9 replies to this topic

[DustyShinigami]

Hi

 

First post here. I hope this is the right place for this. I believe I posted this last night, but I've had no indication that a mod approved it, if it was removed, or moved.

 

I have a retro Windows 98 SE PC. I'm converting all of my game CDs to an image file to preserve the original copies and because CD images are faster at loading. I was having some issues with audio tracks not working despite the image file being a .cue/bin. The emulated drive is assigned to E as D is my second HDD. And my physical CD drive is F. The games were installed from E and they load and play no problem. It turns out that the checkbox to provide analog audio to emulated devices wasn't on. And I had to assign Music CDs to the E drive in the Multimedia Properties. So the tracks were working, but I couldn't hear anything. After changing those settings, they could be heard correctly. However...

 

It could be a DOS thing, but the couple of games I tried directly under Windows (Quake and Tomb Raider) have a noticeable delay before the first track plays. It causes the games to freeze for a number of seconds. When I couldn't hear the music previously, there was no delay/freeze. Previously, that never happened. I have since updated the BIOS and now I've noticed this issue happening. I'm not sure if there's some setting I need to adjust within the options, to create the images using specific settings, or if it's some Windows setting that needs changing. Does anyone know why this is happening or have an suggestions?

 

Thanks

[Charalambos]

The old Alcohol version for Windows before Windows XP which you obviously use isn't supported anymore. Anyway only God knows why you have this problem, it may be related to Alcohol or anything else.

I deleted your other post since it's about the same problem.

[DustyShinigami]

The old Alcohol version for Windows before Windows XP which you obviously use isn't supported anymore. Anyway only God knows why you have this problem, it may be related to Alcohol or anything else.

I deleted your other post since it's about the same problem.

 

Okay, no worries.

 

I have tried a few other things, but sadly nothing has worked so far. I read a comment saying that DirectX 8.1-9 would solve the weird issues, but it hasn't, I'm afraid. I get the same problem with Daemon Tools as well. I also tried uninstalling both Alcohol and Daemon Tools, including any leftover registry entries, and then doing a fresh install, but, nada. 

[Charalambos]

Sorry, I can't help you more. Anyway the problem isn't so bad, you can just be a little patient until the starting of the audio tracks playback.

[DustyShinigami]

Okay. I'm out of ideas for the moment anyway. I've tried uninstalling the sound card drivers, removed the sound card, rebooted, shut down, re-inserted it, re-installed the drivers, but no dice. And I uninstalled Alcohol and Daemon Tools, disconnected the D drive and the CD-ROM, reinstalled Daemon Tools on its own, had the emulated drive as D, reinstalled one of the games, but the same issue. 

 

But as you say, the problem isn't major or anything. At least they're fine in native DOS. I think the updated BIOS has just borked something in the process.

[NARS]

Not likely related to BIOS... actually the CD audio playback is completely handled by Windows OS (not even by the virtual drive), if you enable such option on Multimedia properties... I can't really understand why the delay... What if you try to play them out of the game for example using the Windows CD Player tool?

[DustyShinigami]

Not likely related to BIOS... actually the CD audio playback is completely handled by Windows OS (not even by the virtual drive), if you enable such option on Multimedia properties... I can't really understand why the delay... What if you try to play them out of the game for example using the Windows CD Player tool?

 

Yeah, they play perfectly fine within the CD player.

 

I was asking someone else who encountered the same issue some time ago. There's a method where you can have two sound cards linked together and with one of them having WDM drivers. I re-enabled my onboard sound card and tried installing some WDM drivers for them. Sadly, though the device is recognised, it doesn't recognise it as a playback device. I think the drivers I installed were wrong, so I need to try some different ones. But if I get them working, I can link the onboard sound with the line-in of my ISA sound card. Apparently that sorts it.

[Charalambos]

Wish you luck.

[DustyShinigami]

The problem has been resolved! The above suggestion I mentioned did the trick. For that particular problem, the sound card needs WDM drivers. Not ideal for playing DOS games, but I managed to convert my onboard sound card to WDM, found the right drivers for it (after a LOT of trial and error), had to reinstall DirectX 9, and then it was working correctly. I just have to daisy-chain the Line-In for the onboard sound to the Line-In on the sound card. Works perfectly after that. 

[NARS]

Great that you got it working fine