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Dos games sound
OICW
Member #4,069
November 2003
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Ok I have Compaq Armada E500 with Win98 installed. This laptop has Maestro soundcard and it's drivers provide Soundblaster emulation. This is pretty good. The problem is when I try to setup sound in any game it fails. I tried it on Duke Nukem and it says "Invalid DMA channel" on every attempt even when I type incorrect IRQ, except when I type wrong adress. Note that music is working. Does anybody know how to make it working? Playing Doom and Duke without sound is pretty ugly.

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Kitty Cat
Member #2,815
October 2002
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Can you manually select the DMA channel(s)? SB16 cards have two DMA channels, a high and low. If you can select them, pick DMA1 for low, and DMA5 for high.

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flares
Member #3,463
April 2003
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i think some of those programs use enviroment variables to detect dma irq and stuff, go to a dosbox and type set and examine what comes up.

[nonnus29]Plus the api is crap ... I'd rather chew broken glass then code with those.

OICW
Member #4,069
November 2003
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Everything is seted by windows settings: adress 240, IRQ 5, DMA 8bit 1, 16bit 5 and it don't working. I know that DMA 5 is free.

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"You can discuss it, you can dislike it, you can disagree with it, but that's all what you can do with it"

Chris Katko
Member #1,881
January 2002
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I know this won't fix your hardware, but:

Check VDMSound. It emulates Soundblaster, Adlib, and such (and very well i might add). I'm never going to bother trying to get DOS sound working after switching to it. :) Not that it was hard... provided you still had your product manuals...

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OICW
Member #4,069
November 2003
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I'm looking to the manuals after when everything else fails ;)
Anyway thanks for help I hope that it will work. The unfair thing is that on other laptop it works. That laptop is using Maestro sound card as well and when I type incorrect IRQ it tells me about invalid IRQ, on my laptop it still says invalid DMA ???.

EDIT: :-[ it needs Win NT or higher.

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"Final Fantasy XIV, I feel that anything I could say will be repeating myself, so I'm just gonna express my feelings with a strangled noise from the back of my throat. Graaarghhhh..." - Yahtzee
"Uhm... this is a.cc. Did you honestly think this thread WOULDN'T be derailed and ruined?" - BAF
"You can discuss it, you can dislike it, you can disagree with it, but that's all what you can do with it"

Bruce Perry
Member #270
April 2000

I believe setting the Windows settings isn't enough. You have to set an environment variable so that DOS programs know the settings too. The format is:

set BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5

where A denotes the base port, I denotes the IRQ channel, D denotes the low (8-bit) DMA channel and H denotes the high (16-bit) DMA channel. There is also a T parameter that indicates the Sound Blaster type, but I don't know what numbers are what. If the above doesn't work, try Googling for more information.

Try the above command in a DOS prompt, and run a game in the same prompt. If that works, put the command in autoexec.bat and reboot :)

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OICW
Member #4,069
November 2003
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:'( what a shame, that doesn't work. I want to hear screaming of demons in Doom on Ultra Violence, I want to hear my precious chainsaw, I want to hear Dukes sarcastic messages... :'( :'( :'(

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"Final Fantasy XIV, I feel that anything I could say will be repeating myself, so I'm just gonna express my feelings with a strangled noise from the back of my throat. Graaarghhhh..." - Yahtzee
"Uhm... this is a.cc. Did you honestly think this thread WOULDN'T be derailed and ruined?" - BAF
"You can discuss it, you can dislike it, you can disagree with it, but that's all what you can do with it"

Steve Terry
Member #1,989
March 2002
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You can get a PCMCIA form factor sound card and use it instead, something with '98 support and SB compatible. :)

[url http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=29-121-107&depa=0]
There are others but they are out of stock :P Bit pricy though for this puppy too, others were much cheaper but on the bright side it supports '98 ;D

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jhuuskon
Member #302
April 2000
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The point is he needs a DOS compatible card, since he's using win98 i can't recommend VDMSound. ::)

You don't deserve my sig.

OICW
Member #4,069
November 2003
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Well if you mean this I have 24bit SB Audigy NX2 connecting via USB on PC but I don't think that it's DOS compattible. Now I cannot just understand why it's working on DELL Lattitude with Maestro Sond card and don't on my Compaq.

[My website][CppReference][Pixelate][Allegators worldwide][Who's online]
"Final Fantasy XIV, I feel that anything I could say will be repeating myself, so I'm just gonna express my feelings with a strangled noise from the back of my throat. Graaarghhhh..." - Yahtzee
"Uhm... this is a.cc. Did you honestly think this thread WOULDN'T be derailed and ruined?" - BAF
"You can discuss it, you can dislike it, you can disagree with it, but that's all what you can do with it"

jhuuskon
Member #302
April 2000
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Because the Dell's emulation is better.

You don't deserve my sig.

Chris Katko
Member #1,881
January 2002
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Quote:

Because the Dell's emulation is better.

Better in that it exists. :) Audigys don't support Sound Blaster emulation (at all). No point in supporting something so old when emulation exists.

-----sig:
“Programs should be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.” - Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
"Political Correctness is fascism disguised as manners" --George Carlin

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