jakethompson1 wrote on 2026-06-20, 18:54:

Falcosoft wrote on 2026-06-20, 11:15:

This is not true. There is no need for any 'configuration utility' if the settings configured by PnP Bios are the right ones. I have an ESS 1868f PnP in my Abit KT7a and I only need to run ESSVOL in order Dreamblaster X2 to work.

The "Plug and Play Operating System" setting in the BIOS (if any) can be a factor here, too. If it's set to "Yes" then theoretically the BIOS tries to stay hands off of cards not needed for booting.

Yes, Plug and Play Operating System is set to false on my KT7A so I always get this message at boot time:

So, updates based on all the above posts:
1. My ES1868 doesn't work without Unisound or the ESS drivers initializing it.
2. Not having a memory manager installed has no effect on my problem (Sound Blaster still doesn't work).
3. I also tried 386MAX and JEMM386 on MS-DOS 6.22 just to try everything. Neither of them fix it.
4. I am *severely* unimpressed with 386MAX, given it both bricks itself trying to optimize on my system (fails to load itself high and leaves DOS in a broken state where EDIT doesn't work) but on top of that if I get 20 KB less RAM than the same hand-written configuration with EMM386.

That's unfortunate. I'm using an ES1868 on a 486dx2-66 that does NOT have a PnP BIOS. This is on MS-DOS 6.22 with EMM386. autoexec has:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4
ESSCFG /A:220 /I:5 /D:1 /E:0 /B:330 /J:D !
ESSVOL /V:12 /L:12 /W:12 /M:0 /C:12 /S:12 /A:12

Falcosoft wrote on 2026-06-20, 19:09:

Yes, Plug and Play Operating System is set to false on my KT7A so I always get this message at boot time:

The attachment ISAPNP.jpg is no longer available

Turns out I have never used or seen this feature because all my motherboards have had PnP OS enabled (due to windows 9x being also installed)

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-06-21, 02:09:

Falcosoft wrote on 2026-06-20, 19:09:

Yes, Plug and Play Operating System is set to false on my KT7A so I always get this message at boot time:

The attachment ISAPNP.jpg is no longer available

Turns out I have never used or seen this feature because all my motherboards have had PnP OS enabled (due to windows 9x being also installed)

I also have Win9x + WinXP installed on this PC but the 'Plug and Play Operating System = False' setting does not prevent either Win9x or WinXP from configuring the hardware properly.

Gourd wrote on 2026-06-20, 22:13:

So, updates based on all the above posts: 1. My ES1868 doesn't work without Unisound or the ESS drivers initializing it. 2. Not […]
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So, updates based on all the above posts:
1. My ES1868 doesn't work without Unisound or the ESS drivers initializing it.
2. Not having a memory manager installed has no effect on my problem (Sound Blaster still doesn't work).
3. I also tried 386MAX and JEMM386 on MS-DOS 6.22 just to try everything. Neither of them fix it.
4. I am *severely* unimpressed with 386MAX, given it both bricks itself trying to optimize on my system (fails to load itself high and leaves DOS in a broken state where EDIT doesn't work) but on top of that if I get 20 KB less RAM than the same hand-written configuration with EMM386.

Please, run both ESSCFG and ESSVOL (without any parameters) after your MS-DOS booted and post the output of both utilities here.

Falcosoft wrote on 2026-06-21, 04:02:

Gourd wrote on 2026-06-20, 22:13:

So, updates based on all the above posts: 1. My ES1868 doesn't work without Unisound or the ESS drivers initializing it. 2. Not […]
Show full quote

So, updates based on all the above posts:
1. My ES1868 doesn't work without Unisound or the ESS drivers initializing it.
2. Not having a memory manager installed has no effect on my problem (Sound Blaster still doesn't work).
3. I also tried 386MAX and JEMM386 on MS-DOS 6.22 just to try everything. Neither of them fix it.
4. I am *severely* unimpressed with 386MAX, given it both bricks itself trying to optimize on my system (fails to load itself high and leaves DOS in a broken state where EDIT doesn't work) but on top of that if I get 20 KB less RAM than the same hand-written configuration with EMM386.

Please, run both ESSCFG and ESSVOL (without any parameters) after your MS-DOS booted and post the output of both utilities here.

Here you go:

ESSCFG Output:

ESSCFG Version V4.8 ES1868 configured by PnP BIOS or ICU. Audio IO:220h IRQ:5 DMA0:1 DMA1:0 MPU401:330h Joystick IO:201h […]
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ESSCFG Version V4.8
ES1868 configured by PnP BIOS or ICU.
Audio IO:220h IRQ:5 DMA0:1 DMA1:0 MPU401:330h
Joystick IO:201h
IDE CD-ROM IO:168h IRQ:100

ESSVOL Output:

ESSVOL ( Version 1.6 ) found AudioDrive at address 220. […]
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ESSVOL ( Version 1.6 ) found AudioDrive at address 220.

