Zsnes bad sound in DOS port.

kebabpizza · Post by **kebabpizza** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:13 am

Hi! I have trouble getting the sound to work, or actually get the sound to work properly, since it kinda works now.
I have an old Toshiba Satellite 2520 which I thought I'd use for zsnes. The thing is the harddisk isn't working so I boot ut DOS from diskettes and then run zsnes and it works. Very good actually, but with bad sound.
At first there were no sound, but then I found I had no drivers. Now I have drivers and now I have some kind of sound, but it's killing my ears. This is not supposed to be.
Listen to the linked files below.
No matter what sound setting, but this screaming pumping strange sound is the same (almost).
There are some variation if I change sample rate.

The beginning of Mario World (Nintendo Label and welcome screen)
32kHz and other standard settings http://www.modx.nu/32khz.wav
8kHz 8bit sound mono etc. http://www.modx.nu/8khz.wav
This ROM works fine on zsnesw on my XP-computer with just a nice "pling" at the welcome-screen.

Bad wave files but they make my point...

ZSNES Version:
DOS Port
V. 1.51
Used on DOS (Unknown version) from floppy
Toshiba Satellite 2520

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:17 am

Did you make sure that Force 8-bit Sound is checked in ZSNES? Once you checked it, you will have to restart ZSNES. It is guarenteed that you will hear static if you don't have a SB16 or compatible.

kebabpizza · Post by **kebabpizza** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:19 am

8bit is in the config so I'ts loaded every time zsnes starts.
What sample rate do you recommend ?

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:27 am

If you have to have Stereo Sound, the max is 22050Hz. Otherwise, you want to use 32000Hz mono sound.

In any case, using the Windows port is a better idea in general. DOS is only for those with low spec computers and/or SB16 compatible sound cards.

kebabpizza · Post by **kebabpizza** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:29 am

Well, That's just what I do. I have very low spec and not able to run Windows. I just use the computer for zsnes, nothing else.
Do anyone know what sound card is in toshiba satellite 2520?

Hey, I found this:
Sound System
16-bit full duplex Yamaha sound system, 48kHz WAV audio for annotation and recording .WAV files, plus playback of MIDI files; Internal stereo speakers with volume control dial

http://209.167.114.38/ISG/pastproducts/ ... _spec.html

Dou you know about another program I may use to test sound?

PHoNyMiKe · Post by **PHoNyMiKe** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 5:33 pm

kebabpizza wrote:Dou you know about another program I may use to test sound?

yeah, it's called snes9x.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 5:43 pm

kebabpizza wrote:Well, That's just what I do. I have very low spec and not able to run Windows. I just use the computer for zsnes, nothing else.
Do anyone know what sound card is in toshiba satellite 2520?

Hey, I found this:
Sound System
16-bit full duplex Yamaha sound system, 48kHz WAV audio for annotation and recording .WAV files, plus playback of MIDI files; Internal stereo speakers with volume control dial

http://209.167.114.38/ISG/pastproducts/ ... _spec.html

Dou you know about another program I may use to test sound?

Looks like it would be detected like all SB clones.. you will only get 8-bit sound in ZSNES.

kebabpizza · Post by **kebabpizza** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:05 pm

is it possible that the sound doesn't work because of there is no swap file (no hard drive in computer)?

If I disable MMX there is no sound at all.

And now I tested midiplay which played the midi-song very nice.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:22 pm

Since when did DOS use a swap file?

Disabling MMX shouldn't turn off sound.

I don't see how "midiplay" has to do with anything. SNES music is definately not MIDI in any case.

kebabpizza · Post by **kebabpizza** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:41 pm

No, DOS doesn't use a swap file. It's the CWSDPMI.exe which wants to use a swap file.
When i start ZSNES i get the following

Invalid media type reading drive C
Abort, Retry, Fail?

I choose fail because I have ho C: (no hard-disk)

Warning: Cannot open swap file c:\cwsdpmi.swp

ZSNES sound card detection returns

PORT : 0220
IRQ : 5
DMA : 1
HDMA : 0

I'm not sure MMX turned off sound, but there was no sound at all for some time when I had MMX disabled...

I used midi play to make sure the sound card and drivers was working.

Strange problems eh?

Tried ZSNES DOS from within XP on my other computer, and it worked just fine...

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:57 pm

kebabpizza wrote:No, DOS doesn't use a swap file. It's the CWSDPMI.exe which wants to use a swap file.
When i start ZSNES i get the following
Invalid media type reading drive C
Abort, Retry, Fail?
I choose fail because I have ho C: (no hard-disk)
Warning: Cannot open swap file c:\cwsdpmi.swp
ZSNES sound card detection returns
PORT : 0220
IRQ : 5
DMA : 1
HDMA : 0

That probably has to do with cwsdpmi.exe wanting to do it... not ZSNES.

I'm not sure MMX turned off sound, but there was no sound at all for some time when I had MMX disabled...

You need to do more thorough testing to be sure you aren't imagining things.

I used midi play to make sure the sound card and drivers was working.

Strange problems eh?

Tried ZSNES DOS from within XP on my other computer, and it worked just fine...

I can't really say much, but unless your sound card is ISA based, you won't get sound in DOS w/o SB emulation.

In any case, if you are forced to use the DOS version and not use an actual SB16 or compatible, the sound will not be great, period.

mastershake1 · Post by **mastershake1** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:06 pm

Just a suggestion... but have you tried setting up a very small RAM drive?

creaothceann · Post by **creaothceann** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:33 pm

Maybe you can also use SUBST to create a drive C:.

kebabpizza · Post by **kebabpizza** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:42 pm

Sorry, the thing about swap file is not that serious. It works anyway. Maybe I'll try some ramdisk later.

The thing I said about MMX was just that the sound was not working, and I changed some settings including enabling MMX plus some more, and then after restar there was sound again.

What is ISA-compatible? How do I know if this sound card is? (See link above for spec.)

I've been struggling with this computer for aklmost a year now, and getting kinda tired... but not giving up, now that I got the idea of ZSNES!!!

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 10:55 pm

kebabpizza wrote:The thing I said about MMX was just that the sound was not working, and I changed some settings including enabling MMX plus some more, and then after restar there was sound again.

Changing the sound options in the DOS port requires you to restart ZSNES for sound changes more often than not (particularly Enabling/Disabling Sound and/or Stereo sound).

What is ISA-compatible? How do I know if this sound card is? (See link above for spec.)

I've been struggling with this computer for aklmost a year now, and getting kinda tired... but not giving up, now that I got the idea of ZSNES!!!

You will need to check in System Properties->Hardware Devices->Sound Card... etc. and see what resources your sound card takes up. If it is not consuming a DMA channel, then it is a PCI sound card.

mastershake1 · Post by **mastershake1** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 5:13 pm

Deathlike2 wrote:You will need to check in System Properties->Hardware Devices->Sound Card... etc. and see what resources your sound card takes up. If it is not consuming a DMA channel, then it is a PCI sound card.

Just a follow-up for kebabpizza if you're booting directly into DOS and not Win9x: check in your BIOS to see if your DMA and IRQ settings are set up there. The BIOS menu may list what type of device it is.

You can also check your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and CONFIG.SYS files, which should be in the root directory of the disk you're booting from, and locate the lines that load the drivers for your sound card. This is most likely where the hardware resources will be loaded. This may not help you very much, but if you know what driver is being loaded, you can hit up Google and find out some more information about your sound card and what the specific settings refer to.

A third solution is to search for a DOS program that will read your system bus and list what devices are present. CTPCI is one program I used to use to do this. Some others on the board may know of better programs.