OS/2 4.52 Freezes Loading Desktop

[ceemill]

I apologize if this has been discussed before, but I just installed OS/2 4.52 on a Dell Inspiron 3200, Pentium 2, 4GB HD, 64 megs RAM. The video system is Neo Magic 2160B, and the audio is Crystal 4237B.

I used the included Sci Tech drivers for video, but I had to install a driver I obtained elsewhere for the audio (OS2 Site). Before I installed the Crystal driver the system would boot fine, excellent video resolution. After I installed the audio drivers the system would boot all the way to point of loading the desktop, and then it would freeze up. I re-started the system and did the Alt-F1 at the OS/2 white box, installed the regular VGA video drivers, and the system booted fine, video is crummy, but I have sound.

Is there any way with this system where I can have audio and decent video? Any help would be appreciated.

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi Carl. Welcome to the forum.

So you have sound now, desktop loads, but video is crummy, which may mean you are using the basic VGA driver.

If you reinstall the video driver, do you fall again on the problem that the desktop will freeze up before the sound?

Maybe you can also use the SciTech SNAP driver (snap-os2-3.1.8.zip) for video.

Also, if you reinstall any video driver and it keep freezing, try the Alt+F1, command line and use "tedit config.sys" to REM the audio driver to see if the freezing is also problem of that driver. Maybe the Crystal audio driver you are using is "BASEDEV=CWCMMPM.SYS", can you check that?

Note: I tried to organize the OS/2 Audio drivers in the best possible way in the hobbes file server.

Regards

[ceemill]

Thanks Martin for your help, I will give the snap driver a shot and I will report back with the results.

[ivan]

Hi Carl,

To keep things straight, how did you install the sound driver if you installed it on a working system?  It should have been installed using minstall

[Pete]

Hi All

Long time since I had a Crystal soundcard but I do remember that the drivers could be a pain - something to do with the buffers being too small... some driver packages worked better than others.

Which package have you tried Carl?


Regards

Pete

[ceemill]

Hi Carl,

To keep things straight, how did you install the sound driver if you installed it on a working system?  It should have been installed using minstall

I followed the instructions in the readme that came with the driver. Sorry, not familiar with minstall, maybe you could tell me what that is and how to use it.

[ceemill]

Hi All

Long time since I had a Crystal soundcard but I do remember that the drivers could be a pain - something to do with the buffers being too small... some driver packages worked better than others.

Which package have you tried Carl?


Regards

Pete

Hi Pete,

I've installed the below from OS2 Site, all gave the same result:

crystal_2-05-0.zip
crystal_2-09-0_mpu401.zip
graddbb_a.097.exe

I apologize I don't know the exact driver name, I'm fairly new to OS/2.

[Pete]

Hi Carl

Hmm... I was going to suggest the 2-09 release but maybe not...

A possible alternative would be the uniaud driver see http://trac.netlabs.org/uniaud - supports a wide range of soundchips but does not have DOS or windows sound support.


Regards

Pete

[ceemill]

Hi Carl

Hmm... I was going to suggest the 2-09 release but maybe not...

A possible alternative would be the uniaud driver see http://trac.netlabs.org/uniaud - supports a wide range of soundchips but does not have DOS or windows sound support.


Regards

Pete

Thanks Pete, I will give the uniaud a try. But I do have one dumb question, when you install a driver and it doesn't work or causes a problem, is it necessary to remove it, or can you install over it and have it work? How do you uninstall a driver in OS/2?

[Pete]

Hi Carl

If a driver is causing a problem it is usually best uninstalled.

The "How" bit varies a little...

It is about 20 years since I last booted a "pure" OS/2 installation but think it had an Install/Remove folder somewhere in the Desktop folders. That contains the  Install/Uninstall objects for Device Drivers, Networking and Selective Install/Uninstall.

For sound drivers I think you need to run \mmos2\minstall which consults the control.scr supplied with the driver - should be a copy in the same directory, I think - and then set the number of sound devices to 0 to uninstall. However, it is a long time ago...

Most drivers can be over written be installing later/older version of the driver - should always check any included readme just in case though - and the replacement driver becomes active after a reboot.

A lot of drivers can simply be REM'd in or deleted from the config.sys file to make them inactive after a reboot if testing to see if a driver is causing a problem.

Hopefully others will join in if I have missed anything.


Regards

Pete

[ceemill]

Hi everyone,

Well, the snap drivers suggested by Martin did the trick, I have good video resolution now, but it will only do 16 colors. Not a problem, the only thing "off" as far as color is the normally blue borders around application windows is now slightly pink and highly pixelated.

The other thing is the os will not shut down either with the warp center button or the context menu brought up by right clicking the desktop LOL, if it's not one thing it's another. Can anyone suggest a fix for this problem??

[ceemill]

shutdown started working again, I guess it just needed a rest 

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi Carl

Can you see if you can improve the colors on "System Setup - System"? (Picture attached).  Do you see there several color options? A reboot is required after your change that.

Regards