Win3x.Org

@Watler's ... Oh yeah, I love this configuration - This Ryzen3900 x/X470 & AMI BIOS can run Windows 95A, 95 OSR2, 98SE & ME with video, sound, LAN, USB & AHCI/SATA support. And, of course, every 16 bit Windows works also.

Back to soundblaster... I don t see how I can configure this card. According to the `manual`: TSR and activate.exe are not needed in this configuration/enhanced mode. I also found an 137x.ini file but no further instructions.

If I open Word, paste a 2mb print screen and start typing... mp3 will play fine. But if I move the mouse things will go crazy... Because Windows 3.11 & Windows 95 are closely related moving mouse should have the opposite effect:

Citation :

Why Moving the Mouse in Windows 95 Made the OS Faster

This is because of a flaw in the way Windows 95 generates events, and the fact that many applications are event driven.

Windows 95 applications often use asynchronous I/O, that is they ask for some file operation like a copy to be performed and then tell the OS that they can be put to sleep until that operation finishes. By sleeping they allow other applications to run, rather than wasting CPU time endlessly asking if the file operation has completed yet.

For reasons that are not entirely clear, but probably due to performance problems on low end machines, Windows 95 tends to bundle up the messages about I/O completion and doesn’t immediately wake up the application to service them. However, it does wake the application for user input, presumably to keep it feeling responsive, and when the application is awake it will handle any pending I/O messages too.

Thus wiggling the mouse causes the application to process I/O messages faster, and install quicker. The effect was quite pronounced; large applications that could take an hour to install could be reduced to 15 minutes with suitable mouse input.

watlers_world a écrit : *

13 juin 2020 02:11

Since most 30pin motherboards have less 8mb or less of ram, I could not recommend 3.11 or MP3 files for them.

8 MB was a decent amount of memory when Windows 3.11 came out, in 1993. It was more than enough to run the OS and contemporary programs. Computers with only 4 MB RAM were still very common. However, I recommend at least 16 MB if you want to run late 90's applications (such as Internet Explorer 4+ for Windows 3.1x) ; Just like 256 MB RAM ensure a comfortable experience on Windows XP with early 2000's programs but not with later ones.

watlers_world a écrit : *

13 juin 2020 02:11

Big Monstro, it sounds as though you have one monstrous 386SX.

Not really, the (official) minimum processor for Windows 3.1 is an 80286. Obviously, Windows 3.1 isn't very fast on an 80286 or a slow 80386, but it still runs. That's the same for Windows 3.11 (source: see archived page from Microsoft.com) whereas Windows for Workgroups 3.11 dropped the standard mode, therefore having at least an 80386 became a mandatory requirement. The 80386SX is thus the lowest processor able to run the last revision of "Windows 3.1x".

To play mp3 audio files, a faster hardware is needed, whatever the operating system.

watlers_world a écrit : *

13 juin 2020 02:11

OMORES, Big Monstro, Feel free to tell more about your win3x machines.

Apart from virtual machines, I've used Windows for workgroups 3.11 on my two oldest PCs :

1. 486DX2/66, 64 MB RAM (the half should be plenty enough) and an original Sound Blaster Pro
2. Pentium III 550 MHz, 384 MB RAM and a Sound Blaster PCI 128 (I tested your sound driver with it)

Sound lag update: if I use a real PS/2 mouse (with ball) I still got lags but overall experience is greatly improved... Here is a quick 30 sec video

One possible theory is that USB gaming mouse *emulated by BIOS as PS2* is much faster - and the input is not handled adequately.

OMORES:
If the DMA range is within the limits of Windows addressing, some windows program will eventually allocate and overwrite the memory.

The TSR would reserve a memory location below the limits of windows addressing.
If you have more memory than Windows 3.x can allocate, then you need not use the TSR if you don't want to.
However, the address still should be without the limits of Win3x.

I thought it would be a nice touch to have the settings box allow for adjustment of the DMA buffer's location.
Why not try adjusting the DMA buffer to a location above 512mb?

Change
DMA address: $20000000
Then press OK.

The $ symbol indicates that a hexadecimal value is being given.


I recognize that driver version VW may have some bugs.
Several years have passed since I looked at the driver.
To test the driver, I fired up an old 900mhz Athlon with a Creative Soundblaster 128 (CT4751).
After testing this machine ,It would seem to me that wave and MP3 files are playing just fine in 3.1 and 3.11.

As a comparison, I tried to install a sb128 in a Dell Dimension 3000.
This particular Dell Dimension 3000 refused to properly configure the the card, mostly squeeks and beeps were produced.
Perhaps you should examine the PCI device with a tool like Craig Hart's PCI program.

Sometimes a DOS TSR can cause some sort of conflict.
Perhaps it would help to post your config.sys and autoexec.bat files.

If you suspect interrupts are the problem, my drivers can be used without interrupts.
Just try 3.1 in standard mode and use ACTIVATE.exe.



Wow,Big Monstro, shure we knew you were a tough guy but...
Using Windows XP? Sounds like your a real demon for punishment!

That's some very nice win3x hardware, Big Monstro.

Citation :

Change
DMA address: $20000000
Then press OK.

Done. No change.

This is the scan with PCI tool.


Also, for ES137x there is an official driver from Ensoniq for Windows 3.11. Unfortunately, there is no decompressed version around, and setup.exe will jump to the part with `no card found` without extracting the files.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110722094 ... oniq&st=kw

Citation :

7501748.exe - Ensoniq Audio PCI Wavetable Sound Card (1370 chipset) sound driver
Supports: Windows 3.x, MS-DOS
3,655 KB

These are clearly archives - windrv.z (71k) legacy.z (456k) & sndset.z (2.2mb) - but 7zip/Winrar can t decode them. Can anyone figure out how to extract the files?

The image you have provided says that you are having some sort of system errors.
My my Dell Dimension 3000 had the same sort of errors.

Make certain that the cards pins are clean and that it is seated properly.
Also, make certain that there are no system conflicts with other devices.

Some motherboards like my Sabertooth x58 refuse to properly detect and configure certain SB64/1371 cards.

The card itself it's in a very good shape, like new. I did clean the contacts. It works fine in Windows Me, 2000 and XP. I think it s compatible with Windows 10 also, but 32bit. (there are some Vista 32bit drivers downloadable from Microsoft)


I also have a CT4740 which is indeed broken and is causing a `machine exception` in Windows 10. It was recognized in a strange way by Windows 98 - I have installed hundreds of cards, but never saw this message until last week:

It is a shame you can't clear all the errors.
Regardless of numbers, since I don't have that particular card,
I can't test or compare it for you.
Does it have configuration errors in other machines?

You won't get anywhere testing NT drivers.
Why not first test DOS drivers and sound players with the card?

Are DOS,Win95 and Win98 all setup and working properly?

I remember having an old PCI modem that gave a similar error message on certain systems.

I have decompressed your files

I took the file from https://web.archive.org/web/20160723111 ... 501748.exe

cause i had no success downloading from your link, but i'm confindent it's the same file

-------------------------------

I used ICOMP.EXE from here : https://www.sac.sk/files.php?d=7&l=I

In each zip there is a subfolder with the tool and the original z file in case you want to redo the decompress yourself ("ICOMP -d foo.Z" under DOSBOX)

-------------------------------

Links

https://www.4shared.com/zip/Q1tBH9rdea/SNDSET.html
https://www.4shared.com/zip/9XuFz8sXiq/WINDRV.html
https://www.4shared.com/zip/p8NSjrw9ea/LEGACY.html

An example of a properly working card.



I see that your card has no interrupt.
What model did you say your card was?