DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-18, 01:11:

sharangad wrote on 2025-11-18, 01:00:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-18, 00:53:

Also, how exactly do you change the audio ports? I tried each of the executables, and the one that allegedly lets you, doesn't seem to work. Despite putting in the syntax it asks for. Eg: sbeset -a220 -i5. It just keeps telling me it's an invalid switch.

But yeah, the ports it has set are totally wrong. Surely it needs to be 220, not 240? IRQ 5? And MPU-401 330? Not 300.

Also, I tried adding a command to apply the Audigy 12 patch on boot, but Windows still crashes with a BSOD.

You only need to run the dos driver in ms-dos mode/boot to command prompt. You should be able to run it from a batch file while running dos apps. On my p4 based system I have the same problem.

Ahh, I see. But yeah, I plan to load these drivers up for specific games via a BAT file.

What I am wondering though, is it possible to unload a driver when exiting DOS back to Windows? These drivers prevent Windows from loading, so it would be useful to unload them if I decide to exit DOS and return to Windows.

There's a switch to unload the driver I seem to recall. If you just run sbeinit (I *think*) with /? it should list all the options.

As for your port problem, it's entirely possible the ports in question are in use by something else.

sharangad wrote on 2025-11-18, 02:33:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-18, 01:11:

sharangad wrote on 2025-11-18, 01:00:

You only need to run the dos driver in ms-dos mode/boot to command prompt. You should be able to run it from a batch file while running dos apps. On my p4 based system I have the same problem.

Ahh, I see. But yeah, I plan to load these drivers up for specific games via a BAT file.

What I am wondering though, is it possible to unload a driver when exiting DOS back to Windows? These drivers prevent Windows from loading, so it would be useful to unload them if I decide to exit DOS and return to Windows.

There's a switch to unload the driver I seem to recall. If you just run sbeinit (I *think*) with /? it should list all the options.

As for your port problem, it's entirely possible the ports in question are in use by something else.

Ahh, that would make sense actually. That's probably my ISA sound card. Although, there are no commands set for it to load and configure it at the moment, so maybe it isn't that...?

But can something be added to autoexec.bat, config.sys, or msdos.sys/ini whereby if 'win /exit' is called, it triggers sbeinit?

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-18, 02:41:

sharangad wrote on 2025-11-18, 02:33:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-18, 01:11:

Ahh, I see. But yeah, I plan to load these drivers up for specific games via a BAT file.

What I am wondering though, is it possible to unload a driver when exiting DOS back to Windows? These drivers prevent Windows from loading, so it would be useful to unload them if I decide to exit DOS and return to Windows.

There's a switch to unload the driver I seem to recall. If you just run sbeinit (I *think*) with /? it should list all the options.

As for your port problem, it's entirely possible the ports in question are in use by something else.

Ahh, that would make sense actually. That's probably my ISA sound card. Although, there are no commands set for it to load and configure it at the moment, so maybe it isn't that...?

But can something be added to autoexec.bat, config.sys, or msdos.sys/ini whereby if 'win /exit' is called, it triggers sbeinit?

There're probably jumpers on your ISA card if it isn't PnP to select ports and stuff.

I seem to recall a batch file called DOSSTART.bat (maybe I'm remembering it wrong) which runs on a switch to MS-DOS mode. I generally don't use this because some games have issues in running in MS-DOS mode. Alternatively (or additionally) you could add a boot menu to boot directly into DOS with EMM386, ctmouse and sbeinit. Some games really don't like EMM386 and it might be useful to have an alternative mode with SBEMU which works pretty well with EMU10k cards.

sharangad wrote on 2025-11-18, 02:46:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-18, 02:41:

sharangad wrote on 2025-11-18, 02:33:

There's a switch to unload the driver I seem to recall. If you just run sbeinit (I *think*) with /? it should list all the options.

As for your port problem, it's entirely possible the ports in question are in use by something else.

Ahh, that would make sense actually. That's probably my ISA sound card. Although, there are no commands set for it to load and configure it at the moment, so maybe it isn't that...?