Current AudioDrive volume settings:

Master Volume ===> 8

Line Volume ===> 0

Wave Volume ===> 8

Mic Volume ===> 0

CD Volume ===> 0

Synthesizer Volume ===> 8

AuxB Volume ===> 0

PC Speaker Volume ===> 4

Gourd wrote on 2026-06-21, 04:40:

ESSCFG Version V4.8

You can find ESSCFG V5.1 there -
Re: Can't use IDE port on BTC 1857i card

Grzyb wrote on 2026-06-21, 05:33:

Gourd wrote on 2026-06-21, 04:40:

ESSCFG Version V4.8

You can find ESSCFG V5.1 there -
Re: Can't use IDE port on BTC 1857i card

This version of ESSCFG/ESSVOL immediately fixed my problems. Thanks!

Okay, it's far stranger than I thought. This is in fact, a weird messed up memory manager thing.
If I take a working Sound Blaster CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT with "DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.SYS RAM" and switch it to "DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.SYS NOEMS", the sound can stop working. But so can removing or adding TSRs, changing to order, with no apparent rhyme or reason.

There's probably some block of upper RAM I need to avoid for this to work that FreeDOS never hits. I can get an always working config by loading nothing of note high... but that's a pyrrhic victory at best.

*sigh* What's best practice for narrowing this down and telling EMM386 to avoid this?

Gourd wrote on 2026-06-20, 01:43:

Doom, Quake, Duke 3D, Tempest 2000...

Gourd wrote on Today, 01:06:

*sigh* What's best practice for narrowing this down and telling EMM386 to avoid this?

What exactly you need EMM386 for?
You seem to play DOS-extender games, which don't care about free conventional memory.

Grzyb wrote on Today, 02:44:

What exactly you need EMM386 for? You seem to play DOS-extender games, which don't care about free conventional memory. […]
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Gourd wrote on 2026-06-20, 01:43:

Doom, Quake, Duke 3D, Tempest 2000...

Gourd wrote on Today, 01:06:

*sigh* What's best practice for narrowing this down and telling EMM386 to avoid this?

What exactly you need EMM386 for?
You seem to play DOS-extender games, which don't care about free conventional memory.

Windows 3.11 gets very grumpy with that low of conventional memory and starts complaining and refusing to run programs and possibly itself. *sigh*

Also for instance, Tempest 2000 requires 550 KB of conventional memory, which I have dropped below in some cases.

They might require *less* conventional memory, but they still require a decent chunk.

(I am also playing some games older than that, but less so.)

OK, show me your memory map WITHOUT any EMM managers.
Ideally, you would have 160 KB of nothing from C800 to F000.
I'm NOT a good example:

And show me your "mem /c" output WITH the EMM manager.

Grzyb wrote on Today, 03:42:

OK, show me your memory map WITHOUT any EMM managers. Ideally, you would have 160 KB of nothing from C800 to F000. I'm NOT a goo […]
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OK, show me your memory map WITHOUT any EMM managers.
Ideally, you would have 160 KB of nothing from C800 to F000.
I'm NOT a good example:

The attachment memmap.png is no longer available

And show me your "mem /c" output WITH the EMM manager.

Here is mem /dwith the last minimal set of drivers and TSRs I tried for EMS+XMS memory:

Modules using memory below 1 MB: […]
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Modules using memory below 1 MB:

Name Total = Conventional + Upper Memory
-------- ---------------- ---------------- ----------------
MSDOS 15,837 (15K) 15,837 (15K) 0 (0K)
SETVER 416 (0K) 416 (0K) 0 (0K)
HIMEM 1,168 (1K) 1,168 (1K) 0 (0K)
EMM386 4,144 (4K) 4,144 (4K) 0 (0K)
COMMAND 2,992 (3K) 2,992 (3K) 0 (0K)
SHSUCDX 6,176 (6K) 6,176 (6K) 0 (0K)
VIDE-CDD 5,056 (5K) 0 (0K) 5,056 (5K)
COMMAND 3,280 (3K) 0 (0K) 3,280 (3K)
CTMOUSE 3,104 (3K) 0 (0K) 3,104 (3K)
Free 706,112 (690K) 624,656 (610K) 81,456 (80K)

Memory Summary:

Type of Memory Total = Used + Free
---------------- ---------- ---------- ----------
Conventional 655,360 30,704 624,656
Upper 92,896 11,440 81,456
Reserved 0 0 0
Extended (XMS)* 66,950,432 578,848 66,371,584
---------------- ---------- ---------- ----------
Total memory 67,698,688 620,992 67,077,696

Total under 1 MB 748,256 42,144 706,112

Total Expanded (EMS) 33,947,648 (33,152K
Free Expanded (EMS)* 33,554,432 (32,768K

* EMM386 is using XMS memory to simulate EMS memory as needed.
Free EMS memory may change as free XMS memory changes.

