Audio drivers

bigbob

Think this might not be the appropriate forum for this question, but hey, whats the worst that could happen right?
Trying to run some dos based games on a 400mHz machine, got no sound. Need sound!
No windows etc, just dos.
Can anyone tell me
a) How to identify which drivers I will need
&
b) How to install them



Thankyou if you help.

Rsadeika

My suggestion is to try www.simtel.net, that site has a lot of dos stuff. The site has a search function, so you may want to search for 'dos sound drivers'. Usually the software will have some short, but explicit instructions. If all this fails then try google for what you think you need.

bigbob

Rsadeika

Like your advertising method.

bigbob

Would've preffered som help though.

Rsadeika

You are welcome bigbob,

First off youre question lacks a lot of information, like the equipment that you are using. DOS is not Windows, DOS does not have a built in diagnostics program. The specific info that is lacking: is the audio built in or is it on a plug in card? Is the computer a desktop or a laptop? And anything else that is pertinent.

If you have a brand name computer, find out the model number, go to there site, and hope that they have the DOS drivers available. With the info that you privided, that is all that I can suggest.

I am not affiliated with Simtel, I thought I was doing·YOU a favor by pointing·YOU in a direction where·YOU could get some more information.

Paul Baker

Rsadeika is correct, you haven't provide enough information to track down a specific driver. Each audio card has thier own set of drivers, you need to look at the chipset for the audio whether it's integrated or on a seperete card and track down the legacy drivers for it. If your machine is old enough to have ISA slots on them, and you have an ISA audio card, you could probably install a Sound Blaster compatible driver and get it to work at least somewhat, since they were the standard spec back then, but that is no longer true. PCI cards typically need a very particular driver for thier proper operation. And if the audio card was manufaturered after the release of Windows 98, you may not be able to find a DOS version of the driver.

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Forrest

There IS a crude diagnostic program built into DOS called MSD.exe

But I don't think it provides enough info to determine what audio drivers you need to install. You'll need to crack open case and identify the card be reading the manufacturer and part number printed on the card.

bigbob

OK.... Sorry guys. That simtel remark, i went to the site (looked pure advertising to me) searched for dos sound drivers and got nothing back except buy this buy that....... guess i'm just a bit of a sceptic.

Anyway, I opened up the machine, which an 'IBM' Aptiva machine no. 2165 model no.11a (desktop with built in audio) and found a chip marked ESS Solo1 ES1938S. From what i've read, this would appear to be what i'm looking for.

I found a 'DOS setup utility for ISA AudioDrive™ and ES1938/ES1946'
at http://www.esstech.com/techsupp/drivers.shtm#isa

....BUT.......

When i run essvol i get the message cannot find the audiodrive.
And when i run the esscfg, i get the message
ESSCFG Version V5.1
Unable to find AudioDrive ES1868-based chip!

Do you think you may be able to help with that??

Cause I'm stumped! - Stupid?

Robert Kubichek

bigbob said...
OK.... Sorry guys. That simtel remark, i went to the site (looked pure advertising to me) searched for dos sound drivers and got nothing back except buy this buy that....... guess i'm just a bit of a sceptic.

Anyway, I opened up the machine, which an 'IBM' Aptiva machine no. 2165 model no.11a (desktop with built in audio) and found a chip marked ESS Solo1 ES1938S. From what i've read, this would appear to be what i'm looking for.

I found a 'DOS setup utility for ISA AudioDrive™ and ES1938/ES1946'
at http://www.esstech.com/techsupp/drivers.shtm#isa

....BUT.......

When i run essvol i get the message cannot find the audiodrive.
And when i run the esscfg, i get the message
ESSCFG Version V5.1
Unable to find AudioDrive ES1868-based chip!

Do you think you may be able to help with that??


Cause I'm stumped! - Stupid?

Look at the "ESCFG.INI" file, it will read ;

[noparse][[/noparse]es1869]
es938=yes

[noparse][[/noparse]es1879]
es938=yes

Try adding this to it;

[noparse][[/noparse]es1868]
es938=yes

So it looks like;

[noparse][[/noparse]es1868]
es938=yes

[noparse][[/noparse]es1869]
es938=yes

[noparse][[/noparse]es1879]
es938=yes

Also you have to follow the docs and run the Esscfg to set the command line parameters....

The ESSCFG docs said...

ESSCFG.EXE is a DOS utility to set audio resource available for DOS games and graphical user interface (GUI) like Windows 3.1x.

When ESS Windows 3.1 driver is installed by its Setup.exe in Windows 3.1x, it will prompt user for selection of

- I/O address
- Interrupt
- DMA Channel
- MPU-401 I/O Address
- Wave2 DMA Channel
- Joystick (enable/disable)

After selection OK, setup program ask for system reboot, and it will create two lines in AUTOEXEC.BAT, recording the resource selection, for next time boot-up, as following example:

ESSCFG /A:220 /I:5 /D:1 /E:0 /B:330
ESSVOL /V:8 /L:8 /W:8 /M:8 /C:8 /S:8 /A:8

ESSCFG.EXE is to provide the Sound Blaster compatible interface every time computer boots up, and ESSVOL is to set ESS mixer volume levels. Normally this process is automatic done by ESS Windows 3.1x driver setup program, and user does not have to change the settings. The line command parameters are explained below:

ESSCFG
/A: defines Sound Blaster compatible audio port address
/I: defines Sound Blaster compatible interrupt channel
/D: defines Sound Blaster compatible DMA channel 0
/E: defines Sound Blaster compatible DMA channel 1
/B: defines Sound Blaster compatible MPU-401 port address
/J[noparse]:D[/noparse] defines Joystick is disable. If Joystick has been Enabled, this parameter is not shown

ESSVOL
/V: defines Master volume level
/L: defines Line-in volume level
/W: defines Wave volume level
/M: defines MIDI volume level
/C: defines CD volume level
/S: defines Synthesizer volume level
/A: defines AUX volume level
Top level is 15 so 8 is medium level.

You might have to change the settings to find open resources for the "audio port/irq/dma/mpu-401" on your system...

It should work...

Bob N9LVU

Rsadeika

bigbob,

Having fun yet. I am glad to see that you had the persistence to find the drivers, that was the easy part.

If the drivers came in a .zip file, you may have to check the file carefully to make sure you have not overlooked any docs. In the brief discription of your first install, it sounds to me like the .exe prog is trying to do all the work for you. That could be good or bad, good if it worked the first time, bad if you got some error.

The way I would proceed is: with the edit prog open up and print out the autoexec.bat and the config.sys files. This will be your baseline, if you have not realized it yet, you will probably have to make entries/deletions to those files.

From what the error code showed, I am thinking that you have run out of Irq's or something else is using that Irq (every device needs an Irq assingnment) that sound cards usually use. If that is the case then here is where the headache starts. At this point you may want to reconsider pursuing this project. Now you need to do an equipment survey, what do you have on your machine, in terms of modem, joystick, comm ports, ..., etc.

I will stop here, at this point you may have decided that the time involved is not worth it, like I said this is just the beggining. If you decide to continue, let us know the other information. Also while you have the autoexec.bat and config.sys files open, see if the install added anything to the files. So now you are thinking, how am I supposed to know that? First lesson in DOS, before running any new installs make sure you have copy of those two files, so you will know what was added.