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Sound / Video Card Readme PANDORA DIRECTIVE DEMO 4/18/96 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This file describes problems that you may run into with particular sound and video cards. ------------------------ -- Sound Cards --------- ------------------------ The abbreviations SB and MSS are used extensively in the following descriptions. SB represents Sound Blaster and MSS or WSS stands for Microsoft Sound System (Windows Sound System). If you are not sure which sound card is installed in your computer, please check the documentation that came with your computer or call the support line provided by your dealer. Also, please select your card if it is in the device list, even if your card is supposed to be "Sound Blaster Compatible." PCMCIA or MICRO CHANNEL Sound cards will not work with our sound drivers. Under Windows 95, Sound Blaster Pro and Pro Compatibles will not have the the T4 parameter set in the SET BLASTER enviroment variable. If this parameter is not set, the auto detect feature of the demo will lock. You can set up the card manually and it should work fine. (To check your parameter type SET from the command line. Generally you should see: SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4) If you do have this sound card and are running under Windows '95, you will need to setup the card manually. Due to the new Plug 'N Play standards, newer WSS compatibles may lock during auto detection. These cards can still be set up manually. The settings are generally at I/O 530, Interrupt *, and DMA 1. The following list contains common problems and solutions that we have found with particular sound cards. We have tried to make this list as comprehensive and error free as possible. With the constant hardware changes implemented in new computer systems, there are no guarantees. Adlib Gold ---------- This sound card is supported directly and shouldn't require any changes. Aria ---- For cards with this chipset, select either SB 1.0 (No Verify) or SB Pro (No Verify) from the device list. You might also have to obtain an update from your sound card manufacturer to fix the Sound Blaster compatibility of this card. AT&T VCOS Roadrunner -------------------- This sound card is installed in most AT&T Globalyst computers. It is Sound Blaster Pro compatible and should work using the SB PRO (NO VERIFY) option, at I/O 220, Interrupt 5, DMA 1. If you set up the card and try the sound test, but get no sound, try turning up the mixer volume by typing: C:\VCOS\RR.OEM\MIXER <ENTER> and turning up the wave and master volumes respectively. The auto detection feature will not detect your sound card as Sound Blaster Pro, it will choose Sound Blaster 1.0 This setting may not work. Aztech ------ Sound Galaxy -- These cards have both Sound Blaster and Microsoft Sound System emulation. They usually work correctly in SB mode. If that doesn't seem to work, you can try switching to MSS mode. You may have to run a utility program that came with the sound card to switch modes. Please check the documentation that came with the card. Sound Galaxy Nova 16 -- This card is supported directly and shouldn't require any changes. The Sound Galaxy Washington 16 will also work under this driver. Our testing has shown that under Windows 95, the DMA for Windows and the DEMO should both be set to 1. Crystal Lake Wavetable ---------------------- This sound card is seen mostly in the Hewlett Packard Pavilion Computers. It requires a special configuration to run in MS-DOS mode under Windows '95. Follow these steps and success is just a few keystrokes away. 1. CD\DOSBOOT 2. COPY C:\WINDOWS\CS*.