On 22 Jun, 18:50, "MEB" meb@not wrote:

my OP snipped to prevent this post getting too large and unwieldy

*There are generally a few things that can be done.

*One is to check the installation INFs prior to driver installation, to see
if you can remove the specific settings for the DOS emulation entries, and
by doing so, defeat their installation. This will generally work in most
instances and provides the most stable setups *WHEN POSSIBLE*.
*Errors can occur when the device actually needs the emulation/DOS
autoexec.bat entry to initialize its full complement of ISA/PCI/PnP aspects
[generally found in older/early ISA and ISA PnP cards or *cheapo/knockoff*
PCI cards]. *This then copies those modified INFs to the INF directory
during installation, defeating errors in later installations of devices
[when you see that "building device information data base"]. This CAN,
however, cause unseen conflicts and/or errors IF the device IS PnP [chip
code discovery] and attempts to constantly set its requirements, even when
disabled or not installed. There MAY be debug routines and/or chip writing
apps which can make these modifications [semi]permanent, if supported on the
device.
See this group for a recent discussion:
EMM386: Unrecoverable privileged operation error #I7 - 05/26/2008 -
05/29/2008

*Another is to allow the installation, but disable [not remove] DOS SB
support in Device Manager for the secondary device. IF the second card has
removed the primary card's DOS support, then run Device Manager Install
New Hardware and see if it will re-find the original DOS emulation for the
primary card.

*Another is to install the secondary card FIRST, disable DOS SB emulation
support, shut down, restart, check autoexec and remove the old line(s) then
install the actual primary card and driver. Check the autoexec.bat *for
improper entries. It may take more than one restart to get everything right.

*If you're attempting this AFTER installations, then open the installation
INFs [located in %windir%\INF\] and find the registry entries that were
created, then manually modify or remove the relevant entries from the
registry [export them first in case you make a mistake or they aren't the
right entries]. Also check in win.ini and system.ini to see if they contain
entries which need removed. This requires you be familiar with the registry,
its editing and areas, Windows directory installation entries [digit codes
at times], and other aspects that many may not be familiar with.

--
*MEB
*http://peoplescounsel.orgfree.com
--
_________

This looks very interesting - I want to look in to this but right now
I'm quite tired because I've been on the machine for over 10 hours and
I need to stop for a rest. Incidentally I did manage a "quick fix" by
adding this line to the autoexec.bat file -

call mybat.bat
(rest of autoexec.bat lines here...)

Inside the file called mybat.bat, I have my SET BLASTER line.

By doing this, the "Creative/Ensoniq meddling" doesn't affect what is
inside the mybat.bat file.

However I really want to get this fixed properly, so when I've rested
I am going to explore INF files, etc. (Never done that before!)

Thanks!