VOGONS


First post, by kitten.may.cry

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

6bTCk6i.jpg

I38-MMSN810. The only card after CT4520, giving me equal amount of trouble.

Is it Basic 16 or Pro 16? I do not know.

Ever since I bought it, I JUST couldn't do anything!

When trying to install a driver, it just says "error opening setup.inf"

Maybe I'm just underqualified or something like that, I digress.

Can anyone help me to get it working?

Reply 1 of 14, by kitten.may.cry

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Is it just a Sound Blaster 16 + WSS support?
There is a LOT of AMD chips on it, so I doubt that!

Reply 2 of 14, by synrgy87

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

The Aztech cards are normally SB Pro + WSS, although some apparently are SB16 compatible, but I've not personally had one that is fully SB16 compatible.
A lot of them are Packard bell specials and have weird driver setups.

Reply 3 of 14, by kitten.may.cry

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
synrgy87 wrote on 2020-05-06, 08:33:

The Aztech cards are normally SB Pro + WSS, although some apparently are SB16 compatible, but I've not personally had one that is fully SB16 compatible.
A lot of them are Packard bell specials and have weird driver setups.

Still, if it is just SB Pro... driver won't install.

I have the right one, aswell... you have any ideas?

Reply 4 of 14, by dionb

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Right, slow down a minute...

You say installing drivers. For which operating system? And in what kind of computer?

This is the Aztech MMSN810 aka Sound Galaxy Basic 16, which is a completely different beast to the various Sound Galaxy Pro 16 models. Tbh, it's probably my favorite Aztech card.

It supports:
- AdLib (that "LS-212" chip is a 1:1 Yamaha YMF-262 clone)
- Soundblaster Pro 2.0
- WSS
- Covox
- Disney Sound System

Now, that's the positive side. Less positive:
- no MPU-401 MIDI
- speed sensitive, won't work on newer than 486 or so
- sensitive to EMI and noise on the ISA bus

This is possibly the most widely compatible card for early 1990s DOS gaming, but due to timing issues not really suited for a Win9x system.

Software for it can be found here:
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … menustate=41,36

Download the whole archive, then look in the BAS16 folder.

You do *not* need drivers for DOS and it's a non-PnP card. All you need to do is (one-off) use HWSET.EXE to set resources (I/O, DMA, IRQ), and then put those settings into a SET BLASTER= line in Autoexec.bat. I would recommend I/O address 0x220, DMA 1 and IRQ 5 or 7 (7 was standard for really old games, but conflicts with parallel port - if you want to use this, disable parallel port).

There are also Win3.1, WinNT 3.x and Win9x drivers, but again, a system fast enough to run Win9x comfortably is probably too fast for this card. That said, I haven't personally tried it on anything faster than a 486SX-33 - but I have had the NXPro (same 1st gen chipset) working happily on a Pentium 100, which is fast enough for (early) Windows 95, so maybe the speed issues aren't as bad as reported.

A good reader on Aztech cards in general:
https://ilovepa.ws/2017/06/08/aztech-sound-cards/

Note that Saxxon doesn't include info on the configuration of the 1st generation cards like this one, but as I mention above, it's very simple, just use HWSET.EXE

synrgy87 wrote on 2020-05-06, 08:33:

The Aztech cards are normally SB Pro + WSS, although some apparently are SB16 compatible, but I've not personally had one that is fully SB16 compatible.
A lot of them are Packard bell specials and have weird driver setups.

No Aztech ISA cards are SB16 compatible, but WSS delivers the same 16b audio quality if supported by the game. Descent is an example of a game that supports it to very good effect.

Reply 5 of 14, by synrgy87

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
dionb wrote on 2020-05-06, 09:52:
synrgy87 wrote on 2020-05-06, 08:33:

The Aztech cards are normally SB Pro + WSS, although some apparently are SB16 compatible, but I've not personally had one that is fully SB16 compatible.
A lot of them are Packard bell specials and have weird driver setups.

No Aztech ISA cards are SB16 compatible, but WSS delivers the same 16b audio quality if supported by the game. Descent is an example of a game that supports it to very good effect.

Excellent, Have had various reports of SB16 compatibility but never seen it working so that covers that.

still some of them as you say are very nice cards.

Reply 6 of 14, by kitten.may.cry

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
dionb wrote on 2020-05-06, 09:52:
Right, slow down a minute... […]
Show full quote

Right, slow down a minute...

You say installing drivers. For which operating system? And in what kind of computer?

This is the Aztech MMSN810 aka Sound Galaxy Basic 16, which is a completely different beast to the various Sound Galaxy Pro 16 models. Tbh, it's probably my favorite Aztech card.

It supports:
- AdLib (that "LS-212" chip is a 1:1 Yamaha YMF-262 clone)
- Soundblaster Pro 2.0
- WSS
- Covox
- Disney Sound System

Now, that's the positive side. Less positive:
- no MPU-401 MIDI
- speed sensitive, won't work on newer than 486 or so
- sensitive to EMI and noise on the ISA bus

This is possibly the most widely compatible card for early 1990s DOS gaming, but due to timing issues not really suited for a Win9x system.

Software for it can be found here:
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … menustate=41,36

Download the whole archive, then look in the BAS16 folder.

You do *not* need drivers for DOS and it's a non-PnP card. All you need to do is (one-off) use HWSET.EXE to set resources (I/O, DMA, IRQ), and then put those settings into a SET BLASTER= line in Autoexec.bat. I would recommend I/O address 0x220, DMA 1 and IRQ 5 or 7 (7 was standard for really old games, but conflicts with parallel port - if you want to use this, disable parallel port).

