Is your card actually jumpered to those settings?

Is the ISA bus running in spec? Do you need more, or fewer wait states?

What version of Doom? Some older versions have suckier DMX in them (the sound engine Doom used), and Hexen was derived off of Doom version 1.2 iirc.

>> Is your card actually jumpered to those settings?

I've double-checked, and they are.

Please note: I'm wondering whether this "set BLASTER" line is strictly necessary, as DOOM's setup routine asks for all of these values any how. I tried "remming out" this "set BLASTER" line from my auto file, but it didn't solve the problem. Please also note that I haven't run any CT1600 setup software of any kind, but I've tested other CT1600 cards (in other mobos, it has to be said), and they've worked fine.

>> Is the ISA bus running in spec? Do you need more, or fewer wait states?

This sounds interesting. I am beginning to suspect it could be something to do with the mobo. Unfortunately, I don't understand what you mean by your comments. Could you elaborate please? Thanks.

It may be worth pointing out that I also tested a CT1750 (16 bit SB card) in this mobo, in conjunction with running diagnose.exe, and the DOOM demo worked fine.

>> What version of Doom? Some older versions have suckier DMX in them (the sound engine Doom used), and Hexen was derived off of Doom version 1.2 iirc.

It's the downloadable demo, ver. 1.666. Perhaps I need a more up-to-date version?

Thanks a lot people, for any extra assistance. 😀

Edit: Damn, the problem with 'Editing' your post, is that noone sees that it's been changed. Oh well. I forgot to mention that I do get music from the CT1600, just no sound effects.

Edit 2: The mystery deepens. I tried Epic megagames Pinball, and that worked fine. I then DL'd Doom 1.9 demo, and that still doesn't work, although the music sounds much better - I'm not sure why. This is really weird! 😕

Edit 3: I think it's to do with the mobo. I've just tried another CT1600, which definitely works, and I get no sound effects in Doom, although other games do work ok. Curiously, even though both SBs are CT1600, they are not exactly physically alike.

I will have a look through the mobo's BIOS (ECS UM8810 PAIO mobo, Phoenix BIOS '94), and see if I can spot anything. I'm not very knowledgeable about this kind of stuff, so I may not know what options to tweak. 😕

I DL'd the SB Pro installation software from driverguide.com, and ran the test utility called TEST_SBP.exe

When it tried to scan for the card's DMA jumper settings, it reported this error -

DMA Channel cannot be detected

I tried changing the 2 jumpers for the DMA settings to 0, 1, and then 3, but in all three cases, the test utility reported the above error.

I have tried the above test on two CT1600 cards. Both of them produce the identical error above. I have also tried a couple of different ISA slots.

😕

Edit: I'm using an ATX PSU, with an ATX to AT converter gadget. Does the CT1600, by any chance, require any juice on the -5V rail? The ATX PSU which I am using does supply -5V power, but perhaps my ATX to AT converter gadget is not working correctly?

I noticed that a lot of the jumper settings on the board are not in their correct positions, regarding the CPU type and speed. I examined the help information printed on the board, and altered quite a few jumpers, in an attempt to set up an Intel 486 DX2-66 chip. After doing this, I turned on the power, and saw this on the screen -

Edit: Look closely for some humour.

I was becoming increasingly suspicious of my CPU. It was an Intel 486 DX-2 @66. I was becoming suspicious of it, because it came from the "evil acid machine". This was a box I was testing earlier which had a leaky Vanta battery in it. I removed it from my current test mobo, changed this CPU over to an Intel 486 SX @33, and now the SB Pro test utility can correctly "see" the card's DMA setting, which is currently set to 3.

Edit: I re-ran DOOM setup, and although it doesn't lock up any more with the soundblaster sound effects activated, they sound extremely poor. Something is still wrong somewhere, although the SB Pro test utility could play all of its test sounds ok. Strange. 😕

Edit 2: Is there a program I can run on this old 486 board (in DOS), to tell me what resources are currently in use? On my windows 98 box, I just go to "system resources", and I can see what IRQs and DMAs are in use. I just can't figure out why DOOM can't play sound effects. It also locks up the machine, if I choose any DMA other than 3. Thanks.

If found a posting on the net, from someone who had the same problem as me. This message is as follows, and it is written by Id tech support:

" The problem you are having seems to be related to a bug in the Phoenix PCI BIOS. It is a known problem. There seems to be an area of memory that the Phoenix BIOS is shadowing that cannot be turned off. In order for the sound to work this area cannot be shadowed. "

From what I can gather from this short message, it's not fixable. I have PhoenixBIOS version 4.03. I tried going in to the BIOS -> memory shadow -> video shadow: and setting this to disabled, but that didn't solve the problem.

