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Issues with PicoGUS on Pentium 200 MMX and Pocket386

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First post, by Mikkel1980

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Hello everyone,

I have bought a Pocket 386 a month ago and the Adlib sound was not sufficient for my needs. I watched some YouTube video's and read some threads here on the PicoGUS. I bought a PicoGUS for Soundblaster mode and GUS mode.

I've bought the official ISA 8-bit extension board for the Pocket386. When I connect the ISA extension board to the Pocket 386 it will boot without any problem, the red lights on the board are on. When I put the card in on of the three ISA slots the Pocket 386 will not boot anymore because the CF card/harddive is not recoginized anymore. The yellow light on the PicoGUS is on like it should be.

Things I've tried:
- Changed IRQ and DMA settings on the PicoGUS.
- Changed bios settings, disable features like COM Ports and Parallel Ports to make sure that there is no conflict.
- Updated the firmware for the PicoGUS to the latest version.
- Put the PicoGUS in a socket 7 machine (Gigabyte GA-586S2 which has a SIS5582 chipset) with Pentium 200 MMX to see if the PicoGUS is functioning.

The PicoGUS is working on the socket 7 machine with the exception of Raptor where I have no sound at all in GUS mode. When I use soundblaster mode every game I tried is freezing in the setup when selecting the soundblaster or when the game starts. For example Wacky wheels hangs when the Soundblaster is selected in the menu. Prince of Persia 2 is freezing directly when the game launches. The same happens in Adlib mode.

I don't think the PicoGUS itself is broken maybe there are issues with the socket 7 chipset. I think it is related to the ISA slots somehow. I've tried an AWE32 ISA and the socket 7 system will not boot when I insert this card. However I don't know if this card is still functioning because it's old. I've bought the PicoGUS initially for the Pocket 386. I've contacted the seller on Ali Express and the answer he gave me was that the PicoGUS is not supported/working for the Pocket 386. However a lot of people are using this for the Pocket 386. When I cannot solve this I will send the Pocket 386 and ISA 8bit extension card back (that's a shame because I love the little machine).

Do you have any idea what could cause the PicoGUS for not working on the Pocket 386?
Do you have any idea why the socket 7 machine is freezing in soundblaster mode and why Raptor is not working in GUS mode?

Reply 1 of 5, by Linoleum

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You can check the compatibility list here: https://github.com/polpo/picogus/wiki/Compatibility-list. While the SiS 5582 chipset isn’t specifically listed, a number of the reported issues are related to SiS-based motherboards—so that could very well be contributing to the problems you're seeing with your Socket 7 setup.

Just to help narrow things down:
Have you installed the full GUS software package?
Could you share your AUTOEXEC.BAT file? It would be helpful to rule out any potential configuration issues.

P3 866, V3, SB Audigy 2
P2 300, TNT, V2, Audigy 2 ZS
P233 MMX, Mystique 220, V1, AWE64
P100, S3 Virge GX, AWE64, WavetablePi & PicoGus
Prolinea 4/50, ET4000, SB 16, WavetablePi
486DX2 66, CL-GD5424, SB 32, SC55
SC386SX 25, TVGA8900, Audician32+

Reply 2 of 5, by Mikkel1980

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Thanks for your reply. I already checked the compatibility list and saw this but it should work.

This is the content of the autoexec.bat
I am using the REM commands in front of the SET ULTASND and ULTRADIR to enable only the soundblaster.
Is it possible to use this at the same time? I don't think the complete ULTRASND package is neccesary for only soundblaster compatibility mode?

@ECHO OFF
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T3
SET ULTRASND=240,1,7,7
SET ULTRADIR=C:\ULTRASND

Reply 3 of 5, by Linoleum

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Mikkel1980 wrote on 2025-07-17, 13:20:
Thanks for your reply. I already checked the compatibility list and saw this but it should work. […]
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Thanks for your reply. I already checked the compatibility list and saw this but it should work.

This is the content of the autoexec.bat
I am using the REM commands in front of the SET ULTASND and ULTRADIR to enable only the soundblaster.
Is it possible to use this at the same time? I don't think the complete ULTRASND package is neccesary for only soundblaster compatibility mode?

@ECHO OFF
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T3
SET ULTRASND=240,1,7,7
SET ULTRADIR=C:\ULTRASND

I am pretty sure you don't have to REM environment settings when using a specific mode; I don't. But you're probably right that ULTRASND package is not necessary when using SB mode.

I believe you're missing a DMA setting in your SET ULTRASND... It should be SET ULTRASND=240,1,1,7,7. But again, that probably doesn't explain the problems with SB mode...

P3 866, V3, SB Audigy 2
P2 300, TNT, V2, Audigy 2 ZS
P233 MMX, Mystique 220, V1, AWE64
P100, S3 Virge GX, AWE64, WavetablePi & PicoGus
Prolinea 4/50, ET4000, SB 16, WavetablePi
486DX2 66, CL-GD5424, SB 32, SC55
SC386SX 25, TVGA8900, Audician32+

Reply 4 of 5, by NeoG_

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On my super socket 7 system, I set up variables for everything and switch the card into the necessary mode for a particular game or program. There's no need to REM variables every time. They are only text values stored in memory to let programs know where to find a GUS or SB without manually specifying all the settings yourself.

You can test for potential IRQ and DMA post issues by inserting the card with no jumpers, that will completely disconnect the IRQ and DMA lines, at least you can rule out that as the cause (I don't think it is).

Does the AWE32 post in the Pocket386? (It should still operate with 8-bit DMA in an 8-bit slot) Or do you have any other ISA cards that you can use to confirm the extender is working?

Retro Rig: SS7 AladdinV, K6-2+/600, V3 3000, 128MB PC100, 20GB HDD, 128GB SD2IDE, SB Live!, ES1868F, PicoGUS, WP32 McCake, iNFRA 6000 CD

Reply 5 of 5, by Mikkel1980

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I think the AWE32 is to have for the external ISA board without a power adapter. You are right that the 16-bit should work in the ISA 8-bit slot. I don't have a power adapter for this board. For the PicoGUS this is not neccesary because it's low power.

I will try to insert the PicoGUS without jumpers. But then the setup of games will not detect the card? The games will run fine with PC Speaker so it should be in the combination somehow.

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