Largest executable program size 624,640 (610K)
Largest free upper memory block 81,248 (79K)
MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area.

Here is a memory report generated by CheckIt w/o EMM386:

This report was created by CheckIt Pro GOURD […]
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This report was created by
CheckIt Pro
GOURD

CheckIt Pro Report 06-23-2026 00:18
User Note: GOURD

========== DOS Memory ==========

9K System Tables
0000-0040 1.0K Interrupt Vectors
0040-0050 0.2K BIOS Data Table
0050-0070 0.5K DOS/BASIC Data
0070-026C 7.9K DOS Kernel

24K Programs
026C-0573 12.1K Device Drivers
0573-0578 0.1K Device Drivers
0578-057B 0.0K COMMAND Data
057B-0621 2.6K COMMAND
0621-0626 0.1K Available
0626-0637 0.3K COMMAND Environment
0637-063F 0.1K Available
063F-07C5 6.1K SHSUCDX
07C5-0887 3.0K CTMOUSE

604K Available
0887-9FC0 604.9K Available
This memory is available for programs and TSR's.
Largest Program: 604.9K

1K <not installed>
9FC0-A000
The amount of base memory can be increased by adding RAM at this
address.

64K VESA Graphics
A000-B000
This memory range is used for high resolution graphics modes.

32K VESA Text (Mono)
B000-B800
This memory range is used for monochrome text modes and low
resolution graphics modes.

32K VESA Text (Color)
B800-C000
This memory range is used for color text modes and low
resolution graphics modes.

32K Video ROM
C000-C800

160K <not installed>
C800-F000
It is available for add-in ROM or other use.

64K System ROM
F000-10000
Award

If I can get it working there's a few more TSRs and drivers I'd like to load high (network driver, Enhanced DOSKey) but this is the minimum set to check the functionality of the programs I have been. SHSUCDX and VIDE-CDD.SYS are the smallest pair of CD-ROM drivers I've found that work with Tempest 2000 (UDVD2.SYS breaks CD audio in that game).

With this configuration for EMS+XMS, Tempest 2000 runs and produces sound blaster sound(!)... but DOOM v1.9 fails to run with a "DOS/16M error: [13] cannot allocate transfer buffer", and Fast DOOM fails with "DOS/32A fatal (1001): not enough dos memory, additional 56K needed).

I can't see anything unusual there...

You can try to replace the EMM with some real-mode UMB manager, eg. URAM - https://kannegieser.net/veit/programm/index_e.htm
but such stuff is even more tricky than V86-mode managers...

Grzyb wrote on Today, 04:49:

I can't see anything unusual there...

You can try to replace the EMM with some real-mode UMB manager, eg. URAM - https://kannegieser.net/veit/programm/index_e.htm
but such stuff is even more tricky than V86-mode managers...

At this point given I've only had this weird of problems compared to FreeDOS on MS-DOS, I think I'm going to give DR-DOS 7 and PC-DOS 2000 a try when I get another CF card in the mail in a day or two. On the plus side, this did teach me about VIDE-CDD, which dropping into my FreeDOS install fixed Tempest 2000 at no loss in memory over UDVD2. 😀

I honestly prefer FreeDOS 1.4 to work with due to its extreme ability to pack away UMBs (I can shove my 30 KB network drivers, 20 KB UNIVBE, 11 KB DOSLFN, along with mouse and CD ROM drivers and still have 605 KB to play with *with EMS enabled*, and go up to 620+ w/o), FAT32 support, and extremely nice tab completion even compared to Enhanced DOSKey. It's just well... Windows 3.11 as my hurdle to get working here.

(One could argue FreeDOS isn't precisely period accurate, but it's close enough to be fine for my tastes.)

Gourd wrote on Today, 04:57:

another CF card

Wait a minute... you're using a CF instead of HDD, right?
Can you reproduce your problems when using a real HDD ?
I don't trust CF - they often cause mysterious problems...

Grzyb wrote on Today, 05:21:

Wait a minute... you're using a CF instead of HDD, right? Can you reproduce your problems when using a real HDD ? I don't trust […]
Show full quote

Gourd wrote on Today, 04:57:

another CF card

Wait a minute... you're using a CF instead of HDD, right?
Can you reproduce your problems when using a real HDD ?
I don't trust CF - they often cause mysterious problems...

This would unfortunately require me to have a real HD that didn't sound like a lawnmower exploding, but I'll keep it in mind to check in the future along with other drive replacement technology.

This is at least one of the more reliable CF cards I've tried (a Sandisk). Others have acted up in very distressingly obvious ways.