But can something be added to autoexec.bat, config.sys, or msdos.sys/ini whereby if 'win /exit' is called, it triggers sbeinit?

There're probably jumpers on your ISA card if it isn't PnP to select ports and stuff.

I seem to recall a batch file called DOSSTART.bat (maybe I'm remembering it wrong) which runs on a switch to MS-DOS mode. I generally don't use this because some games have issues in running in MS-DOS mode. Alternatively (or additionally) you could add a boot menu to boot directly into DOS with EMM386, ctmouse and sbeinit. Some games really don't like EMM386 and it might be useful to have an alternative mode with SBEMU which works pretty well with EMU10k cards.

Hmm. Well, on that note, I'm still trying to figure out how to set up my boot menu. I might have to pinch someone's example and tweak it. I want to be able to customise the names of Windows 98 and MS-DOS etc. It would be nice to have different menus that have different configurations.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-18, 00:16:

It wouldn't be related to me having a second sound card installed, would it? I know you mentioned it could affect the installation, though I've not run into any problems there.

Like I said before, having two sound cards in the system is beyond the scope of this guide. I specifically warn against that in step 1.3. There are too many complex issues that can arise on such a setup. You are free to experiment on your own of course, but don't expect any help from me, as this guide wasn't intended for that use case.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-18, 00:16:

On a separate note, I did look at seeing if I could disable the COM and LPT ports to free up resources, but I'm not sure if I've found them or what I should change them to. Not sure if these are related to something else.

Simply set both Serial Ports and the Parallel Port to "Disabled" in the BIOS. Though you may want to check the manual of your motherboard beforehand, as some systems don't allow turning off individual ports. Also, Serial Port = COM port, Parallel Port = LPT port. Those are just different names for the same thing, and how they are labeled in the BIOS depends on the manufacturer.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-18, 03:41:

Like I said before, having two sound cards in the system is beyond the scope of this guide. I specifically warn against that in […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-18, 00:16:

It wouldn't be related to me having a second sound card installed, would it? I know you mentioned it could affect the installation, though I've not run into any problems there.

Like I said before, having two sound cards in the system is beyond the scope of this guide. I specifically warn against that in step 1.3. There are too many complex issues that can arise on such a setup. You are free to experiment on your own of course, but don't expect any help from me, as this guide wasn't intended for that use case.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-18, 00:16:

On a separate note, I did look at seeing if I could disable the COM and LPT ports to free up resources, but I'm not sure if I've found them or what I should change them to. Not sure if these are related to something else.

Simply set both Serial Ports and the Parallel Port to "Disabled" in the BIOS. Though you may want to check the manual of your motherboard beforehand, as some systems don't allow turning off individual ports. Also, Serial Port = COM port, Parallel Port = LPT port. Those are just different names for the same thing, and how they are labeled in the BIOS depends on the manufacturer.

Okay. I will have to test things with just the SB in at some point. So far though, things have been fine, though it's worth testing removing the ISA card just to see if the BSOD and resets stop.

I did disable those ports earlier, but I think it caused my PC to give me a different BSOD during startup. I'll have to try disabling one at a time.

Also, I followed the steps for getting MT-32 emulation to work, which is the same for what I did with my other motherboard's onboard audio. Though unfortunately, enabling MT-32 for the DOS version of Simon the Sorcerer doesn't appear to work. I get no audio. Also, I found the Sound Blaster music a bit underwhelming considering I replaced/updated the soundfonts in Windows.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-19, 01:14:

Also, I followed the steps for getting MT-32 emulation to work, which is the same for what I did with my other motherboard's onboard audio. Though unfortunately, enabling MT-32 for the DOS version of Simon the Sorcerer doesn't appear to work. I get no audio.

