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RetroTech Chris Profile picture
@RetroTechChris
Mar 2 • 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
Feb 26
So, in the end, the Hannah Montana Linux install was a success (a flaky DVD drive was the cause of my problems). I'll be sharing more about some of the specifics I did to get the display set up & retro WarpStream configured so that I could bring you this clip. Speakers on. Enjoy!
Alright, let's talk about how I did this, shall we? I'm going to use a VM, because, quite frankly, I'm tired of sitting at the desk 😂.
The first thing you'll want to do is download the Hannah Montana Linux ISO. It's basically Ubuntu 9.04 with some customization. You can get the ISO here. archiveos.org/hannah-montana/
Read 24 tweets
RetroTech Chris Profile picture
Feb 20
I finished up my Windows for Workgroups 3.11 install on the Pentium III PacMan PC this evening. Let's talk about it in a thread here... and I'll discuss some Win3.1x programs that you probably haven't seen before!
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So, first, I had intended to do the standard Windows 3.11 install with applications. But then I had another idea: how about clone the Windows 3.11 VM that I have had since the dawn of time...I'd had this VM before I started collecting, I probably made it 10 years ago! So I did.


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Choosing this clone approach had another advantage: some programs like Internet Explorer 5 are a pain to install on systems with huge amounts of memory. It can be done, but I didn't want to deal with that pain today 😂. Though if I did, the MS Knowledge Base has me covered.
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Read 18 tweets
RetroTech Chris Profile picture
Feb 18
Installing Windows 3.11 For Workgroups on the PacMan PC today! The PCI sound card in this Pentium III system does present a challenge though. I thought I'd take a few mins and talk about PCI sound card compatibility for Win 3.1x in a thread, at least from my perspective! Let's go
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So, first question I will get is "why install Windows for Workgroups 3.11 on a Pentium III?" I'm afraid I don't have a good answer, I just want to do it😂. Okay.. moving on... 😅 Image
So, next question is "why is it a challenge to make PCI audio cards work in Windows 3.1x, but yet it's not as bad in DOS?" I speculate the reason is that many of these PCI cards were prolific in the Win9x and beyond era, and MS-DOS mode compatibility was important. Image
Read 24 tweets
RetroTech Chris Profile picture
Feb 3
Who is familiar with the NABU? It's a computer from the 1980s that ran over the cable network. Several people wrote Adaptor software that runs on modem computers to bring it back to life. But did you know you can turn a retro computer into a NABU server? Let's talk about it!
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So, first, you need hardware to connect to the NABU, and the standard that a lot of people use is the DTECH USB to RS422 adapter. This adapter is based on an FTDI chipset. And as luck would have it, FTDI has drivers for older OSes, including early MacOS 10 and Win98!

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From there, it's a matter of having NABU Adaptor software that is compatible with older OSes. I wrote a Version that works with Java releases 1.5 and above. Why Java? Well, many loathe it, but it's extremely portable! github.com/cml37/JavaNabu…
Read 11 tweets
RetroTech Chris Profile picture
Dec 20, 2022
Yesterday, we got asked this most excellent question: can you connect a Win98 computer to a Win2K/WinXP computer via null modem and share its internet connection? Why, yes, you can! Let's explore how to do it!
So, first, follow this procedure up to the "DOS" part to configure your Windows XP or Windows 2000 system to accept incoming connections.
As for the rest, we are going to steal heavily from this procedure. Must give credit where credit is due! cisco.com/c/en/us/suppor…
Read 15 tweets
RetroTech Chris Profile picture
Dec 19, 2022
Did you know that you can print to most modern networked laser printers from Windows 3.11 for Workgroups? Let's explore!
First of all, if you haven't set up your Windows 3.11 for Workgroups to connect to the network, here's an example of how this can be done! . You can find TCP32B.EXE here archive.org/details/window…. You'll also need network drivers for your network card.
For TCP32B.exe, you will just want to "run" the file on your retro PC, and it will unzip the files. I suggest putting it in a "new" directory first!
Read 14 tweets

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