VOGONS


CT-4810 in DOS

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First post, by maciekish

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Hi,
I have a CT-4810 with a "Creative CT5880-DCQ" marked chip on it. I am trying to make it work in WIN98 "Restart in DOS Mode". I tried a driver i found online but it didnt work and im really struggling to find the correct one. Can someone please advise?

Reply 1 of 24, by canthearu

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I've had a lot of problems with 32 bit DOS software crashing after "Restart in DOS Mode" when using PCI sound cards and their appropriate drivers.

So I recommend setting up your config.sys and autotexec.bat and using the F8 key to start MSDOS after boot without starting windows 98 at all.

http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … =49&menustate=0

These are the drivers you want.

Reply 2 of 24, by maciekish

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By F8 you mean the command line-only option? I accidentally added the sound drivers to that default autoexec.bat once and it caused Win98 not to boot because of low memory. Makes me unsure about which autoexec and config to actually edit.

Reply 4 of 24, by maciekish

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Its a P4 2.4Ghz on an ASRock mainboard with a VIA chipset. 1GB RAM, Geforce 3, Creative Vibra 128 and standard Win98 installation.

Maybe the best solution is to partition the disk and install dos 6.x natively in multiboot? At the moment what im trying to run is Duke 3D which works but obviously no sound.

Reply 5 of 24, by canthearu

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First problem I see is too much memory!

Remove 512meg ram, windows 98 starts to misbehave with out of memory errors and other weird issues if you have more than 512meg memory installed. There might be workarounds for these problems, to allow more memory to work, but my recommendation is to start with only 512meg ram, at least while you are trying to work out your system.

Then you can install the vogan drivers package I linked about and have the DOS drivers load in config.sys and autoexec.bat before windows starts (typically these are fine to load before windows 98 starts)

One other thing, which I think won't be a problem for you, is that I also know that I wasn't able to get my audigy to work in DOS on my pentium 4 system with Intel chipset. Just not supported. But works fine on my SIS Pentium 4 motherboard. So motherboard choice can be a big issue, especially as you get into the faster P4 systems.

Reply 6 of 24, by maciekish

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I removed half the RAM, only 512MB in the box now and Windows now boots fine with the autoexec.bat and config.sys edits so thanks for that however DOS issue still remains.

After restart with F8 and "Command prompt only" i can see the sound card being initialized. However if i try to setup Duke 3D with 220/5/1/5 or 220/5/1/7 it says "Sound Blaster not responing on selected port.". The card still works fine in Windows 98.

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Reply 8 of 24, by maciekish

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Im so sorry for not mentioning but i already tried DMA 7. I cant find that setting in my BIOS though. Any idea where it would be on an ASRock P4VT8+? I think i really checked everywhere, too new mainboard?

Reply 9 of 24, by canthearu

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Are you running the latest BIOS on your motherboard? That might add the IRQ or DMA stuff to your motherboard ... as your motherboard is fairly new (for a DOS retro board) and getting close to the line where compatibility is lost. (just not sure which side on the line this board falls on)

You could try something like the Adlib jukebox just to see if the card has been able to allocate the I/O ports correctly. That should limit itself to accessing IO ports 388 and doesn't require any of the IRQ or DMA stuff working.

I also found that toggling PCI Delay Transaction on one of my old boards helped fix crashing on one of my systems with an ESS Solo-1 card.

Reply 10 of 24, by maciekish

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Today i updated the BIOS to the latest version, no legacy, PnP or IRQ options appeared. I disabled all unnecessary onboard devices to free resources like ports, built in audio etc. During POST neither IRQ 5 or 7 is shown as occupied by anything so i assume they are free.

Then i tried all possible permutations of IRQ 5 or 7 and high DMA 5 or 7 (4) reboots. I changed this in both autoexec.bat and dosdrv\sbpci.ini and rebooted inbetween and tried to setup sound in Duke3D with the options i had just set before reboot. Settings were confirmed as changed with dosdrv\sbcfg.exe but Duke3D would still not speak with the card.

dosdrv\sbtest.exe always threw the error "Detecting SB ... error: could not reset SB16". No matter the settings used.

I am thinking of just buying an AIMB-742 mainboard and just putting an ISA sound card in it and be done with it. However i guess that would not work in Win98 then so getting PCI working would be really good though. Maybe a different mainboard with better legacy PnP options but still supports P4 Prescott? Any tips for that?

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Reply 11 of 24, by Kamerat

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Since you got a VIA chipset on your motherboard you could try an ESS Solo-1 (ES1938) based sound card, you can get some very cheap on Ebay from China.

DOS Sound Blaster compatibility: PCI sound cards vs. PCI chipsets
YouTube channel

Reply 12 of 24, by maciekish

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I had no idea a different soundcard by brand could work better with a specific chipset especially considering we’re dabbing with emulation and not native stuff. Anyway a day ago i ordered an Terratec Promedia TTSOLO1-N, ES1938S just to try a different brand. Does ES1938 vs ES1938S make any difference in my situation?

Reply 13 of 24, by canthearu

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Yep, different sound cards can use different methods to emulate ISA functions, so compatibility can be better or worse. Another card that might work for you is one of the Aureal Vortex cards.

The ES1938S is exactly the same as the ES1938 as far as I know.

Reply 15 of 24, by canthearu

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maciekish wrote:

Got my Terratec Promedia (SOLO1-N) and it works perfectly in DOS. Thanks a lot for the help!

I have a bit of a soft spot for the ESS cards. Great FM and DOS compatibility on cards that are NOT overpriced.

Quality of ESS cards can be a bit hit and miss though. Some have lots of noise or bad builtin amps.

Reply 16 of 24, by maciekish

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canthearu wrote:
maciekish wrote:

Got my Terratec Promedia (SOLO1-N) and it works perfectly in DOS. Thanks a lot for the help!

I have a bit of a soft spot for the ESS cards. Great FM and DOS compatibility on cards that are NOT overpriced.

Quality of ESS cards can be a bit hit and miss though. Some have lots of noise or bad builtin amps.

I think i may be developing one as well. 😊 Which music mode should they be set to to sound the best? Sound Blaster or something else?

Reply 17 of 24, by Kamerat

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maciekish wrote:

Which music mode should they be set to to sound the best? Sound Blaster or something else?

Sound Blaster for music, but a few games such as Warcraft II got specific ESS support. You can add a wavetable board to the Solo-1 (most boards got the connector soldered on), such as the Dreamblaster S2 and X2 for General MIDI compatibility.

DOS Sound Blaster compatibility: PCI sound cards vs. PCI chipsets
YouTube channel

Reply 19 of 24, by Kamerat

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maciekish wrote:

I ordered one of those modern waveboards, dont remember its name. So when i add it i need to pick general midi instead of sb for music?

Yeah and sometimes it's just listed as MPU-401.

DOS Sound Blaster compatibility: PCI sound cards vs. PCI chipsets
YouTube channel