If you get no sound at all, then your Audigy's DOS drivers might not be correctly set up to use port 330, which is what most MT-32 games expect. Likely because you have a second sound card installed. Also, only the few MT-32 games which don't use custom instruments (e.g. Monkey Island 1) will sound good on the Audigy's MT-32 emulation. Everything else needs a real MT-32, or a more advanced emulator like MUNT. I suggest researching MT-32 thoroughly before experimenting with games which support that music format. It's a very complex topic, involving things like MPU-401 intelligent mode, custom instruments, old vs. new MT-32 revisions and so on.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-19, 01:14:

Also, I found the Sound Blaster music a bit underwhelming considering I replaced/updated the soundfonts in Windows.

To use soundfonts, you need to select the "General MIDI" option for music in the game's setup, and not the "Sound Blaster" option. As mentioned in the first post, this only works when playing DOS games from within Win9x. If you set everything up correctly, your games should sound like this. Of course, that's assuming you meticulously followed every step of my guide, and that all drivers were installed properly.

To emphasize once again, this guide only works if followed to the letter in its entirety. Skipping even a single step, or deviating from suggested procedures even slightly, will almost certainly result in failure. This is especially true for DOS driver installation, since that requires free I/O, IRQ and DMA resources, as explained in step 1.5. And lastly, even if everything is installed correctly, some older DOS games still won't work, because Creative's SB16 emulation isn't perfect. Just something to keep in mind.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-19, 06:40:

If you get no sound at all, then your Audigy's DOS drivers might not be correctly set up to use port 330, which is what most MT- […]
Show full quote

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-19, 01:14:

Also, I followed the steps for getting MT-32 emulation to work, which is the same for what I did with my other motherboard's onboard audio. Though unfortunately, enabling MT-32 for the DOS version of Simon the Sorcerer doesn't appear to work. I get no audio.

If you get no sound at all, then your Audigy's DOS drivers might not be correctly set up to use port 330, which is what most MT-32 games expect. Likely because you have a second sound card installed. Also, only the few MT-32 games which don't use custom instruments (e.g. Monkey Island 1) will sound good on the Audigy's MT-32 emulation. Everything else needs a real MT-32, or a more advanced emulator like MUNT. I suggest researching MT-32 thoroughly before experimenting with games which support that music format. It's a very complex topic, involving things like MPU-401 intelligent mode, custom instruments, old vs. new MT-32 revisions and so on.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-19, 01:14:

Also, I found the Sound Blaster music a bit underwhelming considering I replaced/updated the soundfonts in Windows.

To use soundfonts, you need to select the "General MIDI" option for music in the game's setup, and not the "Sound Blaster" option. As mentioned in the first post, this only works when playing DOS games from within Win9x. If you set everything up correctly, your games should sound like this. Of course, that's assuming you meticulously followed every step of my guide, and that all drivers were installed properly.

To emphasize once again, this guide only works if followed to the letter in its entirety. Skipping even a single step, or deviating from suggested procedures even slightly, will almost certainly result in failure. This is especially true for DOS driver installation, since that requires free I/O, IRQ and DMA resources, as explained in step 1.5. And lastly, even if everything is installed correctly, some older DOS games still won't work, because Creative's SB16 emulation isn't perfect. Just something to keep in mind.

Right, okay. Makes sense. To be honest, I didn't consider that last night. Probably due to it being late and not thinking straight. But yeah, with the other sound card plugged in, the MPU-401 port was occupied. I think the SB was using 300 instead of 330. So I'll try removing the Yamaha sound card a bit later.

Maybe one day I'll invest in an MT-32, but it's not much of a concern at the moment.

And ahh, of course. General MIDI. D'oh. ^^; Again - wasn't thinking straight. Although that's a shame if you have to be playing the games in DOS via Windows. I always prefer playing DOS games in true DOS mode.

Apart from that, I believe I followed the instructions to the letter. I only installed the System Information and Soundbank Manager tools though. I don't think I need the others, unless I've overlooked something for later down the line. Thanks.

