B
Tue Jun 29 23:38:36 CDT 2004
On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 22:39:57 GMT,"BarryG"
<anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> penned this whopper in
microsoft.public.windowsme.general
> Mike,
>
> Thanks for the info.
>
> The BLASTER string being loaded by the driver at bootup
> seems reasonable. The SB PCI 128 card I'm using now loads
> WDM drivers, as did the onboard Realtek sound chip I was
> using.
> It looks like the BLASTER string is one one of those
> things that happens "behind your back".
> It doesn't affect anything here, I'm just curious to under
> what really happens in the internals of my machine.
>
> Thanks again.
>
> BarryG
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>Barry,
>>
>>You won't find that string in the drivers as the purpose
> of the variable is I
>>think to let DOS programs, primarily games, know where
> the SB card is located
>>and the addresses it is using. As a result I think the
> drivers for the card
>>set the current values and also write them to
> autoexec.bat each time the
>>system boots. Since these are not required other than in
> real mode I suspect
>>Win Me's regenv32.exe ignores this entry in autoexec.bat
> when transferring any
>>changes to autoexec.bat to the registry each time the
> system shuts down.
>>
>>The sound blaster variable contains four and sometimes
> five parts:
>>
>>SET BLASTER=A??? I? D? T? (the order can, I think, vary)
>>
>>Where I? is the IRQ address of the card, usually 5 but
> sometimes 7
>>D? is the DMA channel
>>and T? is the type of card involved. I think values here
> can range from 1 to
>>4 or 5.
>>A??, and seemingly in your case M???, is the base I/O
> port number. Usually,
>>this is 220.
>>
>>Addendum. I've just been checking on Win Me running in a
> virtual machine
>>where the sound card is an emulated SB16. As in your
> case autoexec.bat
>>contains no BLASTER entry nor the registry nor does
> cmdinit.bat which is run
>>each time you open a command prompt. This reinforces my
> impression that the
>>BLASTER value is created by the SB16/Creative drivers on
> boot up. In my case
>>the value is as follows:
>>BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4 P330
>>Similarly I've just checked on a real box running Win Me
> which has an
>>Ensoniq/Creative PC128 and again the BLASTER value is
> added by the drivers
>>when the system boots. I'm not currently in a position
> to check but seem to
>>recall that on another box here with an SBLive! and Win
> Me using VXD drivers
>>rather than WDM drivers, that if I disable the DOS
> emulation mode I no longer
>>see the BLASTER entry.
>>--
>>Mike Maltby MS-MVP
>>mcmaltby@hotmail.com
>>
>>
>>BarryG <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Mike,
>>>
>>> The funny thing is, I was using an on-board sound card
>>> until last week, then I disabled it and inserted a
> genuine
>>> Sound Blaster, and blow me down if the same BLASTER
>>> environment string isn't still there!
>>>
>>> If I add a BLASTER variable with different values using
>>> the environment tab in msconfig, then the string
> reported
>>> with SET is the string I add. If I then remove it again,
>>> back comes the "default" string.
>>> Curiously though, grepping every file on the hard disk
>>> only shows BLASTER to be present in the registry as a
>>> recent search string. I would expect it to be inside the
>>> file that is placing it there as well, but it doesn't
> show.
>>> One of life's little mysteries I suppose.
>>
>>.
>>
Yes, the soundblaster variables are merely for backward compatibility with
98 and 95 systems, they are ignored by ME, except in DOS gaming modes I
think. (could be wrong there)
--
"Time will bring to light whatever is hidden;
it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor."
Horace (65 - 8 BC); Roman poet.
Mike