To your second issue, the Sound Blaster 16 has an MPU-401 output, but this is routed to the Waveblaster header, and the Joystick port to output MIDI data to a MIDI synthesizer. Unlike the AWE32 and later cards, the SB16 does not have an onboard synthesizer, and can therefore do nothing with the MIDI data on its own.

How do you know that it is a memory issue? After starting up, including the sound blaster files, type the command "mem" and post the results here.

From Wikipedia:

"The Sound Blaster 16 retained the Pro's OPL-3 support for FM synthesis, and was mostly compatible with software written for the older Sound Blaster and Sound Blaster Pro sound cards. The SB16's MPU-401 emulation was limited to UART (dumb) mode only, but this was sufficient for most MIDI software. When a daughterboard, such as the Wave Blaster, Roland SCB-7, Roland SCB-55, Yamaha DB50XG, Yamaha DB60XG was installed on the Sound Blaster, the Wave Blaster behaved like a standard MIDI device, accessible to any MPU-401 compatible MIDI software."

So, if I understood this correctly, MIDI should work in emulation mode, to (at least) be able to play the MIDI files under Windows, where on the other hand DOS support is limited only to external hardware through, MPU-401. But in this particular case I'm not getting ANY sound, whatsoever. Windows 95, Windows 3.11 and/or DOS. Just the standard "Wave" output which often translates having sound effects, gunshots, moans & groans but not the music. (Doom & Doom2 for example)

Oh well, I might as well try hooking up WaveBlaster II, I actually got one inside other system, but it's currently paired up with Aureal Vortex2 so I'll need to take it apart.

As for having memory issues... I've made some progress on my own, but I'm far from being finished. The reason I KNOW it's memory thing is because I'm getting bunch of random messages such as "Insufficient memory! You need 640k more to run this game", "Abnormal memory termination", "<app name here> failed to load, you need at least <xy> to run this game, etc. Basically, SB16 cluttered up the entire memory to the point where I can't run anything!

My prior statement stands. The MPU-401 is an interface to MIDI hardware. With no daughterboard or external synth connected, the MPU-401 will not produce any music.

In Windows, Sound Blaster 16 drivers should include the capability to translate a MIDI file to the FM Synthesizer on the card. This can be selected through the MIDI mapper. I shall reiterate that this has nothing to do with the MPU-401, so you will need to select an alternate option.

It is likely that your Conventional memory is already somewhat used up and that this just tips it over the edge. You can move
"DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS /V"
above
"DOS=HIGH,UMB"

and it could free up some space. Once again, "MEM /C" will give us a picture of what is going on.

Tried hooking WaveBlaster II on to SB16 & still not getting any sound. I can just barely hear faint sound coming from the headphones, but it's pretty much next to nothing. And yes, I've made sure that the volume mixer is turned all the way up for "MIDI", for all the sources except for main stereo output (mix) and still not getting anything. I guess it's a capacitor issue, perhaps I should try recapping the entire card *shrug*

And thanks - will give it a try with MemTest some other time & report back the results 😀

You don't need "net start" and ifshlp.sys unless you are running Windows.

Net start It was added automatically, when I installed the ethernet card & booted up Win 3.11

So move it to the winboot section? I haven't used networking with Win 3.11, but if that's actually loading a packet driver it's likely what's eating all your memory.

Hmm, good point. I never thought minor things such as these would eventually drain the memory.

Update, think I finally sorted it out... Take a look guys & please tell me what you think?

Autoexec.BAT

1SET CTCM=C:\CTCM
2LH /L:2 C:\DOS\MSCDEX /D:MSCD000 /M:15 /E /S /L:D /V
3ECHO.
4LH /L:0;2 /S C:\DOS\SMARTDRV 2048 128 /V
5C:\DOS\MODE CON RATE=32 DELAY=2
6C:\DOS\MODE CON CP PREP=((852) C:\DOS\EGA.CPI)
7C:\DOS\MODE CON CP SEL=852
8LH /L:2 C:\DOS\KEYB YU,852,C:\DOS\KEYBOARD.SYS
9ECHO.
10LH /L:2 C:\DOS\MOUSE
11ECHO.
12LH /L:2 C:\DOS\NLSFUNC C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS
13PROMPT $p$g
14PATH C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\CTCM;C:\SB16
15SET TEMP=C:\TEMP
16SET TMP=C:\TEMP
17SET SOUND=C:\SB16
18SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6
19SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0
20C:\CTCM\CTCU /S
21C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S /W=C:\WINDOWS
22C:\SB16\AWEUTIL /S
23C:\SB16\MIXERSET /P /Q
24C:\WINDOWS\net start

Config.SYS

1BREAK=ON
2DOS=HIGH,UMB
3FILES=40
4BUFFERS=10,0
5LASTDRIVE=Z
6STACKS=9,256
7COUNTRY=038,,C:\DOS\COUNTRY.SYS
8DEVICE=C:\CTCM\CTCM.EXE /V
9DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS /V
10DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM /MIN=0 I=B000-B7FF /V
11DEVICE=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE /V
12DEVICEHIGH /L:1 =C:\DOS\DISPLAY.SYS CON=(EGA,,2)
13DEVICEHIGH /L:1 =C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
14DEVICEHIGH /L:2 =C:\CDROM\gscdrom.sys /D:MSCD000
15SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\ /E:1024 /P

I had to add additional sound commands due to upgrading the sound card. Since I couldn't get SB16 to work, I swapped it out for AWE32. And since I'm ONLY going to do retro gaming on this system, there wasn't much of a point to fiddle with multi option menus, so I went back to one & removed all non-essential commands that could affect the memory.