Disable joystick port on SB16 Value PnP
Pascal
Hello.
I have a Sound Blaster 16 Value PnP (model # 2929) and I have one big
problem with it. I am unable to disable the game port of this sound card.
The game port of my sound card is conflicting with my CH GameCard 3
Automatic joystick card. I tried several things with CTCM.EXE (-dj
extension command for example) and I tried to play with the Windows 95
setup but I couldn't figure out how to disable it.
No information is available in the Sound Blaster manual and no information
is available on Creative Labs web site.
Please, help me!
Thanks for your time and help.
Peter J. Danford
I have one of the SB16 PNP boards that comes with systems from Dell (the one
based on the vibra chip). There are no jumpers at all on it. But there is a dos
based config manager that allows you to disable the joystick port.
However, even with Win95 not in the picture, the config manager reports the
joystick port is disabled, but it is *not*. I tested this by using the CM and
then running a dos joystick port tester. Other SB cards may respond correctly.
I've only dealt with mine.
Deselecting the port from the original config in Win95 produced the same
results.
So, I had to actually disable the port on the SB card by modifying the address
hardware on it (with the use of a nor gate).
Note that sometimes the setup worked (before the hardware mod) even though
there were two game cards in the system. But the conflict led to unpredictable
results most often.
I first had a CH game card. This worked fine after the hardware modification
until I installed the DirectX 3 package which supplied a new joystick driver.
Then the card quit working all together. This was apparently due to the driver
accessing port 200H which is where the game card receives it's speed
programming info.
So, I had to switch to the ACM card from Thrustmaster which works fine.
Pete
========================================
Peter J Danford
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/People/pdanford
Bill Selk
If you have a PnP BIOS in your computer, you might want to go into your
BIOS setup utility and check the PnP settings. Most PnP BIOSes allow you
to select whether the BIOS setup utility controls PnP settings, or if
another program, such as Win95 or CTCM controls these settings. When I
installed my AWE64, Win95 was oblivious to its presence in the computer
until I changed the setting in my BIOS. Then it miraculously found it
and was able to configure it correctly. Hope it helps.
Bill Selk
Systems Engineer
Peter J. Danford
[...]
>If you have a PnP BIOS in your computer, you might want to go into your
>BIOS setup utility and check the PnP settings. Most PnP BIOSes allow you
>to select whether the BIOS setup utility controls PnP settings, or if
>another program, such as Win95 or CTCM controls these settings. When I
>installed my AWE64, Win95 was oblivious to its presence in the computer
>until I changed the setting in my BIOS. Then it miraculously found it
>and was able to configure it correctly. Hope it helps.
>
>Bill Selk
>Systems Engineer
Well, the problem was that the hardware on the card relating to the joystick
could not be disabled. It was never a problem for Win95 to find it.
RICK
I have a SB16 vibra that came with my Micron P166. This card has no
jumper to disable the game port like the oled SB16 vira I have in a
Micron P90. I also had problems finding any documentation on how to
disable the port (manual, readme, or web). Micron tech support
suggested adding the J0 (thats a zero) option to the "Set Blaster=" line
in the autoexect.bat. This should disable the port. I was then able to
instal my TM ACM game card. The procedure for For windows 95 is to
modify the autoecet.bat, remove any game ports from the device manager,
reboot to windows, and then ad the drivers for your new game card. Good
luck it worked for me. Seems like the 2 cent jumper was the way to go
if you ask me.
Peter J. Danford
Well, I'm glad it's working for you. Mine also did sometimes before I
physically did anything to the SB16 card. That set Blaster= line does nothing
more than define the BLASTER environment variable for the DOS environ table.
These are only used by some DOS programs to find out values the card was set to
by you. Nothing to do with physically disabling any hardware or the like.
In my case, before I modified the SB16 hardware, I had two pieces of hardware
(a CH card and the SB16 port) trying to respond to port 201H queries which
caused erratic behavior.
Pete
Cheung Hang
Peter J. Danford wrote:
>
> On 2 Jan 1997 18:54:34 GMT, "Pascal" <pasc...@netrover.com> wrote:
>
>
> So, I had to actually disable the port on the SB card by modifying the address
> hardware on it (with the use of a nor gate).
>
>
> Pete
>
> ========================================
> Peter J Danford
> http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/People/pdanford
Hello, I have the SB16 PnP and TM ACM game card. Did you alter the
jumper setting of the ACM card ? I know little about electronics, how
did you modify the address of SB ?
Cheung Hang
Peter J. Danford
The mod I did was a hardware mod to the SB16 board (soldering and wires and a
NOR gate chip).
I posted a follow up in this group that explained why the SB16 port wasn't
being disabled that had to do with a BIOS setting dealing with PnP. email me if
you don't find that post here.
Cheung Hang
>
> I posted a follow up in this group that explained why the SB16 port wasn't
> being disabled that had to do with a BIOS setting dealing with PnP. email me if
> you don't find that post here.
>
> Pete
>
> ========================================
> Peter J Danford
> http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/People/pdanford
Thanks for your prompt reply. My SB16 is now working with the TM ACM
without conflict in both Win95 and DOS 6.2. I disabled the "gameport
joystick" in "game, video and gameport controllers" of "system devices".
In DOS, I checked the disable box of gameport in the program CTCU.EXE,
and I tested this config with EF2000, it works !
One thing surprised me is that after adding the PnP driver, the old
CTSB16.SYS, CSP.SYS and CTMMSYS.SYS dirvers are no longer needed !! (I
was using a SB16 with ASP chip) Is it true for all DOS games ?
The posting you mentioned is attractive, and I can't find it through
resorting all messages by sender. Please repost it. Thanks.
Cheung Hang
from Hong Kong