Before reboot?
If yes, I'm out of ideas

After reboot, as part of dosstart.bat.

One more thing. The sb emulation also runs from config.sys or autoexec.bat during first boot, before going to win98. Is that how it should be?

Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2025-05-30, 09:45:

One more thing. The sb emulation also runs from config.sys or autoexec.bat during first boot, before going to win98. Is that how it should be?

Yes, that's the expected behavior.

Those lines get added automatically when Creative's DOS driver pack is installed.

In that case I think I do everything right. I don't want to reinstall things now, as it runs fine in W98 and all my games run from W98.

Problem solved after full clean reinstall of the pc.

Got my problem solved on an i865 mobo with an Audigy 2zs. Needed sata controllers and USB disabled. Thanks for your awesome setup guide.

I have to say the open source sbemu has better fm than creative. Official creative drivers remind me of the midi downgrade I noticed going from an awe64 to sb pci 128. In fact the wave table sets even have the same ecw extension as the pci 128.

sharangad wrote on 2025-06-16, 16:19:

Got my problem solved on an i865 mobo with an Audigy 2zs. Needed sata controllers and USB disabled. Thanks for your awesome setup guide.

Cheers!

I have to say the open source sbemu has better fm than creative. Official creative drivers remind me of the midi downgrade I noticed going from an awe64 to sb pci 128. In fact the wave table sets even have the same ecw extension as the pci 128.

Yeah, pretty much anything sounds better than the FM synth emulation on SBLive/Audigy cards. Except for the SB128, which is somehow even worse. And yeah, I'm not a fan of those ECW sets for General MIDI music either. That's why I rarely use Audigy cards in pure DOS, as you can load any soundfont of your choosing under Win9x.

Hi Joseph_Joestar,

Do you know if the MPU401 from the external gameport bracket of the Audigy 2 ZS is usable with external Midi synths on Windows 98 and DOS ?

On old topics people saying the card dropped the support for MPU401 (UART-mode) so using with MT32-pi or external GM wavetables won't work.

I'm not talking of Intelligent mode ofc, but just the possibility to use General Midi synths.

You can confirm it ?

Thanks.

TgamesFR wrote on Today, 09:01:

Hi Joseph_Joestar,

Do you know if the MPU401 from the external gameport bracket of the Audigy 2 ZS is usable with external Midi synths on Windows 98 and DOS ?

It's been a while since I tested that, so take this with a grain of salt. From what I recall, external MIDI devices can be used for native Windows games and applications with an Audigy 2 ZS. So something like Windows Media Player or Final Fantasy 7 should work fine, as long as you select MPU-401 as the output in Control Panel.

But DOS games will automatically use the Audigy's internal synth, and cannot access the external MIDI device at all. This seems to be a hardcoded driver limitation. Some people have apparently found ways around this using some third-party utilities, but I have never tested that myself.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on Today, 10:11:

TgamesFR wrote on Today, 09:01:

Hi Joseph_Joestar,

Do you know if the MPU401 from the external gameport bracket of the Audigy 2 ZS is usable with external Midi synths on Windows 98 and DOS ?

It's been a while since I tested that, so take this with a grain of salt. From what I recall, external MIDI devices can be used for native Windows games and applications with an Audigy 2 ZS. So something like Windows Media Player or Final Fantasy 7 should work fine, as long as you select MPU-401 as the output in Control Panel.

But DOS games will automatically use the Audigy's internal synth, and cannot access the external MIDI device at all. This seems to be a hardcoded driver limitation. Some people have apparently found ways around this using some third-party utilities, but I have never tested that myself.

Yeah just checked and you need to go in Control Panel, Multimedia, MIDI, and select SB Audigy MIDI Port.

I was under the impression that AUDIGY12.exe could route MIDI to the port, but it doesn't (would be amazing).

This is probably the black magic stuff you are referring to: MIDI gameport in pure DOS mode

Joseph_Joestar wrote on Today, 10:11:

TgamesFR wrote on Today, 09:01:

Hi Joseph_Joestar,

Do you know if the MPU401 from the external gameport bracket of the Audigy 2 ZS is usable with external Midi synths on Windows 98 and DOS ?

It's been a while since I tested that, so take this with a grain of salt. From what I recall, external MIDI devices can be used for native Windows games and applications with an Audigy 2 ZS. So something like Windows Media Player or Final Fantasy 7 should work fine, as long as you select MPU-401 as the output in Control Panel.

But DOS games will automatically use the Audigy's internal synth, and cannot access the external MIDI device at all. This seems to be a hardcoded driver limitation. Some people have apparently found ways around this using some third-party utilities, but I have never tested that myself.

Thanks for your answer.

Indeed it's what i've understood while reading lot of old topics on Vogons.

The part i've not understood is about thoses third-party utilities, would be great to try if it can allow Midi devices on DOS.

So far i've readed i've not saw in details about them, which ones to use and how to use them.

Do you know some names of utilities you heard off ?
I could try on my side and say if it works or not.

TgamesFR wrote on Today, 13:12:

Do you know some names of utilities you heard off ?
I could try on my side and say if it works or not.

I've read some reports from people who had both an Audigy and an Aureal Vortex card installed at the same time. They said that, under those specific circumstances, it was possible to use the Vortex drivers to force DOS games into using the external MIDI device. There was also someone trying to use VDMSound to achieve a similar result.

But again, I never tested either of these methods myself, so I can only relay this info as something that I vaguely remember reading at some point.