* 3. EDIT CS4232.INI [PNP] WSSIO=534 WSSINT=10 WSSDMAPLAY=1 WSSDMACAPTURE=0 SBIO=220 OPIIO=388 OPIINT=5 GAMEIO=200 4232IO=538 4232INT=DISABLED MPU401IO=DISABLED MPU401INT=DISABLED CDIO=DISABLED CDINT=DISABLED CDDMA=DISABLED 4. Make a shortcut specifying a new configuration. CONFIG.SYS for MS-DOS mode; DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS DEVICE=C:\CDROM\ACERCDH.SYS /D:CDROM DEVICE=C:\DOSBOOT\CS4232C.EXE /O /V AUTOEXEC.BAT for MS-DOS mode. C:\MOUSE\MOUSE C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX /D:CDROM 5. Set sound for SBPro no verify 6. If that does not work make sure that the mixer volume in windows shows wave and master volumes at max. Crystal Clear -- Some older versions of this card are SB and MSS compatible and to switch to MSS there is a file in the C_CLEAR directory called CSACMOD1.EXE that you may need to run. Diamond ------- Sonic -- This card seems to work correctly under Sound Blaster 1.0 with verification turned off. Select SB 1.0 (No Verify) from the device list, and enter the correct I/O, Interrupt, and DMA for your Sound Blaster emulation. Sonic LX -- This card emulates both Sound Blaster Pro and Microsoft Sound System. MSS emulation uses 16 bit sound so the quality is better. If you use the Sound Blaster mode, see the notes for the Sonic listed above. Ensoniq Soundscape ------------------ Please check to make sure that you have version 1.20 or later of the Ensoniq DOS drivers. If you have an older version, please contact Ensoniq, or the manufacturer of your computer for an update. For DOS compatibility this card requires environment variables to be set and the SSINIT.EXE initialization utility. The Auto Detect option may detect this card as Sound Blaster 1.0 if SB emulation is turned on. If so, click CONTINUE SEARCHING, or just select the Ensoniq manually from the device list. Example AUTOEXEC.BAT or DOSSTART.BAT SET BLASTER=A220 IXX DX T1 SET SNDSCAPE=C:\SNDSCAPE (or SET SNDSCAPE=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM) C:\SNDSCAPE\SSINIT.EXE /I Ensoniq Soundscape PNP ---------------------- These sound cards require an Intel ISA configuration utility (Plug and Play driver). This driver must be loaded in the CONFIG.SYS. The file is usually named DWCFGMG.SYS. Otherwise it will require the same setup as the standard Ensoniq Soundscape. ESS Audiodrive -------------- The 16 bit version of this card commonly used in the Compaq Desktop models should work correctly when ESS Audiodrive is selected from the device list. Sometimes Auto Detect will sense this card as a Sound Blaster 16. Just click the CONTINUE SEARCHING button to keep searching and this card should be detected. The 8 bit version of this card (installed in some notebook computers with business audio) probably will not work. Forte 16 -------- Setup this card in either MSS or SB mode. No changes will need to be made to the setup of the card itself. Many Packard Bell computers use this sound card. Gateway 2000 Soundcards ----------------------- Aztech (G2KAudio) -- This sound card can be setup as a SB 1.0 or as a Microsoft Sound System. If you setup the card for MSS mode, the DMA on this card MUST be changed to 1 instead of the default of 0. If the game runs correctly the first time, then locks after exiting and running it again, then you'll need to switch to SB mode, or change the DMA used with the MSS emulation to 1. To change the DMA to 1 for MSS mode, you would need to open the computer and change 2 jumpers on the sound card. Please contact Gateway for help in doing this. Ensoniq -- See Ensoniq Soundscape Vibra16 -- See Sound Blaster 16 Genoa Audioblitz ---------------- This sound card is based on the Microsoft Sound System chipset and the game seems to work better when the card is setup in MSS mode. To do this, run the file called AB16.EXE from your GENOASND directory. Then select CONFIGURE and mark the box for MSS mode (sometimes listed as WSS). Next click OK, then QUIT TEST. Now run the game and select Microsoft Sound System from the device list. Be aware that some other programs may require this card to be set back in SB mode. Gravis ------ Ultrasound / Ultrasound Max -- These cards are supported directly from our device list and shouldn't require any changes. You will, however, need to start the game by typing PANGRAV. This loads the necessary MIDI patches before starting the game. IBM Aptiva (MWAVE Audio) ------------------------ These sound cards are very dependent on environment variables and DOS initialization files. Here is a general overview of how your Config.sys and Autoexec.bat must look in order for your Sound Card to work with any DOS Application. Some file names and directories may be different so you may have to make some modifications. CONFIG.SYS DEVICE=C:\MWAV_ C\DHDD0420.EXE AUTOEXEC.BAT