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Getting my Diamond MX300 (Vortex 2) working in DOS

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First post, by Kahenraz

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From what I understand, I have to run the "au30dos.com" utility which reads information from the accompanying .ini file. I also found that for this utility to work, the drivers must be installed in Windows 98 and the utility run from C:\Windows (where it is installed). All of that is fine and it says it's running ok and mapping to p220 d1 i7.

DOS games work just fine when run from within Windows. However, if I attempt to run then in pure DOS with au30dos.com (with or without emm386), I always get crackle-pop-static when attempting to play digital samples. Midi works fine.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Also, what I want is good sound blaster support from a PCI sound card IDEALLY with a WaveBlaster port. I will consider alternatives if anyone can recommend one.

Reply 1 of 4, by pyrogx

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I would first check for IRQ conflicts: is anything else using IRQ7? What IRQ does the Vortex PCI card use (look it up in the device manager (AU8830 Multifunction device)? Sometimes it helps if the SB emulation and the PCI card use the same IRQ, preferably IRQ5.
Which games did you try? Not all games play nicely with a PCI soundcard, there are many problems and incompatibilities, no matter what card you use. The most DOS compatible PCI soundcard I came across was a ESS-Solo1-based card. These also can have a wavetable header and are cheap and easy to find.

Reply 2 of 4, by Kahenraz

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I've definitely eliminated IRQ conficts. The IRQ is reserved in the BIOS and no other device is using it. I get the same problem no matter what IRQ I try (5, 7, 10). It also does not work when paired with the same IRQ as the card itself. The legacy emulation itself uses a separate IRQ.

I don't have any ESS-Solo1 cards to try but they might be what I'm looking for. I've found several listings on ebay but non with a wave table header. I'll keep an eye out.

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