Since you've got non-PnP versions of both GUS and SB16 (as far as I can see on the pics), this shouldn't be too difficult.

Popular settings are

1      I/O  IRQ  DMA
2SB16: 220   5   1,5
3 GUS: 240   7    3

I used to have an SB16 and a GUS Max in my 486DX/4. 5u3's suggestion looks fine to me, although I always preferred to use the high DMA channels (6 and 7) for the GUS. And I used the same IRQs, but it was IRQ7 for the SB16 and IRQ5 for the GUS Max.

Ok, my hand's been forced - my old plan of simply switching between different startup files isn't working, because when I revert back to the pre-GUS AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS, the system tells me that it can't detect my SB16 at all. But shouldn't I be able to have the system simply ignore the GUS and assign resources to only the SB16?

I've been working through those two files trying to set a combination of resources that both the GUS and SB16 will work with, but I can't get the SB16 recognized at all no matter what. I've even REM'ed out all references to the GUS. 🙁

And yeah both are non-PnP versions. I feel like I'm missing something very simple here.

To free up resources disable the serial and parallel ports in the BIOS. Also make sure that under PnP OS it shows no.

You shouldn't need multiple startup configs.

I run a Sound blaster compatible and a GUS classic in my 486. I only have the one startup configuration. As long as both cards are configured to use different IO/IRQ/DMA settings, and your SET ULTRASND and SET BLASTER are configured correctly, you shouldn't have any problems.

Your problem sounds like you have configured the GUS and sound blaster to use one or more of the same IO/IRQ/DMA - make sure both cards have unique settings for each of these.

Make sure you have the latest drivers for your GUS (4.11 I think)
Games that support Gravis Ultrasound should just work with it if you configure them in the game's setup program.
If you want to use the MIDI or MT32 emulation on the GUS, you can configure MEGAEM to disable sound blaster emulation and only provide MIDI/MT32 emulation. If you have a real sound blaster or compatible there is very little reason to use the GUS's emulation as its quite troublesome and the FM synth sounds pretty terrible.

Here are my AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS:

1REM *** SB16 SETTINGS ***
2SET SOUND=C:\SB16
3SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E
4C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S
5C:\SB16\MIXERSET /P /Q
6C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X
7REM C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001
8@ECHO OFF
9PROMPT $p$g
10SET PATH=C:\ULTRASND;C:\DOS;C:\PKZIP;C:\DOSRAR\RAR
11
12REM *** ULTRASOUND SETTINGS ***
13SET ULTRASND=240,1,1,11,7
14REM C:\ULTRASND\ultrinit.exe
15REM call C:\ULTRASND\sbos.bat
16SET ULTRADIR=C:\ULTRASND
17
18SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
19SET TEMP=C:\DOS

1device=C:\ULTRASND\ultrinit.sys ultrasnd=240,1,1,11,7
2
3DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
4DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
5REM DEVICE=C:\DOS\MOUSE.SYS
6DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE
7REM DEVICE=C:\DOS\OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001
8DOS=HIGH
9REM ** STACKS=9,256
10FILES=40
11BUFFERS=20
12REM ** BUFFERS=30

Even if I REM out all the GUS references, both DIAGNOSE.EXE and MIXERSET.EXE tell me that my SB16 environment is invalid.

Looks like your GUS and Sound Blaster are both using DMA1. I'd leave the SB on DMA 1 and try another DMA for the GUS, such as 3.

I set the GUS to DMA 3 (for both playback and recording, dunno whether that makes a difference) and I also found that there are some jumpers on the GUS Classic that need to be set for the base port:

http://www.urr.ca/dosdrivers/gravis%20ultraso … classic/gus.txt

So I changed the jumpers accordingly and now the system just hangs when it gets to initializing the GUS. 🙁

Your base port was fine at 240, what did you change it to?

playback and recording can share a DMA for gaming purposes without problems.

DonutKing wrote:

Your base port was fine at 240, what did you change it to?

It was already set to 240 in AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS - but then I came across that link which indicated that a jumper setting was also necessary. So I changed that. The jumpers, as I found them, were set to 220. I changed them to 240. I thought matching them up with what was set in the boot files would fix the issue.

