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killerkebab
10-09-2008, 13:52
I'm having a bit of trouble configuring my sound card in my other computer to work with most DOS games. It is an ESS Audiodrive 1869 which should have sound blaster emulation.

I opened autoexec.bat in notepad and added the line:
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4
To emulate Sound Blaster Pro, on port 220, IRQ5 and DMA1 (I think it is supposed to emulate SBPro, I've tried other numbers next to 'T' to no avail)

Note I am using Win98 on that computer, and whilst some DOS games do work fine, most are soundless (any win98 games work with sound by default). It really is dependant on the game. Any ideas for anything else I should do? If not, any ideas for a place to buy an old Sound Blaster card that is guaranteed to work with DOS? ;)
CaptRugWash
10-09-2008, 14:02
I'm having a bit of trouble configuring my sound card in my other computer to work with most DOS games. It is an ESS Audiodrive 1869 which should have sound blaster emulation.

I opened autoexec.bat in notepad and added the line:
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4
To emulate Sound Blaster Pro, on port 220, IRQ5 and DMA1 (I think it is supposed to emulate SBPro, I've tried other numbers next to 'T' to no avail)

Note I am using Win98 on that computer, and whilst some DOS games do work fine, most are soundless (any win98 games work with sound by default). It really is dependant on the game. Any ideas for anything else I should do? If not, any ideas for a place to buy an old Sound Blaster card that is guaranteed to work with DOS? ;)

What is it, some old ISA card? Have you not just tried Googling for drivers?

All that SET does is set a global variable...
Feek
10-09-2008, 14:08
That's true, but DOS did use that variable to know where it should be looking for the sound blaster card and games will read it to know the same. If your card isn't using that port, dma and irq then the game won't work. I don't know what the T switch is for.
CaptRugWash
10-09-2008, 14:34
Googling around

A= card's hex address
I= card's IRQ# (interrupt)
D= DMA channel
T= Type of Soundblaster (or emulation)
(I can't recall H - possibly High DMA setting?)

http://www.esstech.com/techsupp/drivers.shtm <<~~~ Official drivers for said card.

Is your sound card onboard, or a ISA one? Does it mention anything about it's IRQ within the BIOS?
Garp
10-09-2008, 14:48
I would strongly recommend dosbox if you're wanting to play DOS games and stuff:
http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1
there are a few versions of it with a GUI as well. It'll handle the interaction between DOS sound cards and your windows one.
killerkebab
10-09-2008, 15:09
Is your sound card onboard, or a ISA one? Does it mention anything about it's IRQ within the BIOS?Those drivers look like the deal I'm looking for (especially the DOS Setup utility) but I can't download them :(

I think the sound card is an onboard one. I found the IRQ/DMA and Port by going into device manager and seeing what the default settings are, and I just wrote those into autoexec.bat using the set BLASTER variable. The T switch is to tell it what kind of SB it is. T1 is the basic 100% compatible, up to T4 for SBPro. Since I read somewhere that AudioDrive emulates SB Pro I went for T4 (but I've tried T1)
I would strongly recommend dosbox if you're wanting to play DOS games and stuff:
http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1
there are a few versions of it with a GUI as well. It'll handle the interaction between DOS sound cards and your windows one.I use DosBOX on my main machine but I'd like to get the games working on a real DOS environment on this other computer. DosBOX isn't great with framerates on fullscreen, either :/
CaptRugWash
10-09-2008, 15:26
Google the filename then man!

Google this >>> 1869_v1317.zip

Found plenty of sources ;)
killerkebab
10-09-2008, 15:28
Cancel that, I had a genius idea of using an FTP program which actually works ;)
Will try the drivers and get back to you.
killerkebab
10-09-2008, 16:41
Disaster! Installed new drivers and whilst the devices appear in device manager, sound manager says 'no playback devices found'. Now even Win98 has no sound :(
killerkebab
10-09-2008, 19:00
Sod this, I give up - anyone know where the best place to get an old style Sound Blaster board would be?
Feek
10-09-2008, 21:39
eBay? (http://tinyurl.com/5b6f7l)
killerkebab
11-09-2008, 04:43
I can't find what I need, I don't think. I opened the computer up - the ESS is definitely an onboard job, and I don't have ISA slots. I have 2 PCI slots however, so I'm thinking of finding a PCI sound blaster card. Would something like one of the old SBLive5.1 cards work like the SB cards in the DOS days? ;)

I'm thinking a card like this one (trying to avoid eBay if possible, I don't have a credit card, nor a paypal account)?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Sound-Blaster-Live-Player/dp/B0001228R0/ref=sr_1_43?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1221104670&sr=8-43
Blighter
11-09-2008, 04:47
Good Morning
Toryglen-boy
11-09-2008, 09:52
you might have a hard time going with this anyway, although you can set the DOS stuff for the sound card, this was wall before the day of the PNP BIOS, and will cause you no end of grief

:confused:
CaptRugWash
11-09-2008, 10:47
Are you able to disable the on-board sound card in the BIOS?

If not, don't bother buying a PCI one unless you want to mess about with IRQ addresses, etc.
killerkebab
11-09-2008, 13:33
Are you able to disable the on-board sound card in the BIOS?

If not, don't bother buying a PCI one unless you want to mess about with IRQ addresses, etc.That's fine, I think I can disable in BIOS, and even if I can't I know how to change IRQs for the cards (one of the few things I can do with no problem ;)). I also disabled the printer port to free up IRQ7 so the PCI card can use that one, in the worst case scenario. I'll get an SBLive 5.1 ordered, I found on the internet there are DOS initialisation drivers for it.