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Is there a way to disable the initial pop/crackle in AWE64 Gold, when running older DOS games looking for 8-bit mode?

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First post, by Galahad

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I was wondering if there is any way to completely disable the initial pop/crackle when certain games are first started up in AWE64 Gold, when running older DOS games looking for 8-bit mode? For example, in the classic SSI Gold Box game and dungeon software creation tool "Unlimited Adventures", a.k.a. "Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures", the pop/crackle shows up in 2 places: (1) when the game is initially first started up (it then goes away, for a limited number of times of closing out and then relaunching the game); and (2) when AWE64 sfx are used for the first time in the game, for instance, on the first footstep sound effect of walking forward in the game. Further, when the game sfx are first launched in the game and then the game is exited out of and then re-opened, the pop/crackle happens again whenever the game launches again.

Although I am a novice when it comes to hardware and by no means an expert, I did some extensive online research, that may have possibly pointed to the pop/crackle occurring when the AWE64 switches between 8-bit mode and 16-bit mode? (I think that Unlimited Adventures may have originally been designed to use 8-bit mode.) The pop/crackle is rather hard on the ears, especially on speakers with the Treble and Bass controls turned up and/or that have built-in amplifiers...

Also, I don't quite understand why playing this particular game triggers the pop/crackle noise, since I have other games from around the same time period or even older, and some or all of which may possibly use 8-bit mode as well, like Conquests of Camelot and Conquests of the Longbow, as well as the Quest For Glory series -- none of which generated the pop/crackle, on the same AWE64 Gold? Is there any way to manually disable or override it from occurring in Unlimited Adventures?

ETA: this pop/crackle effect does not occur on the low-cost Aztech SoundBlaster clone card that originally shipped with my original classic gaming and MIDI rig, and I even considered removing the AWE64 Gold and putting the Aztech card back in to eliminate the pop/crackle, but if I actually did so, I would lose the up-to-28MB soundfont capability I have with my memory-upgraded AWE 64 Gold, and so I was hoping to be able to keep the AWE64 Gold installed, minus the crackling noise... 🙁

Last edited by Galahad on 2016-08-02, 18:53. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 7, by jesolo

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Try to disable the high DMA channel (usually channel 5) and only use the low DMA channel (usually channel 1).

Reply 2 of 7, by Galahad

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jesolo wrote:

Try to disable the high DMA channel (usually channel 5) and only use the low DMA channel (usually channel 1).

Many thanks for the helpful tip! 😀 Again sorry, not to ask a dumb question or anything, but do you have any suggestions on how I would be able to do that, since I am not an expert with hardware 😊 ? I did try running the AWE64 Gold DIAGNOSE tool to try to configure it so both use the low DMA channel, but after it prompted me to reboot, the DMA setting changes that I made appeared to have been erased and they went back to the original values?

Is there a way to disable DMA channel 5 from the Windows 9x Control Panel, or another alternate method that I could use, since the DIAGNOSE tool is not having the desired results?

Reply 4 of 7, by jesolo

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Galahad wrote:
jesolo wrote:

Try to disable the high DMA channel (usually channel 5) and only use the low DMA channel (usually channel 1).

Many thanks for the helpful tip! 😀 Again sorry, not to ask a dumb question or anything, but do you have any suggestions on how I would be able to do that, since I am not an expert with hardware 😊 ? I did try running the AWE64 Gold DIAGNOSE tool to try to configure it so both use the low DMA channel, but after it prompted me to reboot, the DMA setting changes that I made appeared to have been erased and they went back to the original values?

Is there a way to disable DMA channel 5 from the Windows 9x Control Panel, or another alternate method that I could use, since the DIAGNOSE tool is not having the desired results?

Just take note that the AWE64 is a Plug 'n Play card and, under real mode DOS, you require a Plug 'n Play configuration manager.
However, if you installed the card on a Windows 9x system, then it should load CTCM for you when you start into MS-DOS mode. If not, just ensure that you have the CTCM.EXE file specified as a Device in your Config.sys file (as DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\CTCM.EXE).
The actual settings of the card are updated, based on what your Windows settings are, and stored in a file called "ctpnp.cfg" under your C:\Windows folder. The file can be edited, if you wish, but I would stick to the default resource settings.
Diagnose, in this case, just performs a testing function of the resources specified in the "ctpnp.cfg" file and doesn't actually allow you to change them. Just specify in Diagnose to use the Low DMA channel instead of the High DMA channel when you go through the testing of the different resource settings.

To change the resource settings:

Under Windows 9x, Go to the Control Panel, double click on the System icon, select Device Manager at the top and expand the "Sound, Video & Game Controllers" device listing.
Double click on "Creative AWE64 16-bit Audio (SB16 compatible)".
Click on Resources at the top.
Untick "Automatic settings"
Choose one of the "Basic configurations" where do you not see DMA channel 5 being listed (on my PC, it is Basic Configuration 0005). All the other settings should be the same as under Basic Configuration 0000.
Click OK (Windows will give you a warning message) and OK again until you're back at the Control Panel.
Reboot your PC.

Last edited by jesolo on 2016-08-02, 22:12. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 5 of 7, by Stiletto

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Moved to Marvin.

"I see a little silhouette-o of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you
do the Fandango!" - Queen

Stiletto

Reply 6 of 7, by Galahad

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Thanks for the very excellent and detailed info jesolo, I deeply appreciate your kind help! 😀 Tried making the suggested changes in Win9x with disabling High DMA, but still hearing clicking/popping noises on first run...I will keep trying to research the issue to see what more I can find. One note of interest is when I tested the same game with a SoundBlaster Pro II, it exhibited the same exact popping/clicking behavior...does anyone know of any Creative SoundBlasters before or up to the AWE64 that do not exhibit the popping/clicking sound? Also does it matter whether the SoundBlaster is PNP or non-PNP? (My Aztech card mentioned above was PNP, but it also exhibited the hanging notes bug, which caused my PC to fatally crash and lock up when playing certain MIDI notes during the game, which was one of the major reasons I got the AWE64 -- with the AWE64, the crashes are non-existent, and/or very rare but manageable with SPMPU401.exe, but of course AWE64 can't seem to get away from the popping noises...

Reply 7 of 7, by Galahad

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collector wrote:

Ask in Marvin for help with old hardware. This is for DOS games on modern systems.

Sorry for accidentally posting in the wrong forum, and thank you for the helpful FYI about which place to post in.

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