DOS Sound Problem

[danman]

Hello all,
     I'm not sure if this is the best place to post this but... I'm a bit of a MAME noob and was trying to get a PC working using Fraggal's Boot OS v2.5.0.

     I've got almost everything working... ROMs loaded, menu up and running but I cannot get sound to function.

     I've tried a couple different varieties of Sound Blaster cards that I have, the one I believe that is the closest to functioning is a 128-bit PCI SB (Model# CT5808)

    I've disabled the onboard sound in the BIOS, tried hardsetting the IRQ in the BIOS on the PCI slot the SB card is in but no go. I'm at the point where I can boot to DOS and not have any errors. I can run a sbcfg and receive accurate information back about the card with no errors. When I launch the arcadeos I receive a message "Unable to initialise sound device". I tried just launching the ROMs individually via "advmame <ROM>", this launches without error, but no sound. 

     Has anyone else seen this issue? I've been tinkering with it for about a week now to no avail. 

[headkaze]

Do you have the BLASTER variable set correctly in your autoexec.bat?

[danman]

I believe so, it is currently;
Set Blaster=A220 I9 D1 H7 P330 T6

I say I believe it is correct because when I do a SBCFG I get the following output;
PCI Hardware:
     Port=C000, IRQ=11
Sound Blaster 16 Emulation:
     Port=220, IRQ=9, DMA=1, DMA16=5
MPU-401 (General MIDI, Roland MT-32/LAPE-1) Emulation:
     Port=330, IRQ=9
Adlib Emulation:
     Port=388

Thanks for the reply.

[tikbalang]

Sound Blaster 16 Emulation:
     Port=220, IRQ=9, DMA=1, DMA16=5

you need to set IRQ=5 for sb16 emulation. sometimes IRQ=7 works. your blaster line will change to:

BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6 (if using IRQ=5, and because H uses the value of DMA16)

[tikbalang]

what soundchip does the onboard audio use?
does your current SBPCI setup work with any DOS app/game?

also, fraggal's last version was v4.02F, mirrored here:

http://www.filefront.com/user/tikbalang/

[danman]

I don't know what the onboard soundchip is, I don't remember much about the motherboard itself other than it is an AMD I purchased about 8 years ago. The BIOS is a Phoenix which I believe is pretty generic and doesn't lend itself to motherboard identification from what I can tell.

I don't believe sound works with other apps, I tried using the DOS MP3 player tool DAMP, but got the following  error when I treid to play an mp3;
unable to install allegro sound driver
insufficient digital voices available.

I loaded the 4.02 version but still had the same problem.

I also adjusted the autoexec.bat to be A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6 as you suggested. After adjusting this I changed the SBPCI.INI to match with IRQ 5. an output of SBCFG now shows;
PCI Hardware:
     Port=C000, IRQ=11
Sound Blaster 16 Emulation:
     Port=220, IRQ=5, DMA=1, DMA16=5
MPU-401 (General MIDI, Roland MT-32/LAPE-1) Emulation:
     Port=330, IRQ=5
Adlib Emulation:
     Port=388

The ArcadeOS will not start with the Sound Blaster enabled (SoundCard=1 in the arcadeos.cfg file) After  attempting to start it adjusts "SoundCard=0" in the arcadeos.cfg file. Then it will start, without sound of course.

Thanks for the tips.

[tikbalang]

i had issues before with ArcadeOS hanging if my DOS memory management was too aggressive. i had to go back using himem.sys and emm386.exe.

my usual tips include:

1. turn off "PNP OS" in the bios
2. try other PCI slots before fiddling with the driver settings (to find the right IRQ).
3. try the drivers/troubleshooting tips from these websites:

http://easymamecab.mameworld.info/html/snddosdr.htm
http://easymamecab.mameworld.info/html/sndhelp.htm

http://dosmame.mameworld.info/

post your config.sys and autoexec.bat.

[zorrobandito]

I've seen this issue and it was one of the reasons I stopped using ArcadeOS. I could not get sound to work in DOS without using the 'genuine' article - that is, an ISA Soundblaster card. Of course, you need an ISA slot for this and as the system specs went up the availability of ISA slots went down.

Later Soundblaster cards *emulate* an original Soundblaster card, including those IRQ ports you are setting in the autoexec.bat. I believe it's because PCI cards don't actually use IRQ settings per se, since they have dedicated system access via PCI, unlike the old ISA cards which had to use the interrupt settings to play sound.

I tried so many different soundcards (about 20 in all) from many different manufacturers and some I got working in DOS but I could never get any PCI soundcards to work with AOS. In the end I gave up and moved to MAMEWah, which is heavily based on AOS but uses Windows as its underlying OS.

I'm not saying it's impossible but I spent about a year trying to get it working without success...

[danman]

     I just ordered a larger hard drive for the unit and I'll load a Windows OS on it. If you worked on it for a year and can't get it I don't wanna waste anymore time with it. I have attempted every PCI slot on that motherboard with various IRQ configurations and the solution eludes me still.

     I do appreciate the assistance.

     What Windows OS would you guys recommend, this will only be used for MAME and nothing else... Was thinking about using HyperSpin for the FE.

     If you guys still want the autoexec.bat and the config.sys I can post em but they are going to be very similar to the standard ones out of the Boot CD.

[zorrobandito]

I'd go for Windows XP and, if it's a dedicated machine, use MAMEWah - it's a very good environment.

I haven't tried Hyperspin but, from what I've read, the memory footprint is significantly larger. So if you have a 2Ghz+ machine, go for it.   

[esaelectrionics]

its tricky,
i got some old boards from ebay to do this,
soundblaster pci boards depend on
the mother board supporting a special standard (forgot the name of it).

i tried a Asus p4c800 deluxe and sblive pci worked under dos,
its hit or miss if your motherboard will support them, alot don't
and your banging your head against a wall buying new soundcards,
when its the mother board thats not supporting the standard.

but i prefer to use older boards with ISA soundcard,
they work much easier.

I allways use advancemame under dos, can never seem to get things running
as smooth under windows, close but just not quite as good.

my system uses an amd 1900xp processor , ISA soundblaster 16, and a trident 3d blade graphics card/arcade VGA v1.

btw. its far easier to get a windows system to work,
i love advmame under dos and have got to know it quite well over time,
but i was using this stuff back in the day, you have to be prepared to tweak!