Did you try running SET to see if the SET BLASTER= string is set? It may need a string added to autoexec.bat to add the Blaster perimeters for DOS games that rely on them. "SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T6" is the typical string for an SB16, but it may vary card to card.

Also, I'm not certain about this, but as a PnP ready Vibra, it may need a driver to initialize the card in DOS - but that might be what your CTCM command is already doing.

I remember running into similar issues before the days of DOSBox with SB Live cards.

The quickest solution may simply be to uninstall then reinstall the DOS emulation drivers.

The next quickest solution may be to try going into your BIOS and disabling the LPT ports since they utilize IRQs commonly used by older SB cards and thus may be conflicting with the IRQ the SB DOS emulation settings want to use.

Also, double-check that the BLASTER environment variable is being set to the correct settings. Just type "set" at the command prompt to see all the current environment variables and compare the BLASTER line to whatever your SB emulation software is reporting.

Failing that, from what I remember, the DOS emulation settings are set up through Windows, regardless of how the DOS emulation settings are set for DOS itself. IE: If the port/irq/dma settings under DOS don't match the ones used under Windows for DOS sound emulation, it's not going to work.

If Windows isn't installed on the system then I have no idea how you'd fix that... >_>;

running CTCM by itself does NOT let the card work
you need to load the CTSB16.SYS and CTMMSYS.SYS drivers

ncmark wrote:

I was wondering if someone has a suggestion for me regarding setting up up Quake under DOS on a Sound Blaster 16

It a sound blaster vibra 16. I know - it is a PNP card.

Lately I've seen a few people asking for help as to how to install a PnP Sound Blaster under DOS. So I made this little tutorial showing all the steps 😀

This video is split into three parts:

1: Explains where you can download the necessary drivers and what files you need to get

2: Explains how to extract the drivers and run the INSTALL.EXE in order to install the drivers onto your vintage / retro PC

3: Explains if you would like to change for example the IRQ from 5 to 7 or the MIDI port from 330 to 300

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9GSYgarPs4

Uh oh, Mau1wurf1977, your audio got de-synced and chopped off at the end of the video.

Granted, as it is, you at least got all your points across. ^_^;

One thing that's actually kinda annoying though with legacy SB support is trying to make it work in conjunction with SATA hard drives. On my previous system, after replacing the motherboard and adding in a new SATA HD, I discovered that the SATA controller wanted to use IRQ 5, and since my printer was still attached to an LPT port and not USB, I couldn't use IRQ 7 either. In fact, I couldn't safely use ANY IRQs in pure DOS and could only get the legacy SB support working under Windows. x_x;

I discovered DOSBox only a couple weeks later. ;D

A jumpered Sound Blaster would have worked fine under DOS. Mostly because you can't play a game and print at the same time 😀

Did CTCM pick up the conflict and wouldn't continue?

...

*facepalm*

Nevermind, apparently I was remembering the incident wrong. Sound support was still working fine in DOS, it was my MOUSE IRQ that conflicted with the SATA controller. ^_^;

*shakes head* Still can't believe I screwed that up. I'm pretty sure I just permanently lost a point of intelligence for that mistake. x_x;

Back on topic though, there's a couple things about the Windows-side of the legacy drivers that really bothered me. One was that sometimes when installing the regular SB drivers from within Windows, the legacy drivers wouldn't be installed at random, forcing you to uninstall and reinstall the main drivers to get them working. The other was that the Windows SB drivers actually FORCE their changes into the config.sys and autoexec.bat files, even if you set them as read-only! I remember this point specifically because one time after installing them, they were setting extremely bizarre port and irq settings because of another DOS driver that was being loaded first, so when I tried to make the SB drivers load first, they actually altered their position in the autoexec, so I tried setting the autoexec as read-only, yet they were STILL modified! o_O;

Yea that's why I like to keep DOS and Windows separate 😀

I only switched from DOS 6.22 to 7.1 because of the FAT32 support and convenience of just popping the CF card into my main desktop and "loading" it with things I need.

Thanks for the input here.

It still doesn't work.

When I run CTCM it does do a SET BLASTER, and the error message in Quake goes away (but sound still doesn't work)

I downloaded some more software and dd and install, and it DID add the two drivers loaded in CONFIG.SYS, but I get an error message from one of the lines

My understanding was that CTCM was supposed to determine the setttings, and yet the driver file will not load unless you specify settings. This is like a dog chasing it's tail!

If it was loading no drivers at all, why would would the other games work? Unless they are using their own drivers?????

post your config and autoexe files... let's have a look

did you run diagnose.exe? what did it say?

ncmark wrote:

Thanks for the input here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9GSYgarPs4

This didn't work for you?

I finally did get it ti to work - using those same two files you showed in your video. I am not sure what it did different that I wasn't doing before.

I believe it placed a BLASTER setting in autoexec. bat that was different from the one you get when you call CTCM. I am still not sure why you need both, because when you call CTCM manually it says SET BLATER XX XX XX XX, So doesn't that do the same when you call it from autoexec.bat?

I moved the manual SEt BLASTER so that is called AFTER CTCM, so I am assuming it is assigning different variables? Not sure.

Like I said, it works..

I am going to keep my eye out on Ebay for one of the OLD cards that you ca configure MANUALLY:with JUMPERS ::;)=

The "blaster" variable for SB PnP cards is initialized with "diagnose /s" command. Read SB PnP readme for the details...

Thanks for all the input here guys.

I found the problem - it was in the high DMA setting.

The auto configuration was trying to run LOW DMA = 1 and HIGH DMA = 3. Yet when I ran diagnose manually it was reporting an error setting the HIGH DMA.

The SET BLASTER statement was setting both DMAs equal to 1.

If I let DIAGOSE set it, it would not work. If I did it "maually" with SET BLASTER it worked.

So went into CTCU and set it to use only one DMA, and now everything works.

Of course, this raises the question of, why can't it use DMA 3? I went into the BIOS and tried reserving DMAs for "legacy ISA" but nothing I did seemed to make any difference.

Why not use an actual high DMA (5, 6, 7)?
DMA3 may be in use by the parallel port.

Is your Vibra16 a CT4170 or CT4171 "Sound Blaster 16 WavEffects" model? Because these are restricted in the way DMA channels can be selected, AFAIK it's low DMAs (0/1/3) only.

Ugh, so its possibly an 8-bit Vibra...

Interesting...

Well Sound Blaster cards are cheap and plentiful 😀

Four more resources, I always go into the BIOS under integrated devices and disable anything I don't use. That's usually COM1, COM2 and LPT1. I also disable the Floppy and one of the IDE controllers because they aren't in use (I just pull out the CF card to load stuff).

Newer boards have USB, Infrared and other things you can disable.

I had the same problem on my K6-III retro box... It wouldn't let me use DMA 1 (or maybe 3... forgot)... anyway, I ended up using DMA 0 and 3
I pulled all cards out except video, and disabled all sorts of crap in the BIOS (including PnP)... made no difference
the only thing I could think of is, maybe it had something to do with the K6-III