SET PATH =C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\;C:\MWW\DLL;C:\MWD\MANAGER SET MWROOT=C:\MWD SET LIBPATH=C:\MWD\MANAGER SET MWAVPATH=C:\MWD\MANAGER;C:\MWD\MWGAMES SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 C:\DOS\MSCDEX.EXE /D:?? C:\MWD\MANAGER\DOSMGR.EXE SBPROQR.SCR /Q CALL MWAVE START Logitech -------- Soundman 16 -- This card should work correctly as either a SB 1.0 or Pro Audio Spectrum 16. Soundman Wave 16 -- This card is SB 1.0 or SBPro compatible and should work as such in the game. If you run into problems, try selecting the No Verify versions of the SB 1.0 and SB Pro. MAD 16 / ISP 16 / Media Magic ----------------------------- All 3 are based on a Microsoft Sound System chipset and should work when setup in MSS mode. To switch between sound modes, you may have to run a utility program that came with the card. The program is usually called M16INIT.EXE or ISPINIT.EXE. When running this program click on CONFIGURE, then WSS, then OK, then QUIT TEST. Then run the game and select the Microsoft Sound System option from the device list. You may have other programs that require your sound card to be back in SB mode. If so, you can use the M16INIT.EXE or ISPINIT.EXE utilities to do so. Mediavision ----------- Jazz16 -- If you are using Windows 3.1, this card will not work correctly in DOS after exiting from Windows. You must make a boot disk that does not boot directly into Windows or REMove the WIN command from your AUTOEXEC.BAT. If auto detect does not find anything, Select SB Pro (No verify) manually from the list. Premium 3D -- This card should work correctly as either an SB 1.0 or SB Pro. If you are having problems select either SB 1.0 or SB Pro (No verify) options. ProAudio Spectrum -- Please refer to the section below entitled ProAudio Spectrum. Microsoft Sound System ---------------------- This card should not require any changes. Just select Microsoft Sound System from the device list. If your sound card emulates the Microsoft Sound System, please make sure that the DMA is set to 1. If the game runs correctly the first time, then locks up when trying to restart the game, it probably means that the DMA is not set to 1. Mitsumi - Mozart ---------------- This card should work as SB Pro (No Verify). This card will work best when setup in Microsoft Sound System mode. To switch modes, go to the sound card directory (normally MOZART or MITSUMI) and run the mode switching program called MZTMODE.EXE. To switch to Windows Sound System mode, type MZTMODE WSS. To switch to Sound Blaster mode, type MZTMODE SB. You may want to create a batch file that switches to MSS mode before starting the game, then switches back to SB mode when it exits. NEC --- NEC ready machines come with a Crystal sound card that is Sound Blaster Pro compatible. If you experience problems in DOS contact NEC technical support. Sound Harmony -- This card is essentially an Ensoniq Soundscape. To initialize this card type SETSOUND in the Windows directory. For more information see Ensoniq Soundscape. ProAudio Spectrum ----------------- This card should work as a Sound Blaster 1.0 or ProAudio Spectrum. If your card is the ProAudio Spectrum 8 bit, it may incorrectly detect as Pro Audio Spectrum 16. If this happens select ProAudio Spectrum with the same settings. If the card is a ProAudio Spectrum 16, select ProAudio Spectrum 16 from the device list. This sound card uses 2 interrupts (IRQ's) so please be sure that there aren't any other devices in your computer that are in conflict with these IRQ's. Usually the ProAudio side is set to IRQ 7 and the Sound Blaster side is set to IRQ 5. Do not set both interrupts to the same number or the sound will not work. e.g. DEVICE=C:\PROAUDIO\MVSOUND.SYS D:5 Q:7 S:1,220,1,5 Reveal ------ Stereo FX -- Can be setup as either an SB Pro or MSS card. There is usually a utility program called SETMODE.EXE that is used to switch modes. Type SETMODE /MSS to select MSS mode or SETMODE /SBP for SB mode. The SETMODE program is usually in the MMP16P\UTILITY directory. Sound144 -- Found in Packard Bell computers. These cards, like most Aztech chipsets are Sound Blaster Pro and Microsoft Sound System Compatible. Type SETMODE /MSS to select MSS mode or SETMODE /SBP