zapbuzz wrote on 2020-05-17, 03:47:

it sounds great on my home HIFI with 4 speaker setup however if i enable 3d sound it won't let me record it thus I will need another sound card to patch it into to record 4 track audio in windows 98se so what I need to know is, what is the maximum attachment size of this forum as i can probably attach a .wav or .mp3 of this soundcard and a photo for everyone to sample. Alternatively I could post files to archive.org and link them but i'd prefer to post here.

It is 5MB .

darry wrote on 2020-05-17, 03:49:

zapbuzz wrote on 2020-05-17, 03:47:

it sounds great on my home HIFI with 4 speaker setup however if i enable 3d sound it won't let me record it thus I will need another sound card to patch it into to record 4 track audio in windows 98se so what I need to know is, what is the maximum attachment size of this forum as i can probably attach a .wav or .mp3 of this soundcard and a photo for everyone to sample. Alternatively I could post files to archive.org and link them but i'd prefer to post here.

It is 5MB .

awesome thanks darry I will post shortly

Here is a link to a little video I made awhile ago with my ymf724 I had the Y-XG100 plus sequencer play it then I put it through winamp with milkdrop visualization its pretty sweet https://archive.org/details/colourfulmedley

I was so happy to get this for $15 in auction it serves as a great DOS game blaster as well as a windows midi player.
(These things keeps us home with something to do with COVID19 pandemic social distancing)

Never missed a beat running on an Abit VP6 with Via apollo chipset

zapbuzz wrote on 2020-05-18, 02:41:

Here is a link to a little video I made awhile ago with my ymf724 I had the Y-XG100 plus sequencer play it then I put it through winamp with milkdrop visualization its pretty sweet https://archive.org/details/colourfulmedley

I was so happy to get this for $15 in auction it serves as a great DOS game blaster as well as a windows midi player.
(These things keeps us home with something to do with COVID19 pandemic social distancing)

I have that exact same card in my Compaq Deskpro EN-SFF, it's a fantastic PCI card for i810/i815 systems.

Has there been any success getting a quality driver port to linux for this card to play dos games in dos box? or even play midi in linux?

zapbuzz wrote on 2020-05-22, 08:05:

Has there been any success getting a quality driver port to linux for this card to play dos games in dos box? or even play midi in linux?

According to this YMF7X4 XG wavetable is implemented in software, which is likely proprietary to Yamaha . I would not expect it ever be implemented in Linux .
https://sourceforge.net/p/alsa/mailman/message/16591534/

EDIT: According to my understanding of the datasheet, only the actual mixing could be implemented in hardware. The XG effects engine is software on the YMF724 .

darry wrote on 2020-05-22, 08:50:

According to this YMF7X4 XG wavetable is implemented in software, which is likely proprietary to Yamaha . I would not expect it […]
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zapbuzz wrote on 2020-05-22, 08:05:

Has there been any success getting a quality driver port to linux for this card to play dos games in dos box? or even play midi in linux?

According to this YMF7X4 XG wavetable is implemented in software, which is likely proprietary to Yamaha . I would not expect it ever be implemented in Linux .
https://sourceforge.net/p/alsa/mailman/message/16591534/

EDIT: According to my understanding of the datasheet, only the actual mixing could be implemented in hardware. The XG effects engine is software on the YMF724 .

Still, it is hardware assisted so decent sound for windows on specs that the xg software app would struggle
A good rival for its time especially price wise and if one can play DOS games in windows that allows access to the XG synth.

I love this sound card so much I've persisted with a few builds in windows and dos to figure out how to get it working the best for me - a dual card setup with AWE64value & Aopen cobra (aw744l) - i had it set up on an MVP3 SS7 board but now it's running in a 440bx setup with much much more compatibility in DOS. Here's a bit of a rundown of my DOS setup-

*The Yamaha seems to work better if it's set as 220/5/1/330
*I have not changed BIOS settings, all PNP is set to Auto
*The AWE64 works fine set as 240/7/3/7/300/640
* the below formatting is not good :p

In Win98:
Yamaha
Base Address: 220
IRQ: 5
DMA: 1
FM: 388
MPU401: 330

AWE64
Base address: 240
IRQ: 7
DMAlow: 3
DMAhigh: 7
FM: 390
MPU401: 300
Awe wavetable: 640

