I've been spending the last couple of weeks installing MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 onto an early-2000s desktop computer I had around. For the most part I have it in good working order, but the infamous Privateer static-ey sound issue has been dogging me without any apparent resolution. I have tried the game with and without any music (the music does work fine when selected with Sound Blaster PRO/16). I've tried with and without XMSDSK. I tried QEMM which gave me a lot more upper memory but which also prevented a lot of games from working properly/at all.

CPU: Pentium 4
RAM: 2.49 GB

Sound card: Montego II Turtle Beach PCI card with Aureal Vortex 2 AU8830 audio

AUTOEXEC.BAT

1@ECHO OFF
2PROMPT $p$g
3PATH C:\WINDOWS;C:\QEMM;C:\DOS
4SET TEMP=C:\DOS
5
6C:\XMSDSK\XMSDSK.EXE R: 16000 /y /t
7
8SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4
9
10C:\WINDOWS\AU30DOS.COM
11
12REM     Mouse drivers
13LOADHIGH C:\DOS\CTMOUSE.EXE

CONFIG.SYS

1DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
2DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE D=64 RAM 16000 /I=B000-B7FF
3BUFFERS=40,0
4FILES=100
5
6DOS=HIGH,UMB
7LASTDRIVE=Z
8FCBS=4,0
9
10BREAK=ON
11
12STACKS=9,256
13SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS /P

MEM.EXE reports roughly 66 MB of memory, when of course my computer has quite a bit more than that. It also reports only 55 kB of upper memory which seems small, and would explain why none of the device drivers actually load high (I've never gotten AU30DOS.COM, the audio driver, to load high in all the times I've tried.) In any event, when loading in only the devices listed above Privateer runs fine, scratchy sound aside.