thinking to myself - plug and play, what a joke! ] , but it did not cross my mind to make this cfg file read-only - good tip that, thanks!

Please note that I manged to obtain my "lost/stolen" IRQ back from the onboard IDE Controller by setting the BIOS field called "Plug and Play OS Aware" to Yes. If this BIOS field was set to No however, BIOS would not use the "lost" IRQ for any purposes, but Windows informed me that it was freely available. Thus, I believe, this "lost" IRQ was placed in to "no man's land".

Also, when you had your CT3980 + GUS Classic combo working, did you by any chance remember if you could get Adlib or SB music working? Because that is the only aspect of this hardware combo that appeared not to work. Could it just be possible that you never knew that this specific musical aspect of this hardware combo was defective? Just a thought.

Thank you. Best regards, Robert.