for SB mode. The SETMODE program is usually in the SOUND144\UTILITY directory. SC400 - SC500 -- These sound cards come in the Reveal Multimedia upgrade kit. Like most Aztech chipsets the cards are Sound Blaster Pro and Microsoft Sound System Compatible. There is an SNDINIT.EXE file in the SC400 or SC500 directory. For MSS Compatibility, you must run the SNDINIT file and select configuration. Switch the mode from SB to WSS. You may have to switch back to SB mode for other games you have. Roland RAP-10 ------------- This card is supported directly and shouldn't require any changes. Sound Blaster ------------- SB 1.0 -- This card should work correctly without any problems. If you have an older version of this card, select SB 1.0 (No Verify). We have found that the Micro Channel version of this card (Found in some IBM PS/1 models) does not work correctly with our sound drivers. SB Pro -- This card should work without any problems. The only problem you may encounter would be if you have the card is set to an IRQ that is unstable on your system. IRQ 10 commonly has this problem. If you do have problems try SB Pro (No verify). If that does not work you will have to look at changing your IRQ and/or DMA settings. SB 16 -- The only common problems we have seen are with motherboards that cannot use the High (16-bit) DMA with our sound drivers and when this card is set to an I/O port other than 220H. If your sound card is using one of the high DMA's, and you are having problems, run the DIAGNOSE.EXE or SBCONFIG.EXE program in the SB16 or VIBRA16 directory and select, USE 8 BIT DMA for the high DMA setting. If your sound card is using an I/O port other than 220H you may need to select the SB 16 (No Verify) option at the bottom of the device list. Sound Blaster AWE32 -- The Sound Blaster AWE32 Digital Sound device is identical to the SB16. Auto Detect will choose SB 16 so just accept it. Since the AWE32 is identical to the SB16. the same problems apply. Sound Blaster AWE32 and 16 PNP -- These sound cards require an Intel ISA configuration utility (Plug and Play driver). This driver must be loaded in the CONFIG.SYS. The file is usually named DWCFGMG.SYS. Turtle Beach ------------ Maui -- This card does not support any Digital playback so it will not work as a Digital sound device. You can, however, use this card for MIDI sound. Monte Carlo -- This card seems to work better in MSS mode. To do this, go to the MCARLO directory and type MCMODE MSS to switch to Microsoft Sound System before starting the game. *** NOTE for Sound Blaster and Compatible cards *** Many sound cards that use FM-synthesis,(not wavetable) for MIDI music (this includes the majority of Sound Blaster and compatible cards) use I/O port 388. For example, the configuration line for many Sound Blaster cards will read SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6. The P330 refers to the external MIDI port, not the internal MIDI port that our game will use for FM synthesis. If you do not have a daughterboard or some other external MIDI device, you will need to use the default selection of 388. ------------------------ -- Video Cards --------- ------------------------ The Pandora Directive Demo setup program is equipped with the option to install a Universal VESA driver (UNIVBE 5.1) every time you run the game. If you do not know what kind of video card you have and you need a VESA driver or your current VESA driver is not working properly, select the option to load the Universal VESA driver when you install the demo. Below is a list of video cards that may experience problems with the UNIVBE Universal VESA driver. If you are unsure of the brand of video card in your system, and you have MS-DOS 6.XX or Windows 3.XX on your system, type MSD from the DOS prompt and look under video section. This utility will usually help to find the brand and/or model of video card installed. Video cards that if used with UNIVBE will crash The Pandora Directive Demo -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ATI Mach32 Cirrus Logic CL-GD5430 Video cards that are not 100% compatible with UNIVBE ---------------------------------------------------- If your video card is not supported with the UNIVBE driver, you can still get