In DOS:

Setupds settings:
Base address: 220
IRQ : 5
DMAlow: 1
FM: 388
MPU401: disable
Joystick port: disable

CTCM finds:

Base address: 240
IRQ: 7
DMAlo: 3
DMAhi: 7
MPU401: 300
Awe wavetable: 640

C:\CTCM for plug n play manager

C:\SB16 for all AWEutil/drivers/config/mixerset/soundfonts

C:\DS-XG for the yamaha initialisation tool (setupds)

CTCM loads with autoexec.bat from c:\CTCM, which uses the resources set in W98
AWEUTIL /s initialises the card in autoexec.bat
CTCM sets the BLASTER variable to the resources W98 has set (how does this work?? its black magic)
SET Sound=c:\SB16
Mixerset /p /q in autoexec.bat

The yamaha needs to be initialised in dos in order for the line-in to work.

I Manually start the yamaha (until i can figure out how to make DDMA remember IRQ 5, it always defaults to 11 for some reason)

c:\DS-XG\setupds

Turn DDMA IRQ to 5
Enable the line-in
Disable the joystick port and the MPU401 emulation or AWE wavetable gets horrible noise/feedback

Changing the SET BLASTER variables to suit the SBPro functionality of the Yamaha will help in some games, otherwise specifically choose the addresses and dma/irq of the card features needed.

I have found that if a game has multiple music options, along with SB16 support for sound effects, it's good to choose SB16 - 240/7/3/7 and then Adlib, as for some reason any time the Adlib is chosen, the FM chip of the Yamaha just works. Never the CQM chip. I think it's because all Adlib cards try to use 388h? i havnet found a game that allows me to change the base address when choosing adlib.

I just got an 744L. Running Windows 98SE on a 440bx chipset. I haven't tried it in actual DOS mode yet, but I haven't had any luck with getting anything other than General MIDI working with it when running DOS games form Windows. Is it supposed to have some sort of Soundblaster compatability in Windows, or is it just the Yamaha MIDI synth?

I installed the drivers from the CD it came with (or, at least whatever ones the autorun installer gave me. There are a few other versions on the disc) and didn't do anything else, setup wise. I did mess around with reserving IRQs in device manager to force it onto IRQ5, but that didn't do anything useful.

I also tried installing the (older?) drivers form PhilsComputerlab but I don't get any sound at all with those.

There should be a configuration utility in Windows that lets you set up the DOS sound compatibility.

I would also make sure you are using the VXD drivers. Not sure if the CD is auto installing the WDM drivers or not.

Here is the newer driver CD that came with the AW744L II cards:
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … 394&menustate=0

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-06-13, 06:45:

There should be a configuration utility in Windows that lets you set up the DOS sound compatibility. […]
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There should be a configuration utility in Windows that lets you set up the DOS sound compatibility.

I would also make sure you are using the VXD drivers. Not sure if the CD is auto installing the WDM drivers or not.

Here is the newer driver CD that came with the AW744L II cards:
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … 394&menustate=0

Assuming it installed the WDM drivers, do I need to do anything in particular to remove them? I'm assuming PhilsComputerlab was hosting the VXD ones. I believe I just installed those over top of whatever I already have, and maybe that broke something.

Okay, so after uninstalling the existing WDM drivers, and reinstalling the VXD ones from PhilsComputerlab, it looks like my problem with the VXD drivers was that I needed to plug my headphones into the outlet labeled "Front" with those, whereas the WDM drivers were using the Rear port for the same 3D sound settings. But yeah, soundblaster works perfectly now. Thanks for directing me to the older drivers!

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me, as I've hit a dead-end trying to get the YMF744 work on my P3 Retro DOS PC.

The YMF744 card is a brand new AOPEN AW744L II card. Pics of the box and card have been attached.

The PC is a Compaq Deskpro EXD P866, released in 2000. As per its Tech Reference Guide, it uses the i815 chipset and the 82801AA ICH southbridge. This has been verified using smb.exe /p 10. Output of this command is attached.

I have disabled practically everything in my BIOS. The YMF744 shows up as Audio Device using IRQ 5. Pic of this BIOS screen is attached.

I'm using the YMF744 driver package provided by @kalohimal, also attached.