What about the gravis setup program - it should automatically detect the base IO address. If you remove your Gravis settings from your startup config files, and remove the SB16, then run the GUS setup program - does it pick up the GUS at 240?

SUCCESS!

I removed the SB16, and that didn't do anything - so I removed the GUS just so I could get to a prompt, REM'ed out all GUS references in the startup files, re-ran the GUS setup utility, and it detected the GUS at port 240 as dictated by the jumpers. I then manually edited the startup files to reflect my new GUS settings (port 240, IRQ 7, DMA 3).

Now both the SB16 and GUS are initialized upon bootup.

Thank you to all. Now, for some proper Star Control II...

** Update: Looks like SC2 is hardcoded to look for a GUS on IRQ 11 and there didn't seem to be a way I could change that. So, it looks like I'll need to switch the GUS between 11 and <7 depending on the game. Oh well, I can live with that - worth it to have both sound cards in the same PC!

Still, your config.sys and autoexec.bat is a horrible chaos.

config.sys:

1DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
2DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM AUTO
3REM DEVICE=C:\DOS\OAKCDROM.SYS /D:MSCD001
4REM DEVICE=C:\DOS\MOUSE.SYS
5DOS=HIGH,UMB
6REM ** STACKS=9,256
7FILES=40
8BUFFERS=20
9REM ** BUFFERS=30

autoexec.bat

1REM common settings
2@ECHO OFF
3PROMPT $p$g
4SET PATH=C:\ULTRASND;C:\DOS;C:\PKZIP;C:\DOSRAR\RAR
5SET TEMP=C:\DOS
6
7REM GUS SETTINGS
8SET ULTRASND=240,1,1,11,7
9SET ULTRADIR=C:\ULTRASND
10C:\ULTRASND\ultrinit.exe
11REM call C:\ULTRASND\sbos.bat
12
13REM *** SB16 SETTINGS ***
14SET SOUND=C:\SB16
15SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E
16SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
17C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S
18C:\SB16\MIXERSET /P /Q
19
20REM C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001
21C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X

Still, I'd recommend to use: SET ULTRASND=240,7,7,7,7

I also can not recommend to use the setup program of the gus software to check resources since it is known that it shows errors where there are none.
Better use a real life program like a musik player, like xtc-play. If it freezes, DMA is not working, if it plays only one buffer then stops, IRQ is not working.

Nice, xtc-placer reference ftw 😀

Similar story here. GUS Max and SB16 using the following:

ULTRASND=240,6,6,11,11
BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P300 (Midiman card is at 330)

No problems, though I do have serial and parallel ports disabled in the BIOS to free up some IRQs.

Yeah, I freely admit that I need to clean those up. I'm also getting an EMS error on boot, though it doesn't seem to affect anything (yet)...

Oh, I've now added an ISA Intel EtherExpress 16 for which I haven't yet installed drivers. Here's hoping I don't run into any resource conflicts.

Subjunctive wrote:

Here are my AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS: […]
Show full quote

Here are my AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS:

Copy code to clipboard

1REM *** SB16 SETTINGS ***
2SET SOUND=C:\SB16
3SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E
4C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S
5C:\SB16\MIXERSET /P /Q
6C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE /X
7REM C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001
8@ECHO OFF
9PROMPT $p$g
10SET PATH=C:\ULTRASND;C:\DOS;C:\PKZIP;C:\DOSRAR\RAR
11
12REM *** ULTRASOUND SETTINGS ***
13SET ULTRASND=240,1,1,11,7
14REM C:\ULTRASND\ultrinit.exe
15REM call C:\ULTRASND\sbos.bat
16SET ULTRADIR=C:\ULTRASND
17
18SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
19SET TEMP=C:\DOS

I thought SET BLASTER needed to be before DIAGNOSE /S ?

This depends if you have a non-PnP or semi-PnP SB16 card. For the non-PnP it does not matter where you set it, you don't need to call diagnose at all though then.
For the semi-PnP SB16 (where you jumper just the address) you should set it before diagnose /s since diagnose takes over this values and sets the IRQ/DMA to it.
(same as ultrinit does for GUS CD3 btw)