No sound for ms-dos games that use an 8-bit DMA sound channel
I am having a problem with getting a Sound Blaster Live! Value card to work with my older games that require an 8-bit DMA sound channel. When i load an application using an 8-bit DMA sound channel, my computer "locks up" having to reboot the computer. I don't know if its the main board, sound card, or what. But maybe, you might tell me how i can get 8-bit DMA to work on my system, i have tried lots of things so far, but still cant get it to work. Actually, any once in a while, when i run an 8-bit DMA sound game, it might work with 8-bit sound, but then when i reboot the computer it probably wont work again, i noticed that it only works when i leave my computer on for about 5 hours untouched, then when i run an 8-bit DMA sound game, it might work with sound. I would like to get it working all the time (wether i reboot or not). I know that the 16-bit DMA works fine on this system.
These are the things I tried so far: I tried Windows SE and Windows ME with the newest updated sound drivers for each OS, I tried an AWE32 sound card and had other weird problems with that (but im not to worried about that, cause I want the SBlive! to run on this system), The motherboard is a Biostar M7MKA system board with an AMD k7 750 CPU. The chipset is an AMD AMD-751 and AMD-756 chipset. I flashed my BIOS with Biostar's mainboard with the new bios update (it doesn't work before and after the flash), I did install the drivers that came with the system board CD, I also tried using the same files that were on the CD from biostar's website, I tried to use multiple applications that use 8-bit DMA (none worked of course with 8-bit DMA sound channel). I tried the file sbego.exe (same thing happened, the system crashed). I tried to put the card in different expansion slots, I tried running it in dos (real mode), but it crashed. I put that same sound card in another computer and it worked fine with 8-bit DMA sound. This system is brand new (just bought it). Everything else works fine with sound, it's just that 8-bit DMA sound. The old games I try to run with it are: doom, doom2, heretic, hexen, TIM2, lemmings, and more that I cant remember. I have had 3 experienced A+ certified PC technicians take a look and try to fix this problem, but neither of them knew what to do about it. Plus I'm A+ certified myself.
I think the problem is with the motherboard, because I tried multiple OS's, multiple sound cards, and with different computers, multiple applications, multiple I/Os, DMA channels, IRQs, from device manager, the application, and from autoexec.bat file. EVERYTHING else on this computer works perfectly fine.
I don't understand, I know it works (but only any once in a while, and it's VERY rarely), My questions are, is there any known issues about having this same problem on other computers using the BIOSTAR M7MKA system board? Is there a certain driver update that will fix this intermittent error? I tried emailing Biostar, but they don't seem to be very helpful.
I'm sorry for this long email, but you have no idea how many different things I have tried and how much time I spent trying to fix this problem and how much this means to me. I'm hoping that I will get some help from somebody that knows whats going on about this.
Thanks for ANY information or advice that you can give me!
