CU_AMiGA wrote on 2022-06-19, 23:26:

Hello. I don't think i have a problem, but more of a query. Hence why i am going to post this in this thread rather than create […]
Show full quote

Hello. I don't think i have a problem, but more of a query. Hence why i am going to post this in this thread rather than create a new one. I have an OEM ISA PnP ES1869F card which seems to be functioning fine. I have a dual bootup setup - Windows 98SE, and pure DOS. I have set it up just fine under Windows 98SE via the OEM VxD drivers. Now for DOS, i can't seem to change any of the settings/parameters in the ESSCFG utility that is used in my autoexec.bat (even by using the ! command - complains of an incorrect parameter). And on bootup, ESSCFG says ES1869 is configured by PnP or ICU. Luckily my ES1869F card seems to be configured correctly for use (IO:220 I:5 D0:1 D1:3 MPU:330 J:E), and games seem to find/work fine on it just fine: music, sound effects, and external MIDI wavetable. Tried the usual suspects, Doom, Duke 3D, Lemmings, Keen 4, few others - no issues (unless anyone can think of any other games to try?). So my question is, do i really need to include the ESSCFG in my autoexec.bat still if its correctly configured by default? I currently include it just to confirm/show it configuration on bootup, along with the ESSVOL settings. So the section in autoexec.bat looks like:

C:\AUDIODRV\ESSCFG.EXE
C:\AUDIODRV\ESSVOL.EXE /v:8 /l:0 /w:8 /m:0 /c:8 /s:8 /a:8 /p:0
C:\AUDIODRV\ESSVOL.EXE

Let me know guys, thanks! 😀

Thanks for your time.

You probably don't. How about REM'ing that line and trying, for science?

jakethompson1 wrote on 2022-06-20, 01:31:

CU_AMiGA wrote on 2022-06-19, 23:26:

Hello. I don't think i have a problem, but more of a query. Hence why i am going to post this in this thread rather than create […]
Show full quote

Hello. I don't think i have a problem, but more of a query. Hence why i am going to post this in this thread rather than create a new one. I have an OEM ISA PnP ES1869F card which seems to be functioning fine. I have a dual bootup setup - Windows 98SE, and pure DOS. I have set it up just fine under Windows 98SE via the OEM VxD drivers. Now for DOS, i can't seem to change any of the settings/parameters in the ESSCFG utility that is used in my autoexec.bat (even by using the ! command - complains of an incorrect parameter). And on bootup, ESSCFG says ES1869 is configured by PnP or ICU. Luckily my ES1869F card seems to be configured correctly for use (IO:220 I:5 D0:1 D1:3 MPU:330 J:E), and games seem to find/work fine on it just fine: music, sound effects, and external MIDI wavetable. Tried the usual suspects, Doom, Duke 3D, Lemmings, Keen 4, few others - no issues (unless anyone can think of any other games to try?). So my question is, do i really need to include the ESSCFG in my autoexec.bat still if its correctly configured by default? I currently include it just to confirm/show it configuration on bootup, along with the ESSVOL settings. So the section in autoexec.bat looks like:

C:\AUDIODRV\ESSCFG.EXE
C:\AUDIODRV\ESSVOL.EXE /v:8 /l:0 /w:8 /m:0 /c:8 /s:8 /a:8 /p:0
C:\AUDIODRV\ESSVOL.EXE

Let me know guys, thanks! 😀

Thanks for your time.

It's probably because your BIOS is an ISA Plug and Play BIOS. So (when everything works) it and Windows cooperate over the ESCD information flashed into the BIOS chip and it correctly configures your sound card even when booting directly to DOS mode. If you were doing this on a VLB 486 or early Socket 4/5 Pentium or similar with no such BIOS support, you would either have to use ESSCFG or 'restart in MS-DOS' mode from Windows 9x, since Windows 9x takes over the role of configuring ISAPnP devices by talking to the hardware directly if there is no BIOS support.

The ISA Plug and Play BIOS support was required for the "Designed for Windows 95" logo program, I believe, so it caught on quite quickly.

