RetroTech Chris Profile picture
Mar 2, 2024 13 tweets 6 min read Read on X
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

Nov 12
Here's some good news for BlueSCSI/ZuluSCSI owners who want wireless networking in DOS and Win3.1x: Michael Brutman (author of mTCP) has taken my DaynaPORT DOS packet driver and greatly improved it! I'm using it to browse the web. Let's talk about how in a 🧵 here! Image
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First, some context: several months ago, I started down the path to get my BlueSCSI working in DOS, and made a very alpha driver to do such. As per usual, I then abandoned the project 😂
Then, Michael found out about the project, and greatly improved upon it! There is a beta version that you can find here: . Although the driver is currently beta, it is very well written, and is working great for me!github.com/mbbrutman/dayn…
Read 7 tweets
Nov 12
I had a total blast testing my newly-acquired fleet of LTE 5000 series systems! Over the past four days, I was able to make 20 working systems from my haul of (I believe) 26 systems. Let's have a BRIEF outbrief in a 🧵 here! Image
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First, just LOOK at everything!! Everything you see here either will go in a system (HDD, FDD, CD-ROMs, battery shells), is a spare part, or a conversation piece (PCMCIA cards without dongles 😂). And, oh, for the six systems that contributed to parts, look at all of the screws! Image
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Here are the "failed" parts. Several failed or flaky mobos. Two bad processor cards. Several bad DC to DC cards. Only one bad FDD, which is miraculous. And of course, that one keyboard that took a lot of abuse, too much to repair. Image
Read 5 tweets
Nov 11
Day 4 LTE 5000 (and probably some LTE Elite!) cleanup and testing. I'll just do highlight reel, I am sure you guys have seen enough at this point 😂. Let's do this! 🧵 Image
First, we have doubled downstream testing power 😂. Now let's talk about the system on the right... Image
So, as you can see, the screen is bad, but I think the effect is lowkey cool! Also, this system had a bad processor card and DC to DC card. That's been fixed. The HDD caddy had the logic board for a HDD and was missing the cover. Someone has been in here!! Image
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Read 9 tweets
Nov 10
It's another beautiful day here... and time to clean and test some more LTE 5000 systems! And since I am taking an extended weekend, we have time to do this. Let's get to work. 🧵 Image
So, first, the tarp earned its pay. It rained a bit overnight. Most systems did stay dry. No concerns here! I thought the tarp had a small hole in it. Indeed it did 😂 Image
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Before we proceed, I do have a confession: late last night, I did pull one more system off the stack, clean it up, and try to test it. Sadly, it's dead. Oh well, we will deal with that later. Image
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Read 22 tweets
Nov 10
Ooookay, one more laptop today. A few folks have asked "how about the red laptop? Does it have a chance?" Well, I think I'd say "kindof, with some help!" Let's explore in a 🧵 here! Image
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Initially, I started out with some Goof Off to clean off the paint. That damaged the screen cover's plastic. But I soon learned that would not matter. Because, well, here's the screen. Also, look at that nice red HDD cover. Paint on the keyboard too. Oh boy! Image
After some effort, I got the battery out. It was sealed by the paint. Now we can take a look inside. Lovely! Image
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Read 5 tweets
Nov 9
Shall we continue our LTE 5000 series cleaning and testing? I'm glad I covered them with a tarp, we had some condensation overnight!! This one is a LTE 5380 without any drives. It cleaned up nice and it does power up!! Image
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Okay, second one is a little rough. Cleaned up. Powered on once but won't power on again. Image
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Next one! Cleaned up. Powered right up. A nice LTE 5380 Image
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Read 10 tweets

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