Dell Dimension 2400: old DOS games no sound

[josepe]

Ok, at Dell Support Forums there are no answers for me. Here is my history.
The original pc becomes with WinXP Home and the SoundMax work fine,
including old DOS games (Zsnes) running under a CMD window.
For best performance, quit XP formating hd and install Windows 2000 Pro
SP4. Download the sound drivers from Dell site for this OS. Now on the
machine, when start Win2000, don't work the sound for the old DOS games.
Appear a "no CMDLine found, blaster no enable" message. A permanent low
noise hear on the speaker that is persistent including the speakers are
power-off.
I think the drivers haves errata. The SoundMax site don't support help
(only links to Dell, Compaq, etc). At the Dell Forums, they say the low
noise problem was detected on other Dell pc models, but there is no
solution yet.
Help me please!

 

[Bernhard Dietrich]

Ok, at Dell Support Forums there are no answers for me. Here is my history.
The original pc becomes with WinXP Home and the SoundMax work fine,
including old DOS games (Zsnes) running under a CMD window.
For best performance, quit XP formating hd and install Windows 2000 Pro

Why should Win2k have better performance than XP, which is newer? MSFT
always works to increase performance and usability, therefore it is most
likely that Windows XP has better performance. You can disable themes and
graphic effects in XP; that will make XP look the same as Win2k and the
performance should at least be the same as in Win2k.

SP4. Download the sound drivers from Dell site for this OS. Now on the
machine, when start Win2000, don't work the sound for the old DOS games.

16-bit and DOS applications run in an emulated environment in all versions
of Windows NT (eg. NT4/2000/XP). DOS emulation in Windows XP was the first
version that included Sound Blaster emulation. In any older versions you
will need a 3rd party appliction to do that:
- Sound FX 2000 ($39) from http://www.softsystem.co.uk/page4.htm or
- VDMS (open source) http://ntvdm.cjb.net/

 

[josepe]

Great.
"DOS emulation in Windows XP was the first
version that included Sound Blaster emulation"
This is what I need to know!!. Thanks very much.
This way is how the answers says!!