There are also Win3.1, WinNT 3.x and Win9x drivers, but again, a system fast enough to run Win9x comfortably is probably too fast for this card. That said, I haven't personally tried it on anything faster than a 486SX-33 - but I have had the NXPro (same 1st gen chipset) working happily on a Pentium 100, which is fast enough for (early) Windows 95, so maybe the speed issues aren't as bad as reported.

A good reader on Aztech cards in general:
https://ilovepa.ws/2017/06/08/aztech-sound-cards/

Note that Saxxon doesn't include info on the configuration of the 1st generation cards like this one, but as I mention above, it's very simple, just use HWSET.EXE

synrgy87 wrote on 2020-05-06, 08:33:

The Aztech cards are normally SB Pro + WSS, although some apparently are SB16 compatible, but I've not personally had one that is fully SB16 compatible.
A lot of them are Packard bell specials and have weird driver setups.

No Aztech ISA cards are SB16 compatible, but WSS delivers the same 16b audio quality if supported by the game. Descent is an example of a game that supports it to very good effect.

I'm so sorry!

Yes, it's DOS.

My setup:
Generic 440BX board from QDI.
PII 233Mhz
PC100 32Mb
Random GPU from the pile (appears to be GF2 GTS PRO 64M)
Very nice DOM 1Gb

HWSET.exe, huh? I need to try that!

Still, I feel the need to emphasize the "error", when installing BAS16 drivers!

Very concerning!

Reply 7 of 14, by kitten.may.cry

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Error opening Setup.inf
Program Abort.

Does anyone have a copy of HWSET?

Reply 8 of 14, by dionb

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
kitten.may.cry wrote on 2020-05-06, 10:48:

Error opening Setup.inf
Program Abort.

Why are you messing around with .inf files? Those are Windows driver information files, but you just said you are using DOS. No .inf needed!

Does anyone have a copy of HWSET?

Yes, you do. Just run INSTALL.EXE to unpack the files.

Reply 9 of 14, by Oetker

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

You say it's DOS but you're attempting to install Windows drivers? I'm reasonably sure Windows 98 will have built-in drivers for this card, at least it does for the later generation ones.

Reply 10 of 14, by kitten.may.cry

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
dionb wrote on 2020-05-06, 11:10:
Why are you messing around with .inf files? Those are Windows driver information files, but you just said you are using DOS. No […]
Show full quote
kitten.may.cry wrote on 2020-05-06, 10:48:

Error opening Setup.inf
Program Abort.

Why are you messing around with .inf files? Those are Windows driver information files, but you just said you are using DOS. No .inf needed!

Does anyone have a copy of HWSET?

Yes, you do. Just run INSTALL.EXE to unpack the files.

I just typed install.exe, that is all.
Can't "install" the exe, gives me an error.
Hence why I asked for a copy.

Sorry for being cryptic.

Oetker wrote on 2020-05-06, 11:11:

You say it's DOS but you're attempting to install Windows drivers? I'm reasonably sure Windows 98 will have built-in drivers for this card, at least it does for the later generation ones.

I will try WIndows 98 at the later date, thanks for the suggestion!

Oetker wrote on 2020-05-06, 11:11:

You say it's DOS but you're attempting to install Windows drivers? I'm reasonably sure Windows 98 will have built-in drivers for this card, at least it does for the later generation ones.

You're telling me I don't really need any drivers at all? Card is looking pretty loaded with components, so it *must* be more complicated than just Sound Blaster 16 or Pro.
...Or so I thought.

Reply 11 of 14, by Oetker

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
kitten.may.cry wrote on 2020-05-06, 11:22:

You're telling me I don't really need any drivers at all? Card is looking pretty loaded with components, so it *must* be more complicated than just Sound Blaster 16 or Pro.
...Or so I thought.

I'm surprised you can run the installer that complains about .inf files without it just showing an error that it requires Windows.

Like the poster above said, hwset.exe should be enough.

ISA cards in DOS don't require drivers as the games access them directly and, basically, contain the drivers themselves. Depending on the card it might need be configured once, after every boot, or with jumpers.

Note that you might run into issues due to your processor being too fast for the card, you'll have to try it out.

Reply 12 of 14, by kitten.may.cry

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
Oetker wrote on 2020-05-06, 13:04:
I'm surprised you can run the installer that complains about .inf files without it just showing an error that it requires Window […]
Show full quote
kitten.may.cry wrote on 2020-05-06, 11:22:

You're telling me I don't really need any drivers at all? Card is looking pretty loaded with components, so it *must* be more complicated than just Sound Blaster 16 or Pro.
...Or so I thought.

I'm surprised you can run the installer that complains about .inf files without it just showing an error that it requires Windows.

Like the poster above said, hwset.exe should be enough.

ISA cards in DOS don't require drivers as the games access them directly and, basically, contain the drivers themselves. Depending on the card it might need be configured once, after every boot, or with jumpers.

Note that you might run into issues due to your processor being too fast for the card, you'll have to try it out.

It's P// 233. Shouldn't be *too* fast, since I have lag in Duke Nukem 3D.

My other AZTECH card pretty much required me to install some kind of driver.

I think it was WaveRider 32 3D...who knows.

Reply 14 of 14, by kitten.may.cry

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Thread is closed, guys!

Thanks to dionb, and Oetker for help!