Got a 486 for old games, and here comes trouble!!!!
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Got a 486 for old games, and here comes trouble!!!!
Ok guys,
I got a Packard Bell 204CD system from a friend who had taken good care of it. It has 24 Megs Ram, 486 Dx2 66Mhz, 500mg hard drive. SCSI CD-Rom drive.
It came with Windows 95 installed. I formatted and installed DOS 6.22. I have jet to get Windows 3.1. I had to hunt down a replacement battery and actually buy and use a solder gun for the first time
Anyways, it had some sort of Aztech brand sound card in it. The Cd-Rom Drive is connected to it! To make a long story short, I bought a Creative Labs CT1740 Soundblaster 16 with the Cd-Drive interface so I could replace this aztech thing and play my wonderful old Sierra collection in style!
Problem is, The Soundblaster 16 didn't come with the original disks, and the drivers I have found on the internet don't install the Cd-interface, and thusly I cannot use my Cd-Rom drive.
Is there any way around this? Should I buy a different model Soundblaster? Awe32, etc?
Any help would greatly appreciated!
I got a Packard Bell 204CD system from a friend who had taken good care of it. It has 24 Megs Ram, 486 Dx2 66Mhz, 500mg hard drive. SCSI CD-Rom drive.
It came with Windows 95 installed. I formatted and installed DOS 6.22. I have jet to get Windows 3.1. I had to hunt down a replacement battery and actually buy and use a solder gun for the first time
Anyways, it had some sort of Aztech brand sound card in it. The Cd-Rom Drive is connected to it! To make a long story short, I bought a Creative Labs CT1740 Soundblaster 16 with the Cd-Drive interface so I could replace this aztech thing and play my wonderful old Sierra collection in style!
Problem is, The Soundblaster 16 didn't come with the original disks, and the drivers I have found on the internet don't install the Cd-interface, and thusly I cannot use my Cd-Rom drive.
Is there any way around this? Should I buy a different model Soundblaster? Awe32, etc?
Any help would greatly appreciated!
To Air is Human
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Sound Blaster drivers and CDROM drivers are not related. I will thus complement dosraider's link with
http://www.soundcard-drivers.com/
http://www.soundcard-drivers.com/
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I have 3 or 4 old cd drives laying around somewhere.
But it doesn't has to be a 2X or 4X drive, 32X IDE drives are also working under dos, CDdrive speed isn't a problem on an IDE connection.
Ask around where you live , you will find one.Plenty people has one or two old drives from the time they switched to CD-R.
Also a CD-R/RW drive will work under DOS.
In my new PC i have a DVD-R/RW who works reliable as a CD drive under DOS !!!
In fact you are better with a not so old drive, they can give problems when reading 700Mb CD's, also CD-R/RW sometimes can give reading probs.
And you will need to load drivers in config.sys/autoexec.bat, but i suppose you know that.
But it doesn't has to be a 2X or 4X drive, 32X IDE drives are also working under dos, CDdrive speed isn't a problem on an IDE connection.
Ask around where you live , you will find one.Plenty people has one or two old drives from the time they switched to CD-R.
Also a CD-R/RW drive will work under DOS.
In my new PC i have a DVD-R/RW who works reliable as a CD drive under DOS !!!
In fact you are better with a not so old drive, they can give problems when reading 700Mb CD's, also CD-R/RW sometimes can give reading probs.
And you will need to load drivers in config.sys/autoexec.bat, but i suppose you know that.
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The drive is SCSI and supposed to be connected to the soundcard. I have yet to try the program you mentioned, but I have tried a few of the other big ones ans none work, I'm guessing because the Cd drive is SCSI and supposed to be connected to the soundcard.
I still have the Aztech card that the Packard Bell came with, it has three different cd-rom drive interfaces on it. I have downloaded the original diskettes for the Aztech card so I guess I just might have to reinstall the old card and see if I can make it work there.
I'm glad at least I can play the games that don't need CD, but damn!
I still have the Aztech card that the Packard Bell came with, it has three different cd-rom drive interfaces on it. I have downloaded the original diskettes for the Aztech card so I guess I just might have to reinstall the old card and see if I can make it work there.
I'm glad at least I can play the games that don't need CD, but damn!
