Hi Dallas in Canada ;-) > FreeDOS. I have a 40 GB Maxtor 6N040T0, a Pentium 4 2.8 GHZ > processor, 1 GB of DDR RAM 400mhz, a generic integrated Intel AC'97 > Audio Controller, and an Intel 82865G Graphics Controller. > > So here is my question. Is it possible to run Windows 3.1 with sound > and displaying at least 640x480x256, preferably 1024x768x256?
As far as I can tell, you will not really get sound on a Pentium 4 with AC97. Only very few DOS programs support AC97 and I doubt that Windows 3 drivers exist. Of course a Pentium 4 would be fast enough to simulate a complete computer with classic (ISA) SoundBlaster to install Windows. Having only 1 GB RAM should be no problem. Actually Windows 3 already gets confused if you have more than 64 MB RAM in a way visible for Windows. * use VirtualHDIrq=OFF in the 386Enh section of system.ini * use 32BitDiskAccess=OFF * remove device=vshare.386 as it supports no FAT32 * use PageOverCommit=1 to limit SWAP size and let Win work > 256 MB RAM * try WIN /D:SFVCX to disable breakpoints, 32 bit I/O, virtual IRQ, UMB In general, it is very tricky to run Windows for Workgroups 3.11 in FreeDOS at all. So I hope you mean the classic normal Windows 3.1, which you can always run in STANDARD mode if the 386Enh mode fails to work with FreeDOS or any of your drivers. There should be SVGA or VESA drivers which work okay at 256 colors, although often only at low resolutions and only 4:3, not 16:9 ones. Some PCI soundcards also came with DOS support drivers, but whether they include Windows 3 support varies. Examples: SoundBlaster Live and SoundBlaster PCI, which came with protected mode drivers which simulate ISA SoundBlaster for many DOS games. Other PCI sound cards implement a limited amount of SoundBlaster compatibility in hardware which requires a mainboard which at least still "remembers" ISA to exist. I failed to get those to work with my games on AMD Athlon or newer CPU, for example... The most DOS game compatible would of course be a real ISA sound card, on a mainboard with ISA and slow enough CPU, max Pentium III. On more modern computers, it is probably a lot easier to simulate older hardware and install things there. You also have complete simulations of DOS (DOSBOX) and Windows (Wine) for Windows and/or Linux available as free open source. The DOSEMU software simulates only some old hardware, allowing you to install FreeDOS in there. Cheers, Eric PS: FreeDOS fans in Europe :-) I have some PCI soundcards which do hardware attempts at ISA SoundBlaster compatibility. For example one with ForteMedia FM801 chipset donated by MartinS. As said, it seems that this requires older mainboards to work. Anybody in need? PPS: Apart from old BIOS only seeing 120-ish GB, there is no reason to use ancient (expired?) harddisks with FreeDOS. Up to 2 TB work. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Developer Access Program for Intel Xeon Phi Processors Access to Intel Xeon Phi processor-based developer platforms. With one year of Intel Parallel Studio XE. Training and support from Colfax. Order your platform today. http://sdm.link/xeonphi _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
