DOS ain't dead

> If we can't make to work cards bz Creative, what about cards bz other
> manufacturers?
> And even better chance I see with sound not in pure DOS but in DOS session
> in Windows 98.
> Is the DMA signal problem such killer to disable any chance for it?
>
> Maybe to try cards like Mediaforte Quad X-treme SF256PCP ?

Sadly no...
I bought MediaForte SF256-PCP-04 PCI, FM801 + FM tuner, 4-channel. It has some DOS utility but I didn't make it working neither under DOS nor Win98 (I mean SBemu part, it just hanged when tried to play). So there's no way with existing HW/driver, it's needed to program new driver for SB emulation.

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DOS gives me freedom to unlimited HW access.

> Is the DMA signal problem such killer to disable any chance for it?
Only for true ISA sound cards. The problem is that Intel eliminated support for PC/PCI DMA in ICH6. Only the LPC DMA support is there in current chipsets, and that requires a LPC-to-ISA bridge, not a PCI-to-ISA bridge. This also makes it impossible for an ICH6 or later board to have an SBLink header, as that relies on PC/PCI DMA support too.