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soundblaster awe 32

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First post, by scroeffie

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iam building a 286 almost finished last thing to install is a soundcard
its a ct3900 awe32 i got the drivers from phils website not shure if they are correct but the install stops half way
i did run diagnose and i can hear the sound and voice testing 8bit and 16 bit
after that iam not shure what to do ,a friend told me the card wont work on a 286 because of timing ?? and the drivers wil freeze the pc when you reboot
any help please thanks i also dont understand the difrence between pnp and non pnp ? both cards need drivers ??

Reply 1 of 42, by Disruptor

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No, that's wrong. As long as you can run the initialisazion tools plus AWEUTIlL.EXE you should be able to hear sound.
You need AWEUTIL because the OPL3 / FM synthesis may be routed through the AWE chip.
Just try it and write about your results.

Perhaps you have problems with the Plug and Play configuration utility CTCM on a 286.
What's with Intel ICU? What's with unisound?

Reply 2 of 42, by Gmlb256

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Disruptor wrote on 2022-05-15, 13:29:

Perhaps you have problems with the Plug and Play configuration utility CTCM on a 286.
What's with Intel ICU? What's with unisound?

That AWE32 revision isn't PnP, but UNISOUND can be used to initialize it instead of DIAGNOSE. and AWEUTIL

Reply 3 of 42, by scroeffie

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i have no idea what you guys are talking about 😀 so i need other drivers for this card to work ?

Reply 4 of 42, by Gmlb256

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No. Normally you would need to initialize the AWE32 CT3900 like this in AUTOEXEC.BAT:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6
SET SOUND=C:\SB16
C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S
C:\SB16\AWEUTIL /S /R:0 /C:0
C:\SB16\MIXERSET /P /Q

Assuming that all the software are located at C:\SB16.

Reply 5 of 42, by scroeffie

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so the drivers are correct but the install was never finished .so i just need to add these lines to my auto file

Reply 6 of 42, by Gmlb256

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Yes, the installation should add these lines in AUTOEXEC.BAT if it was finished correctly (including some in CONFIG.SYS but those are irrelevant in many cases).

Reply 7 of 42, by scroeffie

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the driver wont finish the install i think its the wrong driver ,but i tested the card in diagnose and i have sound ,config and auto files are empty just bluescreen not shure why

maybe i need to delete eveything and start over

Reply 8 of 42, by scroeffie

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i friend says its not possible to install this card directly because of the drivers on a 286 ,he says i need to install it first on a 386-486 than put it back in the 286

Reply 9 of 42, by Gmlb256

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I think that you are better off with UNISOUND to initialize that sound card on a 286 computer.

If you decided to download it and transfer the COM executable that is inside the zip file into the root of the C drive on the 286 computer, add the following lines into AUTOEXEC.BAT:

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 E620 T6
UNISOUND /CS

It is much simpler and I added the /CS command line switch because your AWE32 isn't a PnP card.

Reply 12 of 42, by scroeffie

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iam going to try the unidrivers
if that wont work than iam giving up

Reply 13 of 42, by scroeffie

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nothing is happening i deleted dos and resintalled dos than the com file buts its a com file its does nothing ?

Reply 14 of 42, by dormcat

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scroeffie wrote on 2022-05-15, 18:03:

nothing is happening i deleted dos and resintalled dos than the com file buts its a com file its does nothing ?

May I ask

  1. Have you ever used MS-DOS before? Do you know how AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS work?
  2. What is your native language?
  3. How old are you?

You've been active on VOGONS longer that I have. Four years would be more than enough to get a hold on some basic MS-DOS knowledge.

Reply 15 of 42, by Gmlb256

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scroeffie wrote on 2022-05-15, 18:03:

nothing is happening i deleted dos and resintalled dos than the com file buts its a com file its does nothing ?

Only remove both 1 and 2 from each line in AUTOEXEC.BAT. 🤦

dormcat wrote on 2022-05-15, 18:09:
May I ask […]
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scroeffie wrote on 2022-05-15, 18:03:

nothing is happening i deleted dos and resintalled dos than the com file buts its a com file its does nothing ?

May I ask

  1. Have you ever used MS-DOS before? Do you know how AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS work?
  2. What is your native language?
  3. How old are you?

weedeewee and I had some trouble explaining the details to him on a different thread.

Last edited by Gmlb256 on 2022-05-15, 18:39. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 16 of 42, by scroeffie

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yes i have been using ms dos sins i was a kid ,but i forget fast and iam autistic and have dislexia ,iam 40
native language is dutch ,iam not good at reading and when i read i need time to process what i read 😀 if that makes sense
wil try again to install it but not shure how to install a com file ? where is the exe file ?

Reply 17 of 42, by dormcat

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scroeffie wrote on 2022-05-15, 18:18:

yes i have been using ms dos sins i was a kid ,but i forget fast and iam autistic and have dislexia ,iam 40
native language is dutch ,iam not good at reading and when i read i need time to process what i read 😀 if that makes sense
wil try again to install it but not shure how to install a com file ? where is the exe file ?

Okay, I understand you have difficulties, but you have to know the basics of how MS-DOS and its key system files work. You "deleted dos and resintalled dos" but that wouldn't help.

And I wouldn't recommend installing AWE32 on a 286. System requirements provided by Creative Labs required 486 with 4MB RAM minimum; while it's possible to install the card on an older system, it would be similar to testing the minimal memory requirement of Windows:

The attachment tdnc.jpg is no longer available

Taken from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9VFikWw44g

Reply 18 of 42, by scroeffie

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stil no sound how do install the com file ? what am i doing wrong

Reply 19 of 42, by dormcat

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scroeffie wrote on 2022-05-15, 18:58:

stil no sound how do install the com file ? what am i doing wrong

You have to edit your existing AUTOEXEC.BAT file, not creating a new AUTOEXEC without .BAT extension.