that old chestnut! - getting sound working under dos

[esaelectrionics]

ive been messing about for ages with different soundcards,
i had sound working using my old board an Asus p4c800 with p4 but now im
using a athlon based system.
Asrock k7s8xe+  (sis chipset).

i was using a soundblaster live , but i dont think ive got any chance of getting that to work.

Im now trying to get a sb16 pci to work (CT4740), the problem is that there are various versions of this card, my chipset is [creative LS1273], which to my mind means its an ensoniq driver that may work best, also i have heard that it may work better if you dont use cwsdpmi and use a replacement program instead.

Its seems to be one of the hardest things to do, to get a soundcard working under dos especially if pci based.

what cards are best for pci-dos for mame.

       

[esaelectrionics]

ive tried the ensoniq drivers without any luck, ive tired the creative dos drivers but still no luck yet, i rekon i might have to get a new mother board.I dont want to use Xp for my system because dos runs old games better.Now im going to try and use hdpmi instead of the normal version.

[NOP]

a new motherboard probably won't help (and may hinder) getting sound to work under DOS.  In the eyes of every hardware manufacturer, DOS is dead, and they couldn't be happier about it because it means a lot less compatibility testing for them to do.

I'm not in front of my machine at the moment, but when I get there, I'll post the model and part number of the PCI card that I'd been using for ages in DOS, and I can certainly wrap up my drivers and autoexec and config for you as well.

If you can find one of these cards (they seemed common at the time, and I may very well have more than one) you should be set.  It was a tad noisy, but that may have been my choice of amplifier and how I had it wired into the system.

I used arcadeos as my front end, and it was a very stable machine. 

I've recently switched to tiny XP and Mala because I picked up a pair of U360s and needed the USB support.

-jeff!

[NOP]

OK, the soundcard that I used was:

Ensoniq  A349820 AudioPCI 9932
It has a creative sound chip on it which says (wow, I'm getting old-I can barely read it)

ES1373
1373-0002-001

The card is (c) 1998

It's a total bare bones card-just the creative chip, crystal, a codec, an eeprom (I believe) and 3 connectors for external audio.

If anyone finds another card like this, let me know if you want the driver bundle that I'm using.

I'll also poke around a bit and see if I can locate another one-I swear that I've seen another in my collection, and I'd happily part with it.

Good luck,

-jeff!

[SGT]

ive tried the ensoniq drivers without any luck, ive tired the creative dos drivers but still no luck yet, i rekon i might have to get a new mother board.I dont want to use Xp for my system because dos runs old games better.Now im going to try and use hdpmi instead of the normal version.

Have you tried the dos drivers found here:
http://easymamecab.mameworld.net/html/snddosdr.htm

Here's a good thread of a guy with the CT4740 like you that finally got it going in dos (See 2nd page of thread):
http://www.duxcw.com/yabbse/index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=6925;start=0

[esaelectrionics]

i've tried both, i think the main problem comes down to my asrock motherboard chipset.
The sis 748 chipset i have doesent  work well with creative pci soundcards,
but ive just scored a yamaha 724f based soundcard off ebay, its has soundblaster pro
support with real opL3 chip built in.These cars are meant to work under dos with the
right drivers.

drivers for yamaha 734 based for SIS motherboards are here if anyone else has one :-
http://vsynchmame.mameworld.net/ymf724_dos.zip

[esaelectrionics]

update ;
The pci yamaha i was using never worked properly, so ive had to change my system,
the soundcards i tried:-

pci turtle beach montego a3d - crackly sound, had to use hxdmpi but mame crashed alot.
pci soundblaster live - no sound, only worked with my other motherboard.
pci soundblaster audigy - no sound.
pci soundblaster 16 ct4740 - no sound.
pci yamaha - wouldnt work properly, my card packed up i think.

Got a Soltek 75kav motherboard with 1 ISA slot and no more sound problems.
Im running athlon 1800xp with the board and it runs great, got for £7.00 off ebay.

Im using a ct1350b soundblaster 2.0, it sounds good through a mono cab, but im getting a sb16 soon, feel like a bit of a uber geek messing with all these old bits.





 

[esaelectrionics]

yeah , ive tried every different driver going for em,
but i think its a problem with SIS based asrock motherboard.

Some boards just dont like pci soundcards in dos, sblive worked first time
with an Asus p4 board, i just installed spystyle's bootdisk and it was cool,
but i dont want to put a £40 motherboard in a cab and it would probably get too hot inside with the 3.0gig processor i got.
ive had a merry dance to get a working system through.