To Air is Human
- dr_st
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SCSI CD-ROMs are supposed to be connected to a SCSI adapter, not to the soundcard. Unless the soundcard is a SCSI adapter in itself, which I doubt, considering that you said that you have an SB16.
For SCSI CD-ROMs to be recognized you may need to install an ASPI driver (I think it's called ASPI2DOS.SYS or something similar).
For SCSI CD-ROMs to be recognized you may need to install an ASPI driver (I think it's called ASPI2DOS.SYS or something similar).
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Yeah that's exactly what I thought. But when I got this computer, sure enough the cd drive was connected to the soundcard. The SB16 that I replaced the Aztech with only has one cd-drive input, so I'm guessing now it is not SCSI.
I'm going to re-install the Aztech soundcard today and see what I can get done.
But I really just wanna say screw it, buy an IDE cd rom drive, get an AWE32, an MT-32, and call it a day.
This computer sure does run those old games sweet though, gotta get it working right!
I'm going to re-install the Aztech soundcard today and see what I can get done.
But I really just wanna say screw it, buy an IDE cd rom drive, get an AWE32, an MT-32, and call it a day.
This computer sure does run those old games sweet though, gotta get it working right!
To Air is Human
Easy easy, that's of course a solution, but if i'm remember well there are jumpers on the SB16 to enable/disable the cd support.King Rygar wrote:But I really just wanna say screw it, buy an IDE cd rom drive, get an AWE32, an MT-32, and call it a day.
Have you the manual/doc ? If so check first if your jumpersetting is correct.
And if i remember very well it's also indicated on the card itself , though not very clearly and in miniature writing, as usual.
Maybe someone has the manuals somewhere?
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Amazingly I got everything working today! The Cd-Rom, Sound card, etc all work.
But now the next problem. I have lost all my boot disk making skills. I installed Space Quest IV CD and Police Quest IV CD but I don't have enough memory to play!!!! I have like 561,000 KB free space at the moment.
THe computer has 19 Megs of ram but I can't remember how to free up enough to play CD based games!
Please help!
But now the next problem. I have lost all my boot disk making skills. I installed Space Quest IV CD and Police Quest IV CD but I don't have enough memory to play!!!! I have like 561,000 KB free space at the moment.
THe computer has 19 Megs of ram but I can't remember how to free up enough to play CD based games!
Please help!
To Air is Human
In your first post you stated you has installed DOS 6.22.
FIRST OF ALL MAKE A BOOTFLOP AND COPY CONFIG.SYS AND AUTOEXEC.BAT TO THE BOOTDISK
bootflop:format a: /s
So, if you screw your config/autoexec up,you always can boot from the flop and put the saved ones back.
In very short:
In your config.sys change the
DEVICE= into DEVICEHIGH=
NOT on himem.sys AND emm386.exe !!!!!!!!!!
be sure the command line dos=high,umb is present.
In your autoexec.bat change the
LOAD into LOADHIGH or LH
You always can disable smartdrive if it takes to many ressources by putting a REM before the command line, it will slow the HD read/writing a bit but not much.
Also with dos 6.22 you have a program called memmaker, run it from your command prompt,it is selfexplaining.(will do 2 or 3 reboots).
Also you can if needed make different bootconfigurations, with/ without cd drivers, with/without EMS memory....
A very usefull command when you want to know what's eating too much memory is :
mem /c/p
You can find plenty info on the internet.
FIRST OF ALL MAKE A BOOTFLOP AND COPY CONFIG.SYS AND AUTOEXEC.BAT TO THE BOOTDISK
bootflop:format a: /s
So, if you screw your config/autoexec up,you always can boot from the flop and put the saved ones back.
In very short:
In your config.sys change the
DEVICE= into DEVICEHIGH=
NOT on himem.sys AND emm386.exe !!!!!!!!!!
be sure the command line dos=high,umb is present.
In your autoexec.bat change the
LOAD into LOADHIGH or LH
You always can disable smartdrive if it takes to many ressources by putting a REM before the command line, it will slow the HD read/writing a bit but not much.
Also with dos 6.22 you have a program called memmaker, run it from your command prompt,it is selfexplaining.(will do 2 or 3 reboots).
Also you can if needed make different bootconfigurations, with/ without cd drivers, with/without EMS memory....
A very usefull command when you want to know what's eating too much memory is :
mem /c/p
You can find plenty info on the internet.
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