Obviously software uses FM via Adlib ports (388h), and they get assigned to the PCI card.

Grzyb wrote on 2024-06-04, 18:03:

Obviously software uses FM via Adlib ports (388h), and they get assigned to the PCI card.

Ok, so what decides that it goes to PCI? Can it be pursuaded to go elsewhere?

ux-3 wrote on 2024-06-04, 18:11:

Ok, so what decides that it goes to PCI? Can it be pursuaded to go elsewhere?

BIOS or OS.
Also depends how the ISA card is configured - by jumpers, custom software, or PNP.
Sometimes it's possible to choose.
With PCI cards, I think it's possible not to install SB emulation software, which should prevent them from occupying Adlib and SB ports.

PCI chipset.
Your computer will send a request to FM port first to the PCI system. If it does not respond (fast enough), it will forward the request to the ISA bus.

What happens if I have no PCI card but several ISA cards. Which will be chosen? All?
How do you set up several cards under these conditions?

ux-3 wrote on 2024-06-04, 21:01:

What happens if I have no PCI card but several ISA cards. Which will be chosen? All?
How do you set up several cards under these conditions?

The simple answer is don't do that.

The problem is resource conflicts. Unless you reassign the resources of one of the cards, neither will work correctly. How to do that depends alot on the exact motherboard, bios revision, operating system version, and the sound cards in question. While having multiple sound card is possible. This is an advanced setup that is best avoided if possible. Especially since there usually aren't enough free resources to assign to both cards at once.

The easiest solution is to be using only one sound card at a time. Either remove the ISA card, or it may be possible to disable the on board sound. Most motherboards have a BIOS setting to do disable the on board sound. If your system has such an option it will probably be the best solution if you are using the ISA card for better DOS compatibility.

The more advanced answer is that both cards are occupying address 388h. You will need to reassign one of the cards to another address. Unfortunately while most sound blasters and compatables can reassign most of their resources. Most can't change the port address for Adlib sound. This means you may not be able to get what you have working together at the same time.

Try to see if you can get the ESS PCI sound to give up 388h and 330h in device manager.
See if Win98 specific WDM drivers exist for the PCI sound. Most WDM drivers don't enable sound blaster compatibility. This may get both cards to coexist.
You could also disable the onboard sound anyway. Then install another PCI sound card that has no sound blaster compatibility at all.

If one absolutely wants two sound cards in Win98 or DOS, it is best if only one of them is sound blaster compatible at a time.

Thank you for your elaborate answer.

I did change the onboard to 300h to avoid midi conflicts from the start. All serial and parallel IO ports are off, so the IRQs are free.
I can't change 388h for onboard. I can change 388h for at least one of my cards (Maestro 32/96). But I can't change it in many game setup too, so I get the same result as before:
"Disable onboard entirely or FM will go onboard."

Ultimately, as the ESS is a pleasant FM card to me, that is no big issue. I would have liked it as FM target for most games anyway. I just wonder why I have to specify resources in a game (like IRQ or address) when I pick FM music.

I would like to use a second ISA card to carry the wavetable and to provide SB16/32 combatibility.
I was planning on using the onboard as decent SBpro clone and for that scenario the ISA would only provide wavetable. With this setting I hope to avoid the DMA clicking bug. This seems to work in general.

But I also want to use the ISA as SB16/32/AWE with later games, I still have some hope to do this, by having no conflicts in the A,I, D parameters ( like A240, I7, D0).
But with my AWE32 I need to avoid the hanging notes bug. I have the right controller chip to be free of the Hexen type. And as long as I don't want SB16 abilities, I can use the onboard digital, which should remove the playing hanging notes bug too, iirc.

Glad I was able to help explain at least some of what is going on.
388h end up becoming somewhat the de-facto standard for Sound Blaster FM and Adlib, unfortunately that meant it became hard-coded into a lot of DOS software. A lot of software will ask for the Sound Blaster resources even though they are not used at all for FM. This was because a lot of users back in the day did not understand the FM synth used totally different resources than PCM sound.
You could try setting up your games for Adlib music instead. In some cases you may be able to correctly set the address port for FM, and not ask for the Sound Blaster PCM address port instead.

OK, ran into the next issue (Win98se, clean DOS boot):
I have paired the onboard ESS Solo-1 with a CT2760 Rev3 AWE32 plus Wavetable addon. I am sending the AWE line-out to the ESS line-in.
When I pick the ESS as SBpro and the (AWE32 carried) NEC XR385 wavetable at P330, I do hear the wavetable faintly, while the ESS does voice etc. And here my problem starts:

The AWE mixer (mixerset) doesn't work correctly, while the ESS is enabled. If I disable the ESS, the AWE32 mixer works fine. On the other hand, the ESS mixer has no problems setting the "line in volume" up for the daisy chain.

So how do I control the volumes of two cards separately? (I tried AWE mixerset 2.15 and 2.18. They both work with just the AWE active. But once the ESS is also on, they give false settings and reactions.)

Edit: It seems I can load an AWE32 mixer setting alright. I just can't change it with the mixer interface, as that doesn't work. So at least I have a workaround: Run AWE32 alone, configure MIDI output to "loud", save as default. With ESS active, load the loud default settings. Now regulate ESS line in to adjust Midi. OK...

There must be better solutions.

(Edit2: Solved the garbled sound issue in "Privateer": Limiting EMS to 8192 removed it. Game issue, as suspected. Will edit in start post.)

I think the FM assignment problem is solved:

As far as I tested it now, the FM output goes to the device with address 220!
If I set the ESS to A220, it will get SBpro or Adlib, no matter what I set on the other card and specify in game.
And if I set the AWE to A 220, it will be getting the FM, no matter which card I select for FM.