the demo to work, you will just need to load a VESA driver manually before installing the game. Diamond Viper ------------- Weitek P9000/P9100 such as Diamond Viper (9000), Viper Pro (9100), Viper Pro SE (9100). These video cards possess two separate chips on for VGA and one for Windows. The P9x00 chip is not hardware compatible with VESA specifications and cannot support double buffering which is required by most SVGA games. Hence games like The Pandora Directive may flicker (if it works at all). Note that UNIVBE 5.1 has limited support for the Diamond Viper However you must ensure that you have changed the mode by loading VPRMODE.COM with VESA as the command line switch. Matrox ------ The following applies to the Matrox MGA Ultima, MGAA Ultima Plus, MGA Impression, MGA Impression and MGA Impression Lite. (**NOT** the Matrox Millenium). Matrox MGA boards have one chip with two parts VGA and MGA. The very fast MGA core is hardware incompatible with the VESA standard. UNIVBE 5.1 does provide support for the VGA core but it is 60-80 times slower than the MGA core and will produce very poor SVGA performance under DOS. Compaq QVision 2000 (not QVision 1024/1280 which are supported) are based on an OEM version of the Matrox MGA Impression boards so refer to the above. IBM 8514/a and clones such as the ATI Mach8 chipset --------------------------------------------------- The 8514/a is a chip that is not hardware compatible with the VESA standards specifications and can never be supported. Video cards that will work with some tweaking --------------------------------------------- ITT AGX 014/015/016/017 ----------------------- The ITT chipsets are IBM XGA clones with VGA built in. A common problem that you may have is that some ITT boards shipped without built in BIOS support for VESA. The only solution it to load the VESA driver that came with the graphics card on diskettes. TSENG ET4000 with 24 bit RAMDAC ------------------------------- There is a bug in some TSENG ET4000 BIOS that cause UNIVBE to hang in the detection phase. You must run UVCONFIG -s10 -c3 -m1024 -d7 to work around the bug. ATI Mach64 ---------- Newer Mach64 chipsets like the Mach64-CT may hang during the detection is run. They will, however work correctly by running UVCONFIG -s1 -c11 -d7. If this does not work there is nothing you can do with version 5.1 of the UNIVBE drivers. Video cards directly supported ------------------------------ Acer Labs ALi CAT-32/64 (M3141/3145) Ark Logic ARK1000VL, ARK1000PV Avance Logic AL2101/2201/2228/2301/2302/2364 SuperVGA Ahead V5000A, V5000B ATI Technologies 18800, 28800, Mach32, Mach64 Chips & Technologies 82c45x, 655xx, 643x0 WinGine Cirrus Logic CL-GD62xx, 5402, 5422/4/6/8/9, 5430/4 Cirrus Logic LCD CL-GD64xx Compaq IVGS/AVGA, QVision QV1024/1280 Everex Viewpoint, Viewpoint/NI, Viewpoint/TC Genoa Systems GVGA Hualon HMC86304/14 MXIC 86000/86010 SuperVGA NCR 77C20/21/22E/32BLT Oak Technologies OTI-037C/057/067/077/087 Paradise/Western Digital PVGA1A, WD90C1x/2x/3x Primus 2000 SuperVGA RealTek RTG3103/3105/3106 SuperVGA S3 86c911/924/801/805/928/864/964/866/868/968/Trio32/Trio64 Sierra Semiconductor Falcon/64 Trident 88/8900/9x00/8900CD/8900D/9200CXr/9400CXi/9420DGi Tseng Labs ET3000, ET4000, ET4000/W32/W32i/W32p UMC 85c408/18 Video7 VEGA, HT208/209/216 The following is a list of the most common video card questions and answers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTION: I have an ATI video card and the VESA driver on the demo CD does not work. What do I do? ANSWER: You need to run the VVESA.COM file that came with your computer. It can usually be found in one of the following directories: C:\MACH32, C:\MACHPCI or C:\PBTOOLS\VGAUTIL. If you received any disks with your computer entitled Video card drivers or utilities, you might check there. If you can't find this driver, you will need to contact either ATI or the manufacturer of your computer. QUESTION: I have a laptop and my video display is made by Chips and Technology. The drivers on the demo CD do not seem to work. What do I do? ANSWER: You need to locate the VESA video driver that came with your laptop, usually called VESA.EXE or VESA530.EXE etc. If you do not have the driver on your hard disk or on utility