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RetroTech Chris Profile picture
@RetroTechChris
Mar 2, 2024 • 13 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X
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A few weeks back, we talked about PCI sound card compatibility in Windows 3.1x. And then I went and purchased an Aureal Vortex AU8820 sound card for like $10 bucks. Let's find out how well it works in DOS, Windows 3.11, and a few other OSes in a thread here!



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First, you'll be pleased to know that this sound card works with Hannah Montana Linux. Okay, enough of that already... for now 😂. Gosh, that color scheme is beyond atrocious and hurts my eyes. Image
How about Windows XP? Yep, detected and good to go! Image
Okay, off to Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Install was a cinch, but.. all I get in the program group is an uninstaller? Really?? No mixer? Yeah.. more on that in a minute.

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Things are looking good in the MIDI mapper, nothing to do there! All set. Image
If we look at installed drivers, we'll see there is a mixer. It just has no GUI. Fortunately, we can control the sound settings via system.ini. Under [Config\MixerSettings], I just changed all values from 32767 to 65535 to give "full volume" everywhere!

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Oh, and for the drivers, for the interested, I downloaded them from here! vogons.org/viewtopic.php?…
Alright, how about DOS? Fortunately there is a TSR you can use to make things work, included in the drivers above. However, it will probably lock up with newer systems. You can pull the "asp4dos" file from Win9x drivers to fix it though, details here: vogons.org/viewtopic.php?…
So, running asp4dos from the command line, we can see the card get detected. PRO TIP: If you install the Win3.1 drivers, you'd best take asp4dos out of autoexec.bat before you reboot, or replace it under the C:\WINDOWS directory before you do if you have a newer system! Image
So, for the most part, we are done. But there are two more problems to solve. The first is setting audio levels. I think with a vortex.ini file, this can be done with the asp4dos driver. But that was giving me trouble. So I downloaded SBMIX and it worked perfectly! Image
The next problem? If you run Win3.1x, the real mode DOS driver will uninstall. So after you exit Win3.1x, you need to reload it again. See this post I made today on Vogons that talks about the fix I used with a batch file! vogons.org/viewtopic.php?…
Anyway, there you have it. Now we can do fun things like play MIDI, MP3, and WAV files in Win3.x... using a PCI sound card. Thanks for following along! I'll leave you with a post I just did where we play an MP3!
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More from @RetroTechChris

RetroTech Chris Profile picture
Aug 16
I bought some memory to upgrade the Pacman PC. SURELY this will go off without a hitch.. surely it will. Okay, let's talk about it, in a 🧵 here! Image
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So, as you saw from the intro picture, we're now showing 1.5 GB of memory in this lovely system. The system booted up into Hannah Montana Linux 😂. That's fine.. we can ask it how much memory it sees. Looking good! Image
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Oh, here's the memory installed. Let's kick off MemTest86+ Image
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Read 5 tweets
RetroTech Chris Profile picture
Aug 10
I had some "larger" hard drives laying around, and wanted to put one in the new Kehtron computer. But to do that, I had to work around the 528MB limit of this computer's BIOS. Let's use XTIDE to do that...surely this adventure will go off without a hitch... right? Time for a 🧵 Image
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So, first of all, what is this 528MB limit all about? Well, older BIOSes were limited to 1024 cylinders. Around the 486 era, as drives got bigger, BIOSes started to support Logical Block Addressing mode. However, this particular BIOS does not. Image
There are some workarounds! You could use a program like Ontrack Disk Manager which solves the problem in software. You could also upgrade your BIOS to a later version, or even acquire an aftermarket BIOS like MR BIOS (someone put together a nice archive of past versions!) Image
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Read 21 tweets
RetroTech Chris Profile picture
Aug 9
Got a few things in the mail today! No need to really test the CPU fans or batteries, but let's test the video card! Time for a 🧵 Image
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So, this video card is a Tseng Labs ET4000AX. Here it is next to my other ET4000AX card. Some differences for sure! Image
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I figured I would test this card in the Kehtron 486DX/50 card... and... uh oh! What is the deal here? Seller tested card, and my other Tseng Labs ET4000AX card works in this PC. How odd! Must be a bad card, right? Image
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RetroTech Chris Profile picture
Aug 4
Okay, let's get some software installed on this "new" 486DX/50 PC of mine. As per usual, nothing was flawless here, so let's go over what went well and where I hit some snags! Time for a 🧵 Image
To get the installers on the box, I decided to use MS LAN Manager and the network. I made a special LAN Manager boot disk with drivers for the Intel EtherExpress 16TP that you see in the bottom of the last picture here. Image
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I've been very curious about how this machine would stack up, so I copied over SpeedSys to benchmark the system. And as we can see, it fell right in line with where it should be! Image
Read 12 tweets
RetroTech Chris Profile picture
Aug 3
My friend Bill gave me a bunch of case lock keys! Back in the days of the AT standard for cases, keylocks were pretty common on PC clones, and IBM systems as well. Let's see how many locks we can open today. Time for a silly 🧵 Image
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First, the Gateway 2000 you saw in the intro post. First key I tried worked 😂 Image
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Next, let's look at the PS/2 Model 30 286. Not today, not happening, this uses a "more regular looking" key. Image
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RetroTech Chris Profile picture
Aug 3
I already have too many PCs, but I had to have this cute little guy... and there is also a good nostalgic reason for having it! This 386 (now 486) PC needed a lot of work to get it running, let's talk about it in a 🧵 here! Image
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First, in case you missed it, here's the nostalgic reason. Kehtron is a part of my childhood. And this PC was available locally. The weather was also PERFECT yesterday for making an hour drive to get it and rocking out to some 80s tunes on the way 😂 Image
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Okay, first order of business, I put this on the table and it was rocking back and forth. I soon discovered why! I didn't have a matching foot so I used a little bit of Goof Off to remove the adhesive. And PSA, like with most chemicals, always work in a ventilated area. Image
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Read 19 tweets

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