Windows XP hint \ VOGONS

Windows XP hint

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First post, by Swil

Posted on 2003-01-16, 10:56

Swil Offline

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I don't know if this is posted anywhere, but it doesn't seem to be anywhere obvious and I thought it might help people.

Problem I came across was this - trying to get a certain DOS game (in this case, Realms of the Haunting) working under XP. Problem was, using VDMSound, I was getting horrible sound, it was clicking and causing vidoes to skip etc etc.

Anyway, after a fair bit of stuffing around I discovered the problem - XP's own SoundBlaster emulator. It's on by default, and it's not very good. Trying to run both that and VDMSound was causing the problem. Turned that off, along with a couple of other things VDMSound was doubling up (MSCDEX for example) and it's running a lot better. Not perfect, but much better.

To turn off XP's SB emulation, you need to open up:
%SystemRoot%\system32\autoexec.nt

Then REM the first SET BLASTER line and un-REM the second one. This is also where you can turn off XP's MSCDEX implmentation etc, but I don't think there's much point.

Does this help anyone or am I pointing out the obvious?

Reply 1 of 3, by DosFreak

Posted on 2003-01-16, 12:18

DosFreak Offline

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VDMSound uses it's own autoexec/config.nt files. Upon running these they run under their own NTVDM session which doesn't use the autoexec/config.nt files used by XP for it's Soundblaster emulation. The only way to use XP's emulation with VDMSound is to use IRQ 5 (XP NTVDM SOUND) instead of IRQ7 (VDMSOUND)....

Often people confuse the two.

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Reply 2 of 3, by Swil

Posted on 2003-01-18, 03:40

Swil Offline

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All I know is that I was getting shite sound until I turned off XP's emulation in autoexec.nt (and yes, I was using irq 7). Could be a problem with my VDMSound config, who knows.

Also, I don't need to turn on VDMSound's MSCDEX emulation cos the windows one seems to work fine. If autoexec.nt isn't getting run with VDMSound, how am I getting to my CD drive?

Reply 3 of 3, by Nicht Sehr Gut

Posted on 2003-01-18, 07:03

Nicht Sehr Gut Offline

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Originally posted by Swil All I know is that I was getting shite sound until I turned off XP's emulation in autoexec.nt (and yes, I was using irq 7). Could be a problem with my VDMSound config, who knows.

Hrmm. That's an odd one. XP's Native SB emulation seemed adequate, but obviously not as good as the SB16 that VDMSound provides. Only thing I can think of might be a stray entry in the VDMS.INI file.

Are you using it with the "GUI launcher" and "Update 1"?

Also, I don't need to turn on VDMSound's MSCDEX emulation cos the windows one seems to work fine. If autoexec.nt isn't getting run with VDMSound, how am I getting to my CD drive?

Actually, VDMSound is using NT's MSCDEX emulation. If you're using the GUI, it's optional, and appears as "low-level CD-ROM support" on the compatibility tab of the VDMSound shortcuts. Sometimes it's needed for CD-ROM access, sometimes not. (Sometimes it may require a replacement of NT's MSCDEX with a replacement like SAPUCDEX.)

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