😢

Those otions I mentioned are usually labeled as I/O recvery time, Recovert Time, 16 bit recovery time, 8 bit Recovery time, ect. 2clks, 4clkc, 6clckc 8clcks, ect.

The clock deviders are lable usually AT bus clock selection. Something like host clk / 3/4/5 ect. (or sometimes it gives you an option for 8.33Mhz, which is what 16bit ISA is supposed to be, assuming a 33Mhz system bus).

And in case you haven't seen this: http://th99.dyndns.org/i/C-D/50402.htm

I've noticed you seem to be missing RAM from the initial count. My SLC2 machine does this also. Do you know why?

Thanks for the info! 😀

I think the problem with the SoundBlaster may be related to the Phoenix BIOS, and from what I can gather from a usenet post written by Id tech support, this problem is not fixable.

Moogle! wrote:

I've noticed you seem to be missing RAM from the initial count. My SLC2 machine does this also. Do you know why?

I'm sorry, I haven't got a clue.

I read with great curiosity regarding this peculiar problem.

It seems that you have to tackle 3 problems at the same time, not just the motherboard:

1. The Motherboard and/or bios,
2. The DOOM Engine's digital sound access routine, AND,
3. The CT1600 Hardware.

Since Shadow Warrior works with digital sound, I guess you can narrow your problem to the DOOM engine and the motherboard.

If you want to rule out that the motherboard is the causative factor, you have to use another mobo with the same Bios version and the same CT1600 and DOOM.
This can be next to impossible due to the low probability of attaining these hardwares now.

If we look at the other perspective, there is no problem with the CT1600 since other games play fine. And definitely nothing wrong with the DOOM Software.

The only thing remaining is the motherboard and/or bios.

As for seeing the hardware resources, you can use the MSD (MicroSoft Diagnostics) which comes with your DOS6.
Just enter "msd" in the command prompt.

If anyone having good knowledge about these matters may be able to enlighten upon this problem.

But if the problem is as stated by the id tech., it may be a dead end.

You're right Malik, obtaining this mobo & BIOS combo would be very difficult these days. However, I'm fairly confident it's a BIOS problem, although I must say it's a surprising problem!

Thanks a lot for the "msd" tip! 😀

Have you tested the card on the UM8810 mobo you bought from me? it has the latest BIOS dated from 1996 😀

Amigaz wrote:

Have you tested the card on the UM8810 mobo you bought from me? it has the latest BIOS dated from 1996 😀

um, er, oops!! 😦 😊 I will test it right away!! (I've still got 14 parcels unopened from ebay, some bought over 6 months ago.) Looks like I've saved the best till last! 😉

hehe.... 😀

It works!!! 😁 The BIOS on this mobo, ver 4.04 ('96), seems vastly superior to ver 4.03 ('94) on the first board. There's so many more options to choose from. And when I press the DEL key, on power-up, I get taken to the "setup area" within a second or two, unlike on the first board, where I have to wait about 15-20 seconds.

Back to the DOOM (demo) problem...basically, it all works fine now. I get both tunes and sound effects.

Cheers Amigaz! 😎

PS - how can I upgrade the crappy BIOS on the first board, to this way-cooler version on the second board?

Edit: It's worth noting that the first board was only rev 1.0, and the second board is rev 2.1 This may explain why BIOS rev 4.04 seems so much better than BIOS rev 4.03.

retro games 100 wrote:

It works!!! :happyhappy: The BIOS on this mobo, ver 4.04 ('96), seems vastly superior to ver 4.03 ('94) on the first board. T […]
Show full quote

It works!!! 😁 The BIOS on this mobo, ver 4.04 ('96), seems vastly superior to ver 4.03 ('94) on the first board. There's so many more options to choose from. And when I press the DEL key, on power-up, I get taken to the "setup area" within a second or two, unlike on the first board, where I have to wait about 15-20 seconds.

Back to the DOOM (demo) problem...basically, it all works fine now. I get both tunes and sound effects.

Cheers Amigaz! 😎

PS - how can I upgrade the crappy BIOS on the first board, to this way-cooler version on the second board?

Check if the BIOS is a flash rom then you can upgrade it yourself but I don't recommend it...I did that on the mobo you're using now but it failed but www.biosflash.de saved my ass...I sent the chip to him and the BIOS update 😀