diskettes that came with the computer, you will need to contact your vendor to obtain the driver. QUESTION: I hear a lot of static when sound is played in the demo, what can cause this? ANSWER: If you have a video card that uses the Cirrus Logic chipset, this sound problem is actually being caused by the video card. There is a driver on the demo CD that will fix the problem. Go to the PANDEMO directory on your hard drive and type D:\ATS\ATS <ENTER> (where D: is your CD-ROM drive). This will copy several files to this directory. Type 542XVGAL to load the driver, then try starting the demo. If this fixes the problem, you will need to run this utility every time before starting the demo. If this driver doesn't not load, or doesn't resolve the problem, try 542XVGA then start the game. QUESTION: I have a Compaq or Dell computer with an S3 Trio64 Video chipset and after playing a while the graphics break up and I get multiple images all over the screen. What is wrong? ANSWER: Some S3 Trio64 chipsets have a flaw in the onboard VESA BIOS. To correct this problem you need to run UNIVBE51.EXE. This is a shareware VESA driver that replaces the built-in VESA driver. This file is included on the demo CD in the ATS directory. It is a self-extracting file that contains information about how to use it. QUESTION: I have a Diamond Stealth 64 and after playing a while the graphics break up and I get multiple images all over the screen. What could be the problem? ANSWER: Some Stealth video cards have a documented flaw in their BIOS. You will need to contact Diamond Multimedia Systems and obtain a BIOS revision. The new revision should correct the problem. QUESTION: I have a Diamond Stealth 64 and when running under Win '95, the screen will go black after a few seconds. What could be the problem? ANSWER: The newer versions of the Win '95 drivers for this card are the problem. If the screen goes black, hit the F4 key to switch to VGA mode and the game should return. Then hit F2 to return to the default SVGA mode. We are not aware of any other solutions, at least at this time. QUESTION: What VESA driver do I use with my Diamond Viper video card? ANSWER: The VPRMODE.COM is the file you need to use. go to the C:\VIPER directory on your hard drive and type: VPRMODE VESA <ENTER> If you don't have a VIPER directory on your hard drive, the driver is also on our demo CD in the VESA\DIAMOND directory. QUESTION: I have a Packard Bell that uses a Headland video card. When I start the demo, the picture is scrambled, what is the problem? ANSWER: For this video card, you need to have the driver HTVESA.COM loaded. If the graphics appear scrambled, you probably just need to change the way it is loaded. The correct syntax for loading this driver is HTVESA /1. If the graphics are distorted, it is probably being loaded like this HTVESA /2. If you change the 2 to a 1 in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and reboot, this should resolve the problem. For example change the line C:\HTVESA.COM /2 to C:\HTVESA.COM /1. QUESTION: Every time I try to start the demo I get an error message that says, 'Memory Allocation Error, Cannot load command, system halted.' What do I do? ANSWER: This error is usually caused by 1 of 2 things. Either you do not have a VESA video driver loaded, or you have an incompatible mouse driver. If you have a Paradise, Western Digital or Trident video cards try the following. You will need to load a VESA driver that is compatible with your video card. When loading this driver in your AUTOEXEC.BAT, make sure that you add it AFTER the mouse driver line. For the Paradise or Western Digital cards copy the VESA1D.EXE from the demo CD's VESA\WESTERN directory to your PANDEMO directory. Then type VESA1D <ENTER> before running the demo. For Trident video card copy the VESA.EXE from the demo CD's VESA\TRIDENT directory and type VESA <ENTER> before starting the demo. QUESTION: I have a Toshiba laptop and I cannot find the correct VESA driver for it. Are there any on the demo CD that will work? ANSWER: Most Toshiba laptops use the Western Digital chipset. You can use the SETVESA utility to install a Western Digital driver. Your laptop must have at least 512K of VIDEO memory to run the demo.