For the first test, since the motherboard has a 82801AA ICH southbridge, I tried to get it working using DDMA. So, I booted the PC and bypassed my config.sys and autoexec.bat, and ran the unmodded setupds.exe. The DS-XG PCI configuration utility screen pops up, but IRQ CHANNEL amd DMA MODE are disabled. If I try to run SOUND TEST, I get an error: Can not detect DMA at channel 1. The Sound Test pops up, but SOUND BLASTER 8BIT SOUND is disabled. FM SOUND and NATIVE AUDIO 16BIT SOUND work fine. If I try to exit and save, the same error from before popups up, and it doesn't let me save. A screenshot is attached.

So I try to force it by setting DMAMODE=1 in the DS.INI file, and running setupds.exe /s and setting the BLASTER variable. I have attached the output of the command. It looks fine, but besides FM I don't get any other audio. The DS.INI file is also attached.

For the second test, I tried to get it working using DSDMA. So, I booted the PC using HIMEM+EMM386(NOEMS), and set the DMAMODE=3 in the DS.INI file. Then I ran the unmodded setupds.exe /s and set the BLASTER variable. The output was exactly the same as before. Now I ran dsdma.exe, and the output looks fine (attached).

I still get only FM, but now when I try to run any audio program, they crash.

At this point, I have tried pretty much everything I can think of with no luck. Any suggestions will be most welcome.

1. You will have to use the modded setupds.exe. The different modded setupds.exe programs have the IDs for the different southbridges included (by replacing the ID of the southbridge in the original setupds.exe). Without that, DSDMA is the only way it will work and the compatibility is not going to be as good as with D-DMA.

2. You must run setupds.exe /s to initialize the card before running setupds.exe to go into the config GUI. Pretty sure the FM is the only thing that will work if you don't run setupds.exe /s first.

3. Editing the DMA in the DS.INI is not going to make it work. You need to find on in setupds.exe that works. I would try DMA 0 if 1 or 3 doesn't work.

4. The IRQ used for the Sound Blaster 8-bit sound is not necessarily going to be the same as what the BIOS detects the card at. I would try IRQ 7 and see if that helps if 5 doesn't work.

Edit: So the un-modified setupds is supposed to support the ICH (the one you have) according to the howto.txt in the driver pack you posted.

There also may be a newer stock setupds.exe. The one you were trying is 3.11 according to the RELEASE.txt file. I think there may be a version 3.12. Check the dsxgdos-DSDMA.exe from my google drive (link in sig).

If you still can't get it working, let me know and I will hook up a PIII 815i based setup to test on my end... pretty sure I have an 815i based board now.

i think the issue with enaiel's setup is that the usb controller is taking irq 11

the pci sound card must take irq 11, then the dsdma/setupds will use ddma to interact via irq 5 for the sb/sbpro data transfers. (i think this is how it works?)

but again i might have it wrong as your chipset is something i havent used yet. have a go and see if it helps.

@foil_fresh

I changed the USB IRQ to 9 and the YMF744 IRQ to 11 in the BIOS, but it did not make any difference when running dsdma.

@cyclone3d

I have tried setupds[1-5].exe and it did not make any difference either. I also tried running setupds /s first before running setupds, and the screen was the same as before.
I cannot select IRQ 7 in my BIOS, but changing the IRQ to 9,10 and 11 had no effect.

An update:

I do have sound with dsdma - the reason I though I didn't was around 80% of all my audio applications and games crashed after running dsdma. Turns out that DOOM still works and has audio! But nothing much else. I'm going to try your driver now to see if it makes a difference.

You can use my sheet, there are proven Yamaha settings for different games.. and list of proven not working ones, it really depends which game you are trying with which IRQ etc..
https://docs.zoho.com/sheet/open/8mn7n8efd4da … Board/ranges/A1

On Vogons drivers library is even my testing package with All games from list which have demos..

From your list it's clear that only games like DOOM which use Miles Sound System work with dsdma, all others give problems. But the bigger problem for me is that all my audio applications like opencp and mpxplay crash after running dsdma.

I think I'm going to revert back to my Audigy as it has better compatibility on this PC than the YMF744. With the Audigy, all my games and audio applications have sound. I only have noise/distortion when playing MODs, but that is a far less a problem than what I am facing with the YMF744.

Try a ForteMedia FM801 card, it really works fantastically with i810/815 motherboards in my experience.