# DOS Sound Drivers



## kwdrum42 (Oct 22, 1999)

I am having some problems getting my sound card to work in pure DOS mode.

My machine is currently dual booting DOS 6.22 and Windows XP. I recently installed VMWare 3.1 (in XP) and created a virtual DOS machine. Right after I did that, the sound in my real DOS partition stopped working. It continues to not work, even though I have uninstalled VMWare.

My audio chipset is ESSolo 1938, and I know I have the right drivers, because the sound worked in pure DOS just a few days ago. Now, when the essolo.com file is initialized by my autoexec.bat file, it tell me to "use the Windows software applet to enable Sound Blaster in Real/Windows DOS." The essolo.ini file that came with the driver is in binary, so I can't edit it. I don't see anything in Windows XP about enabling real DOS mode support.

What did VMWare do to my machine, and how do I reverse it?

- Kevin


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## MacFromOK (Mar 19, 2001)

Well, here's some ideas...

VMWARE may have changed settings in your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files, but it should have saved backup copies.

Look for files named AUTOEXEC.BAK, AUTOEXEC.001, etc. If you find one, check the date to make sure it's the one you want, then either edit AUTOXEC.BAT and change the settings back or rename AUTOEXEC.BAT (just to be safe) and rename the backup copy as AUTOEXEC.BAT. Do the same thing for the CONFIG.SYS file if there's a backup copy.

If you don't have backup copies, there may be documentation for your sound card (readme, etc. files) that explains DOS setup. Usually, there's a line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file similiar to this:

SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D3

This tells DOS what port address (A220 or A240 usually), interrupt (I5 or I7 usually), and DMA channel (D1, D3, or D5 usually). There may be two or three other settings as well, but these are the most important. If you don't have DOS setup info for your sound card (and/or don't have this this line), try adding it and/or playing around with the settings.

OR... you might try an old DOS game setup (like DOOM) that helps ya figure these settings out by testing the sound.

Cheers, Mac


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## codejockey (Feb 11, 2002)

And here are a few more ideas ...

VMWare may have changed the initialization of your sound card from a sound-blaster compatible mode to windows-sound-system mode (WSS) in order to function under Windoze. You might look for a directory named essolo or similar on your hard drive; in that directory, you may find an initialization program for the card. It could be named something like sndint.exe, essinit.exe or similar (I apologize for not having the exact name ... all done from (faulty) memory ...). It will NOT have install or any variation in its name. If you run this program, you will be able to specify the default initialization parameters for the card. Choose sound-blaster-compatible or whatever is closest in the list of choices. Save your changes; they will likely be written to a file in the solo directory ending in .cfg or similar (this is a text file that you can read/edit).

Hope this helps -- and if not, post again with results, and I'll take another shot )).


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## kwdrum42 (Oct 22, 1999)

Update on the situation:

I have tried the sound setup utilities for all the games I have installed in pure DOS, and the sound still doesn't work.

I was unable to find an initalization program that would change the card from Windows initialized to DOS initialized. In addition, there is no text-editable configuration file; the driver only uses the following three files:
essolo.com
essolo.sys
essolo.ini (binary, not ASCII)

There is nothing in my BIOS setup about the sound card, except an IRQ number.

I will give the autoexec line "SET BLASTER= ..." a try, although my card didn't need it before VMWare.

Still hoping for more ideas.

- Kevin


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