Hi. Thanks for the reply. Sorry, i forgot to mention a couple of things - i was half asleep when i made that post! 😉 Yeah, its a super socket 7 motherboard with a PnP BIOS included. I forgot to mention though that i have the PnP OS option in the BIOS turned off as i have a seperate pure DOS option as a bootup option (similar to what Phils Computer Lab has). I actually had to reset the PnP configuration data, set the IRQ sequence in BIOS, and physically install the ES1869F card before my ethernet card so that it would use IRQ 5 (with the ethernet using the correct IRQ 10).

appiah4 wrote on 2022-06-20, 07:46:

CU_AMiGA wrote on 2022-06-19, 23:26:

Hello. I don't think i have a problem, but more of a query. Hence why i am going to post this in this thread rather than create […]
Show full quote

Hello. I don't think i have a problem, but more of a query. Hence why i am going to post this in this thread rather than create a new one. I have an OEM ISA PnP ES1869F card which seems to be functioning fine. I have a dual bootup setup - Windows 98SE, and pure DOS. I have set it up just fine under Windows 98SE via the OEM VxD drivers. Now for DOS, i can't seem to change any of the settings/parameters in the ESSCFG utility that is used in my autoexec.bat (even by using the ! command - complains of an incorrect parameter). And on bootup, ESSCFG says ES1869 is configured by PnP or ICU. Luckily my ES1869F card seems to be configured correctly for use (IO:220 I:5 D0:1 D1:3 MPU:330 J:E), and games seem to find/work fine on it just fine: music, sound effects, and external MIDI wavetable. Tried the usual suspects, Doom, Duke 3D, Lemmings, Keen 4, few others - no issues (unless anyone can think of any other games to try?). So my question is, do i really need to include the ESSCFG in my autoexec.bat still if its correctly configured by default? I currently include it just to confirm/show it configuration on bootup, along with the ESSVOL settings. So the section in autoexec.bat looks like:

C:\AUDIODRV\ESSCFG.EXE
C:\AUDIODRV\ESSVOL.EXE /v:8 /l:0 /w:8 /m:0 /c:8 /s:8 /a:8 /p:0
C:\AUDIODRV\ESSVOL.EXE

Let me know guys, thanks! 😀

Thanks for your time.

You probably don't. How about REM'ing that line and trying, for science?

I think i have already tried it without the line included in my autoexec.bat and everything seemed to work fine. It's just me double checking everything just to make sure as this card has been a bit of a b*tch to get going 100% correctly under Win 98.

Does anyone remember an application for audiodrive cards that was made a think by willow pond´s with sounds of animals and a laser for example?

Some work has been done into reversing the native mode.

Native mode documentation: https://github.com/jwt27/esfm
NT4 and NT5-WDM driver: https://github.com/leecher1337/es1969
Patch editor for driver's midi implementation: https://github.com/leecher1337/esfmbank

Just got this card, its not showing in multimedia properties under audio tab. the volume controller is also missing. win98 automatically installs WDM drivers. Not as easy to install

Figured out when i load duke3d and set 220 irq7 dma1 it works in game. when i install pci ymf744 it locks up at startup with windows protection error. I want to use both soundcards if possible or the ess 1868f+x2gs but it wont show in win98

Figured it out, got it working. Josephstar mensions getting the 95 version of the zip file from phils site and installing which should be vxd
edit: spoke too soon -_- kicked wdm then it worked restarted, conflict resources error
edit2: ok working again, had to change one of the two DMA's to 00 manually in system properties
edit 3: x2gs mmmm not quite there even with appiahs update, probably stick with external sc55

I'm having issues with gameport not throwing MIDI to sc-55. I've tested the cable with aureal system which works fine with sc-55. Any advice?

What are the config settings in Duke for the MIDI device? It might just be a config issue. I have a 1888F which works with the gameport MIDI cable and sc55, no special setup or programs required, just had to set the config in Duke. Might be a conflict with your aureal?

In my case I think the settings are 330, 5, 1, but I’d have to check.

gmaverick2k wrote on 2023-10-04, 20:02:

I'm having issues with gameport not throwing MIDI to sc-55. I've tested the cable with aureal system which works fine with sc-55. Any advice?

I might have had the same issue as you. See here: What are the chances all my ISA sound cards have MIDI problems?

I never made a final post for that thread(which I should do now), but it ended up being my cable. Somehow it would work on PCI cards, but not ISA. I got a DB15MIDI from Serdashop and all my ISA cards worked fine.

midicollector wrote on 2023-10-04, 20:25:

What are the config settings in Duke for the MIDI device? It might just be a config issue. I have a 1888F which works with the gameport MIDI cable and sc55, no special setup or programs required, just had to set the config in Duke. Might be a conflict with your aureal?

