SB16 and win95 weirdness

Here's a problem that has eluded my solving for 8 months. If I turn on my machine and "F4" or whatever to boot into DOS instead of Win95 (usually to play ICR2 or Apache Longbow) , my SB16 card will only put out about 1/10th of it's normal volume. If I am in Win95 and shut down to DOS, the SB16 puts out normal volume. I've tried everything- messed endlessly with the autoexec and config files, tried changing the DOS SB mixer levels, etc. Nothing. I can hear when Win95 does whatever initializes my sb16- it comes during the boot, I can at one point hear the speakers pop very slightly, and after that, the card stays normal until I shut down again. Any clues?

Quoted text (12 lines)

>Here's a problem that has eluded my solving for 8 months. If I turn on >my machine and "F4" or whatever to boot into DOS instead of Win95 >(usually to play ICR2 or Apache Longbow) , my SB16 card will only put >out about 1/10th of it's normal volume. If I am in Win95 and shut down >to DOS, the SB16 puts out normal volume. I've tried everything- messed >endlessly with the autoexec and config files, tried changing the DOS >SB mixer levels, etc. Nothing. >I can hear when Win95 does whatever initializes my sb16- it comes >during the boot, I can at one point hear the speakers pop very >slightly, and after that, the card stays normal until I shut down >again. >Any clues?

The Windows 95 Soundblaster 16 drivers initializes the card with the volume settings that you have set using the Windows mixer or volume controls, those settings will remain in effect until you either: A> Power off the machine B> change them with the Windows 95 mixer or DOS mixer. What you need to do is use the DOS version of the mixer which came with the SB16. I believe it is called SB16SET.EXE. It can be executed as an interactive window or executed with the desired command line parameters from the DOS prompt or batch file. I have my Autoexec.bat configured to execute it to set the desired levels. That should do ya. Jim Boka

Quoted text (14 lines)

> Here's a problem that has eluded my solving for 8 months. If I turn on > my machine and "F4" or whatever to boot into DOS instead of Win95 > (usually to play ICR2 or Apache Longbow) , my SB16 card will only put > out about 1/10th of it's normal volume. If I am in Win95 and shut down > to DOS, the SB16 puts out normal volume. I've tried everything- messed > endlessly with the autoexec and config files, tried changing the DOS > SB mixer levels, etc. Nothing. > I can hear when Win95 does whatever initializes my sb16- it comes > during the boot, I can at one point hear the speakers pop very > slightly, and after that, the card stays normal until I shut down > again. > Any clues?

Yep, look at the file DOSSTART.BAT in the WINDOWS directory. You'll probably find that your SB files are loaded from here. This file is run when you shut down to DOS from windows. It has drivers that windows does not need (mouse, sound card, etc). When this file is run it sets your soundcard volume to whatever your .cfg file has. Run the mixerset utility and set the volume however you want it when you are in DOS. Then, when you hit F4 and boot straight to DOS, make sure you run the DOSSTART.BAT file. I got tired of typing dosstart every time so I created a file called DS.BAT that runs it for me. Now I just type 2 letters.