Theme Park issues .......

Post by **dosraider** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 6:49 am

organisation64 wrote:My hardware settings for the soundcard are: A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6

When I setup Theme Park I choose:
'Sound FX: Soundblaster 16'
'Music: Soundblaster 16'
'IRQ: 5'
'DMA: 1'

The setup screen then says:
'Sound to port: 220'
'Music to port: None'

Hmmm ... still talking about that Pentium 120Mhz, yes?
First thing: check in the BIOS settings if there isn't an onboard soundchip, if yes be sure it's completey disabled.
Next to check in the bios is if there are no timer settings active on the ISA slot ..... some mobos have weird settings, ya never know you have such one.

When you installed the drivers for your soundcard wasn't there a 'diagnose' file ?

Post by **dosraider** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:36 am

YAY .... double post!
Had some more time now and tested my Theme park copy on my ol'P120MMX with MsDos 6.22, damn, that was a long time ago I fired up that ol'sucker ......

Those are the settings that work fine for me:

The settings are saved in a SNDSETUP.INF file in the games folder.
My file looks as this: (open it with 'edit')

SOUNDFX = SB16 220 5 1
MUSIC = GENERAL 330 0 0

Works fine on an original SB16 ISA.

organisation64 · Post by **organisation64** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 1:49 pm

I've tried absolutely everything. I've been working on it since 2pm, its now 6:30pm, plus I was working on it all yesterday evening. I think Ill give up soon.

I've tried the settings you used on yours, I had the same result: Music but no sound effects. I've trawled through the BIOS and there's no on board soundchip. The ISA clockrate is at the failsafe speeds.

Ive reinstalled the drivers (which are the correct drivers by the way), I've ran the DIAGNOSE.EXE where it's all successful and it updates my autoexec.bat and config.sys files for me.

But still, in Theme Park, I can't get sound effects, only music. Whats going on!?

Adam26 · Post by **Adam26** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 1:59 pm

Is your sound card pnp?

Have you tried the other soundblaster options?

organisation64 · Post by **organisation64** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 2:38 pm

Anonymous wrote:Is your sound card pnp?

Have you tried the other soundblaster options?

Yep, I've tried all the options it gives. The sound card is PnP, yes.

Adam26 · Post by **Adam26** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 2:42 pm

Do you have something called CTCM in your autoexec.bat?

Post by **dosraider** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 2:46 pm

organisation64 wrote:Yep, I've tried all the options it gives. The sound card is PnP, yes.

Holaba ....
In your sys specs in the hardware topic you posted:

organisation64 wrote: - Soundblaster 16 (ISA slot)

ISA....?
ISA and PNP are not the same friend, I even doubt that there exists PNP ISA soundcards in plain dos, after all, PNP was post dos .... no PNP in dos.

Next questions:
Do you have jumpers for the IRQ settings on the card?
If yes, to what IRQ is the card set?
How about other dosgames, do the sound works correctly in them?

[Edit]
And by 'other' dosgames I mean some of the later ones, as for example Duke3D, this one doesn't need sounddrivers to be loaded and comes with a nice soundsetup, stereo soundcard test and all included.
Always a good test for your hardware.

organisation64 · Post by **organisation64** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:36 pm

In response to Adam26, yes I do have CTCM in autoexec.bat.

In response to dosraider, I have a Creative Labs CT2960, I know this because the model number is printed on the card itself. According to several sources, including Creative's support site, the CT2960 is a 'SB16 Value PnP OEM'. And it's an ISA board.

There are some jumpers on the board, but as I don't have the manual for the board, I don't know what jumpers do what.

Post by **dosraider** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:45 pm

organisation64 wrote:In response to dosraider, I have a Creative Labs CT2960, I know this because the model number is printed on the card itself. According to several sources, including Creative's support site, the CT2960 is a 'SB16 Value PnP OEM'. And it's an ISA board.

Not in plain dos friend, PNP does not exist in plain dos.

Try Duke3D and see what that gives.

organisation64 · Post by **organisation64** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:48 pm

I will try Duke3D in a moment.

I found this piece of software on Creatives Tech Support site:

'Creative PnP Configuration Manager (Rev4)'
'This is the Creative Configuration Manager for use with DOS 6.x and Windows 3.1x systems. This file is only applicable to those users who own PnP ISA (Plug and Play) versions of Creative hardware.'

I assumed when I read this that somehow it added PnP compatibilty?

Adam26 · Post by **Adam26** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:50 pm

How much free conventional and extended memory do you have?

Post by **dosraider** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:53 pm

organisation64 wrote:I assumed when I read this that somehow it added PnP compatibilty?

Nope, you read that it is meant to set up the card correctly.
Once again: Plug and Play does not exist in plain dos.
Plug and Play means :
You plug your card in, boot your PC and the OS recognises the hardware and will configure the drivers and settings for you.

That does not exist in plain dos.

organisation64 · Post by **organisation64** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:56 pm

So, PnP doesn't exist in DOS, but I got the SB16 drivers and installed. The autoexec.bat and config.sys files are all set up with the soundcard settings.

How come it still doesnt work?

Post by **dosraider** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 4:05 pm

First thing to know:
Do your soundcard works?
That's why I told you to try Duke3D, I already told you why.

If you can't get sound working correctly in Duke post your config.sys and autoexec.bat.

BTW, duke only needs the set blaster line , no drivers needed, that's why I always use that sucker as soundcard test.

organisation64 · Post by **organisation64** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 4:17 pm

Unfortunately my copy of Duke3D doesn't appear to want to install, how about Warcraft? Or Warcraft 2?

organisation64 · Post by **organisation64** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 4:27 pm

Just thought it was worth mentioning I just installed Warcraft (the original built for DOS), I selected SoundBlaster 16 for both the 'Digitized sound card' and 'Music sound card' with the usual IRQ, DMA and port 220 values, and both music and sound are working perfectly in the game.

Post by **dosraider** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 4:29 pm

Then maybe it's your copy of Theme Park that's corrupted somehow?

BTW, you can get the shareware version of D3D on dosgames.com, the soundsetup isn't as neat as on the full version but it will still be a nice soundcard test for your PC.

Post by **dosraider** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 5:50 am

Also: ( seems my memory comes back in pieces and bits .....)
Be sure that the PCI/ISA conf in the bios is set to 'no PNP OS' and the IRQ5 is attribued to the right slot.
Dig around a bit in the BIOS and check those settings, if they are applicable to your BIOS or not, that's for you to see.

Example, those are the BIOS settings for my ol'P120MMX:

Slot 1 is the ISA slot, IRQ 5 is attribued to it.

Now you see, that's now exactly why I love dosbox so much, no hardware headaches, no hardware incompatibilities, no PNP, no ISA, no PCI sorrows, simply fire dosbox up and you have it all .....
Man o man o manometer, I'm glad all those things belong to the past.

organisation64 · Post by **organisation64** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:40 am

I'll try fiddle around with the BIOS when I get home, at college right now.

DOSBox may be easy, but surely using good solid hardware is far more satisfying for you.

organisation64 · Post by **organisation64** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 11:50 am

Hey again,
I tried some different BIOS settings - didn't make a difference. Still music but no sound. Perhaps I should try a different (older) sound card.

I know that this PC originally shipped with Windows 95, and so maybe this card has some problems with DOS?