Hardware I have no idea how to identify a sound card and would like some help

[supergamer368]

I have an old Gateway machine with Windows 98 set up for games. On my taskbar it says I have a Soundblaster PCI 64 or something like that, but I don’t know how to identify the port, irq, dma, or 16 bit dma, and i need that information to play a lot of the games i have. (a modern solution is out of the question, too many compatibility issues and hey, i have this pc for a reason.) so, does anyone know what any of this even means?

 

[cracker]

Open the Device Manager and double click the sound card. It will show you all of that info in the resources tab.

I'm not sure, but I would think in the SB utility it would list it somewhere as well since DOS gaming was still popular and they were sold as "gaming sound cards".

 

[supergamer368]

Open the Device Manager and double click the sound card. It will show you all of that info in the resources tab.

I'm not sure, but I would think in the SB utility it would list it somewhere as well since DOS gaming was still popular and they were sold as "gaming sound cards".

I assume interrupt request is irq? Also, I think i figured it out while trying to configure a game, I think it somehow auto-detected my card’s config and it worked. (I will say however, if interrupt request is not irq then i guess you can use the listed value or lower? the listed value was 10, but the game detected 7.) EDIT: It’s also worth noting that the only thing the resource tab listed was the interrupt request and the input/output range. Also, now the game says the configuration that was working a while ago is now incorrect.

 

[Y0shII]

Irq's can be a little tricky to configure, sometimes depends of how many devices are in use or just the isa/pci slot being used. Since that machine is only for games you can try to disable any unnecessary devices (like usb controllers and serial/parallel ports) in order to free resources and get the correct irq; if you still have problems you can move the sound card to a different slot. Usually you need irq 5 or 7 for older dos games and you can also configure compatibility modes on some sound card drivers for dos, some cards only require to include the configuration on autoexec.bat and config.sys files but depends of the brand and sound chip.

 

[cracker]

Yes, Interrupt ReQuest. It essentially tells the program/system to pause and jump to where the data for the specific hardware is processed. If the IRQ isn't set right then it won't work — just as a wrong address wouldn't.

Try a tool like this to get better info on your hardware settings. It should get you all the info you need. If you still can't get sound for DOS games then you could always try DosBox, etc where virtual hardware can be mapped.

 

[Alexander1970]

Hello.

The important thing is,you have to be sure it IS an Soundblaster (not compatible etc.)
It´s the safest way to KNOW which card it is.With detect tools you maybe fail.Windows 98 are FAR from autodetect anything correctly !
Please open the Pc case and look at the card.There must ba a Number beginning with CTxxxxx.With this we can search on the soundblaster.com site and/or google.And then you have the chance with the correct driver to work with.

 

[FAST6191]

(a modern solution is out of the question, too many compatibility issues and hey, i have this pc for a reason.)

There are people doing old style tech with new chips these days, and will tend to make it easier to sort things as well.
Quick intro to some parts of it