Yeah, so, even with the ISA sound card removed, I still get a BSOD on boot if I have the SB driver enabled. And the audio ports are still set different. I really don’t understand the config of its drivers though. As I said, if I type the syntax as it shows, it just says it’s an invalid switch. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Also, the DOS version of Simon 1 doesn’t give me an option to choose the MT-32 port. You just select MT-32 and that’s it.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-20, 16:27:

Yeah, so, even with the ISA sound card removed, I still get a BSOD on boot if I have the SB driver enabled. And the audio ports are still set different. I really don’t understand the config of its drivers though. As I said, if I type the syntax as it shows, it just says it’s an invalid switch. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Did you actually check if all the needed resources from step 1.5 are free on your system? Also, merely pulling out the second sound card is unlikely to fix the problem. You need to do a clean install with just the Audigy present. But only if you have enough free resources for its SB16 emulation, otherwise, that won't help either. Resource conflicts were a thing in the Win9x days. You may want to research that.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-20, 16:27:

Also, the DOS version of Simon 1 doesn’t give me an option to choose the MT-32 port. You just select MT-32 and that’s it.

Most old games don't allow you to choose a port, and simply default to 330 for MT-32. If your card isn't configured for that, you'll just get silence.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-20, 17:08:

Did you actually check if all the needed resources from step 1.5 are free on your system? Also, merely pulling out the second so […]
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DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-20, 16:27:

Yeah, so, even with the ISA sound card removed, I still get a BSOD on boot if I have the SB driver enabled. And the audio ports are still set different. I really don’t understand the config of its drivers though. As I said, if I type the syntax as it shows, it just says it’s an invalid switch. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Did you actually check if all the needed resources from step 1.5 are free on your system? Also, merely pulling out the second sound card is unlikely to fix the problem. You need to do a clean install with just the Audigy present. But only if you have enough free resources for its SB16 emulation, otherwise, that won't help either. Resource conflicts were a thing in the Win9x days. You may want to research that.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-20, 16:27:

Also, the DOS version of Simon 1 doesn’t give me an option to choose the MT-32 port. You just select MT-32 and that’s it.

Most old games don't allow you to choose a port, and simply default to 330 for MT-32. If your card isn't configured for that, you'll just get silence.

I can try fully uninstalling the ISA card's drivers and re-install the SB's.

Yeah, they appear to be fine. I take it it doesn't matter what port they're set to so long as the right amount are free? This is what System Information lists:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-20, 17:29:

I can try fully uninstalling the ISA card's drivers and re-install the SB's.

Feel free to do so, but there's a reason why I always emphasize a clean install. Creative's drivers are weird, and often leave behind bits and pieces even when uninstalled. This can mess things up.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-20, 17:29:

Yeah, they appear to be fine. I take it it doesn't matter what port they're set to so long as the right amount are free? This is what System Information lists:

Everything looks good except for IRQ 5. You may want to disable USB and put the Audigy in a different PCI slot to free that up. Alternatively, try reserving IRQ 5 for Legacy ISA in the BIOS, if that option is available (depends on the manufacturer). Also, disabling the COM and LPT ports might free up some additional resources.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-20, 17:36:

Feel free to do so, but there's a reason why I always emphasize a clean install. Creative's drivers are weird, and often leave b […]
Show full quote

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-20, 17:29:

I can try fully uninstalling the ISA card's drivers and re-install the SB's.

Feel free to do so, but there's a reason why I always emphasize a clean install. Creative's drivers are weird, and often leave behind bits and pieces even when uninstalled. This can mess things up.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-20, 17:29:

Yeah, they appear to be fine. I take it it doesn't matter what port they're set to so long as the right amount are free? This is what System Information lists:

Everything looks good except for IRQ 5. You may want to disable USB and put the Audigy in a different PCI slot to free that up. Alternatively, try reserving IRQ 5 for Legacy ISA in the BIOS, if that option is available (depends on the manufacturer). Also, disabling the COM and LPT ports might free up some additional resources.

Worst case scenario, I can revert back to an image I made of the HDD. Before any drivers were installed. 😀

Oh, I don't have any USB drivers installed. Yet. I was about to though. But I'm guessing that's linked to either the drivers installed by the SB or from something else. Maybe my HighPoint Technologies drivers. I'm not sure if that's an option in my BIOS. I don't recall seeing anything, but I'll have to check. Any ideas what it would come under?