In my case I think the settings are 330, 5, 1, but I’d have to check.

Aureal was on another pc. Was just doing a sanity check that cable or sc55 wasn't faulty.

danieljm wrote on 2023-10-04, 21:06:

gmaverick2k wrote on 2023-10-04, 20:02:

I'm having issues with gameport not throwing MIDI to sc-55. I've tested the cable with aureal system which works fine with sc-55. Any advice?

I might have had the same issue as you. See here: What are the chances all my ISA sound cards have MIDI problems?

I never made a final post for that thread(which I should do now), but it ended up being my cable. Somehow it would work on PCI cards, but not ISA. I got a DB15MIDI from Serdashop and all my ISA cards worked fine.

Spot on. Another thing to buy in this neverending pursuit of vintage glory 😂👍 thanks

Paar wrote on 2020-11-13, 08:40:

I have a card that has ES1688 chip together with ES968 chip which is used to supplement PNP features and needs to be properly initialized in CONFIG.SYS. If your card doesn't have that, it's probably non-PNP and you shouldn't worry about CONFIG.SYS at all.

Can anyone list other soundcards (small list) models that use the same solution (PnP driver for PnP chip for DOS) for example from Creative, I'm asking?

Xmodule999 wrote on 2023-10-18, 05:36:

Paar wrote on 2020-11-13, 08:40:

I have a card that has ES1688 chip together with ES968 chip which is used to supplement PNP features and needs to be properly initialized in CONFIG.SYS. If your card doesn't have that, it's probably non-PNP and you shouldn't worry about CONFIG.SYS at all.

Can anyone list other soundcards (small list) models that use the same solution (PnP driver for PnP chip for DOS) for example from Creative, I'm asking?

Any Sound Blaster with a Vibra chip is plug and play.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-10-18, 12:44:

Xmodule999 wrote on 2023-10-18, 05:36:

Paar wrote on 2020-11-13, 08:40:

I have a card that has ES1688 chip together with ES968 chip which is used to supplement PNP features and needs to be properly initialized in CONFIG.SYS. If your card doesn't have that, it's probably non-PNP and you shouldn't worry about CONFIG.SYS at all.

Can anyone list other soundcards (small list) models that use the same solution (PnP driver for PnP chip for DOS) for example from Creative, I'm asking?

Any Sound Blaster with a Vibra chip is plug and play.

Not entirely true, the original Vibra 16 chip (without any suffixes) isn't PnP.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-10-18, 12:44:

Xmodule999 wrote on 2023-10-18, 05:36:

Paar wrote on 2020-11-13, 08:40:

I have a card that has ES1688 chip together with ES968 chip which is used to supplement PNP features and needs to be properly initialized in CONFIG.SYS. If your card doesn't have that, it's probably non-PNP and you shouldn't worry about CONFIG.SYS at all.

Can anyone list other soundcards (small list) models that use the same solution (PnP driver for PnP chip for DOS) for example from Creative, I'm asking?

Any Sound Blaster with a Vibra chip is plug and play.

Some of them are only semi-PnP.

Them you for the correction. I thought Vibra cards all came out late enough that they were all plug and play.

Hi everyone, maybe one of you can help me finding an old application for Windows 3.1, I think it was from willow pond or audiodrive, it was a sound bank with animal sounds, an helicopter, a laser, I cant remember anymore.

Your help will be appreciated.

Thanks!

I am also using an ES 1868 and stumbled over one issue with Jagged Alliance Deadly games in pure DOS:
Using it as Soundblaster Pro, the Sound Effects are fine (like button click noises), but the Voices in the game sound bad (very harsh and clipped S, much like what you expect from radio communication in WW2)
Using it as Soundblaster, the Sound effects sound clipped and harsh, (button click noises, turn ending), but the voices in the game are much clearer and better.

During the Setup however (which uses a voice sample to test), they are indistinguishable. I tried IRQ 7 and DMA 3 as well as IRQ 5 with DMA 1.
The game uses a system as in what @Joseph_joestar descibed here as MILES: Re: ESS AudioDrive (ES1868) - a surprisingly good ISA sound card

Anyone experienced something similar and has any idea if this can be fixed?
The sound program allows to load a custom driver for their "AIL 3.0 SoundStream". Anyone ever used that?