Dell Dimension XPS M233S WIN98 VM

1997 · operating-system · driver · development · recovery · Windows

This is a close approximation of my Dell Dimension m233s in 86Box. Of note is the special goldfinch version of AWEUtil which isn't available on the Dell website. I had to scrape it from the original 1997 installation. The version on TheRetroWeb might have been compatible but I didn't need to find out. Dell Dimension XPS M233S Pentium 1 233mhz w/MMX STB Nitro (Verge GX) Creative Vibra 16C onboard Creative Goldfinch ISA AWE32/SB32 Addon Card IBM Deskstar 4 DCAA-34330 4.3GB 5400RPM ATA/IDE 96KB Cache Toshiba 24x CD-ROM Drive Iomega Zip 100 Goldfinch confirmed working in aweutil after installing however it would not work in a shareware game. This behavior seems to be inherent to the AWE when running Protected Mode games. " Another major limitation of AWEUTIL is that it will not work with any Protected Mode games (like Doom, which start using DOS4/GW )." Only odd part is soundfonts appear to apply correctly to protected mode games when emulating an awe 64 value. This could come down to a difference in driver versions. Maybe support was added in later driver versions? This could be down to " Incidentally, in the case of Doom, version 1.5 apparently does work with the AWE32 without AWEUTIL loaded. " however it still does not explain why it doesn't work with the Goldfinch, unless it is somehow addressed differently then a standard AWE 32 by msdos applications. Figured it out. It was a bug in the shareware version of Doom. Selecting AWE32 in Doom 1.9 Create Tracking Accounted indeed produces sound using the Creative Goldfinch upgrade board. I was able to locate the Creative Goldfinch software disks (AWEUtil) on the Dell website. ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ) This however still did not include the actual driver. I did however manage to find the driver installer package in the support folder of the original 1997 installation and I packaged it on a floppy image. This is currently the best/easiest driver pack to use. It should contain everything you need to install the Vibra 16C and Goldfinch on a clean installation of Windows 9x.