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-20, 17:58:

I'm not sure if that's an option in my BIOS. I don't recall seeing anything, but I'll have to check. Any ideas what it would come under?

Depends on the manufacturer. Often, it's in a menu called "PNP/PCI Configuration" or something similar. But some motherboards simply don't have this setting available. There's a last ditch option where you can manually force Creative's SB16 emulation to use the resources that you specify. But if there's another device already using said resource (e.g. IRQ 5 in your case) that may lead to crashes, freezes and general system instability. I don't recommend doing this unless all specified resources are free.

If you still want to give that a try, right click on My Computer > Properties > Device Manager > Sound, Video and Game Controllers > Creative SB16 Emulation > Properties > Resources and uncheck "Use automatic settings". Then, choose "Basic Configuration 0002" > Change Setting. This will allow you to manually specify all resources except for the Adlib port, which is fixed at 0388-038B. After changing the settings, you need to restart the computer for that to take effect.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-20, 18:18:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-20, 17:58:

I'm not sure if that's an option in my BIOS. I don't recall seeing anything, but I'll have to check. Any ideas what it would come under?

Depends on the manufacturer. Often, it's in a menu called "PNP/PCI Configuration" or something similar. But some motherboards simply don't have this setting available. There's a last ditch option where you can manually force Creative's SB16 emulation to use the resources that you specify. But if there's another device already using said resource (e.g. IRQ 5 in your case) that may lead to crashes, freezes and general system instability. I don't recommend doing this unless all specified resources are free.

If you still want to give that a try, right click on My Computer > Properties > Device Manager > Sound, Video and Game Controllers > Creative SB16 Emulation > Properties > Resources and uncheck "Use automatic settings". Then, choose "Basic Configuration 0002" > Change Setting. This will allow you to manually specify all resources except for the Adlib port, which is fixed at 0388-038B. After changing the settings, you need to restart the computer for that to take effect.

Yep. It is indeed an option. 😀 Whether it remains stable now, after setting it, is another story. I'll try disabling those COM and LPT ports as well.

Yeah, none of those options are possible, sadly. If I disable one or both COM ports, as well as the LPT, Windows freezes on the Window's logo splash screen. Same with setting IRQ 5 to Legacy. Or it just freezes before the desktop fully loads.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-20, 18:59:

Yeah, none of those options are possible, sadly. If I disable one or both COM ports, as well as the LPT, Windows freezes on the Window's logo splash screen. Same with setting IRQ 5 to Legacy. Or it just freezes before the desktop fully loads.

At this point, I can only suggest trying a clean install after disabling COM/LPT ports and reserving IRQ 5. That way, Windows will recognize that those resources are free during the install process, and assign them to other devices as needed.

If you still get freezes and crashes even after performing a clean install, something else might be wrong with your system. Possibly a hardware issue. Otherwise, I'm completely out of ideas.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-20, 19:09:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-20, 18:59:

Yeah, none of those options are possible, sadly. If I disable one or both COM ports, as well as the LPT, Windows freezes on the Window's logo splash screen. Same with setting IRQ 5 to Legacy. Or it just freezes before the desktop fully loads.

At this point, I can only suggest trying a clean install after disabling COM/LPT ports and reserving IRQ 5. That way, Windows will recognize that those resources are free during the install process, and assign them to other devices as needed.

If you still get freezes and crashes even after performing a clean install, something else might be wrong with your system. Possibly a hardware issue. Otherwise, I'm completely out of ideas.

It's certainly worth a shot.

Okay, we're all gravy. Put it back to right after doing a fresh install. Disabled both COM ports and LPT. Also set IRQ to Legacy. Everything has booted perfectly fine. 😀

Hmm. So even installing the SB drivers first, after a fresh install, and no other audio drivers present, having the DOS SB drivers and patch enabled still prevent Windows from loading up, or makes it reboot.

Will check the ports next.