CompuServe Thread

#Grollier Encyclopedia

6 messages in this thread
#43135From: Mike BrubakerMar 15, 1993 9:19 PM
Thanks for your response to my questions about the Grollier Encyclodedia. Message # 41071 from Jack Halpern turned out to be the way to go with Redbook sound. (Bernard Seeff's technique in message # 40714 worked, but involved loading an extra driver into memory.) The drawback with Redbook sound is that you cannot get sound along with videos. I called Software Toolworks tech support today and got the answers that allow the use of the PAS16 sound board, which gives sound with the videos and in the other areas where sound is available. The technique is: 1. Run the INSTALL program on the Encyclopedia CDROM. 2. Choose Sound Blaster from the sound board choices. 3. Choose 220 as the beginning hex address range at the prompt that asks this. As I recall this is the default. 4. Choose IRQ 5 at the prompt that asks for this info. As I recall this was not the default. 5. Respond to the other prompts as needed for your system. My STW.BAT file looks like this: set NGMTMP=C:\STW eeswap %NGMTMP%\swapfile.fil >NUL eepgm -eD -d2 -nC:\STW\ -p60:70:0:0:1:1 -cMVCD001 -a5 %1 %2 %3 %4 eeswap /r My CONFIG.SYS file has the following line for the sound card: devicehigh=C:\STW\sndbk12.sys 1 5 220 2 (The line created with the INSTALL program wrote it as device=….. I changed it to devicehigh=… to take advantage of DOS 5's ability to use upper memory for device drivers.) Now I and my kids are able to see the videos with the sound. Even my anti-computer wife was impressed!!! Mike Brubaker 73137,36
#43157From: Jack L. ChalkerMar 15, 1993 9:57 PM
Any software that insists on specific IRQs and DMAs should be suspect. IRQ5, for example, is the usual default IRQ for LPT1 and would be impossible to use on my system. Unless you can change all their defaults, this is very sloppy and unfortunate programming.
#43195From: Peter VerkleyMar 16, 1993 11:49 AM
Jack? a slip-up! IRQ5 is generally empty, or used for LPT2, on the machines that have two parallel ports. IRQ7 is used by LPT1. And even then I use my soundcard over IRQ 7, which is its default. No harm apparently. Regards Black Peter
#43259From: Jack L. ChalkerMar 17, 1993 5:20 AM
Well, I assume if you're not printing something at the same time as you're playing something it shouldn't make much difference. I have both my modem and the Seiko label printer on IRQ4 since I can't imagine using them both at the same time. Some BIOS setups differ from others, I suppose. On both my computers LPT1 defaults to IRQ5. Irrelevant to me, since I have something on both LPT1 and LPT2 anyway. What I really need is more than 15 IRQs; I'm full up and I've got everything shared I can think of. Lost my last available (11) when I stuck in the BusLogic SCSI board.
#43298From: Peter VerkleyMar 17, 1993 5:46 PM
Jack, that's a new one for me, how many cards do you have in your box, that you've run out of IRQs? Mind you, I've only got 11 & 12 left, I think. And I've one slot open but that's blocked by cables. Out of 8. Black Peter
#43415From: Jack L. ChalkerMar 18, 1993 11:07 PM
Actually, I've got two slots open since I was able to consolidate some cards. However, with two EISA FastSCSI-2 boards in the system, that's 2; LPTs take 2 more, COMs 2 more, sound board 1, 5 are reserved for BIOS use by the EISA chip set, and I forget what the rest are. It would be simple if I had an all-EISA system, since EISA sorts itself out and resolves all conflicts, but, alas, they don't. Oh, yeah–TIGA board takes 1 when in use, and I'm still forgetting a couple. At any rate, they're not there.