From: nukenin@access.digex.com (R. Cliff Young)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Subject: GUS, SBPro, and GS2000 antics
Date: 17 Dec 1992 21:57:46 GMT
Organization: Talas Nukenin, courtesy of Express Access
NNTP-Posting-Host: access.digex.com
Summary: Fun with Conflicting Hardware/Confused Software in the PC World
Keywords: gus sbpro gs2000 frustration antics problems

Primarily because of all the GUS-related postings I've been flipping
through in this newsgroup, I up and impulse-bought myself a Gravis
Ultrasound from Babbage's last Friday for $149.99 (or thereabouts).
(DISCLAIMER: I'm a former Babbage's employee.  I know what goes on in
those stores.  ;)

I already had a Sound Blaster Pro installed in my 486/33, and wanted
to keep it there to avoid having to dicker with SBOS... the SBPro is
configed at 220h, IRQ 7, DMA 1, and has worked consistently well.  I
installed the GUS at 240h, DMA 3, GF1-IRQ 11, and MIDI-IRQ 5.  Tried
the MIDI files--awesome!  Tried Star Control II--uh oh, I'm having
that misplayed patch problem... I changed the GUS to DMA 7 and then
SCII sounded as excellent as the raves elsewhere had promised.  I then
installed my other impulse-purchase, SimLife for DOS, and it worked
well, utilizing the SBPro with no problem.

My roomie decides to play GS2000, the only YADFS (Yet Another Damn
Flight Simulator--term used by my friends to describe a bulk of my
software library ;) currently residing on my system.  (It's the latest
patched release, including the Islands & Ice supplement and later
patch).  BOMB!  Total lockup--it didn't even clear the text screen!
Well, from past experiences when I had a PAS+ (ick) briefly residing
on my system and an older version of GS2000, I knew that GS could be a
bit finicky with the audio portion of its configuration.  I re-ran the
GS2000 SETUP program, double-checked that a SB was still configured,
double-checked that the digital parameters (address, IRQ, DMA) were
still correct for the SBPro, kept the new (albeit unchanged) config,
and attempted once more to run GS2000.  BOMB!

Well, for kicks, I ran SBOS, then ran GS2000.  Surprise!  It ran,
without bombing!  Of course, both the GUS *and* SBPro were cheerily
sharing the pleasure of playing the Adlib music.  Neither wanted to
play the digital copilot voice, though.  Understandable for SBOS,
since I guess it wanted to use IRQ 5 and DMA 7, though I later tried
using SETUP to specify IRQ 5 and a DMA of 3 (after temporarily
resetting the GUS back to that, since GS2000's SETUP only allows DMAs
1-3) but still got no digital through either card.  I proceeded to go
through a wide range of possibilities, including running SBOS and then
removing it (which had the effect of turning the SoundBlaster into an
Adlib-only card... ;), running SBOS with all the various options,
running GS2000 SETUP with more various options, etc.  At one point I
had the SBPro (only!) working properly, with both Adlib FM *and* SB
DAC sound working, but this was not duplicable after cold reset.  The
quickest fix that will work consistently is to enable SBOS and either
retain it or remove it, and configure GS2000 to use Adlib sound.  Not
as crisp as SB, though you do get the copilot voice... (sounded fine
even when going through SBOS and the GUS).

My options are to: (1) remove the SBPro and just use GUS w/ SBOS
(which I assume will work fine, since I haven't seen any others having
problems with GS2000), (2) remove the GUS (Noooooo!!!!!!), (3) buy a
new system and dedicate it to the GUS ;) , (4) live with Adlib sound,
or (5) live without GS2000.

I'll probably contact Microprose; in an ideal universe, they will put
out new sound drivers for GS2000 that will include native GUS
support--or at least recognize that some of us out here are ignoring
the warnings in their Gravis manuals and Star Control II manuals that
a GUS and SB cannot co-exist ;) , and include a little fix in their
next patchset...

In the meantime, anyone have a similar problem or any ideas?

-- 
 R. Cliff Young --/\/-- Work: cliff@sfn.ORG | Fun: nukenin@access.digex.com
 Phone: (703)573-0913 (USA) | GEnie: R.YOUNG52 | AOL: Nukenin@aol.com
 Mail: 7374 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church, VA  USA  22042-1515     /QR:RFO:SID
 "I'll teach you to laugh and to cry // They're really the same you'll see..."
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard