Hardware resources¶

DOS has no automatic hardware detection or plug-and-play. Expansion cards like sound cards and network adapters each occupy a set of hardware resources: an I/O base address, and often an IRQ and DMA channel. When a game or driver asks you to configure a device, these values must match the DOSBox Staging configuration exactly — otherwise you’ll get silence, garbled audio, or a crash.

On real hardware, these values were set via physical jumpers or software utilities, and getting them wrong was one of the most common sources of frustration in DOS. DOSBox Staging uses sensible defaults, but you still need to enter the right values when a game’s setup utility asks.

What these settings mean¶

I/O base address (also called the port) is a hardware address the CPU uses to communicate with a device — think of it as a “mailbox number” for the card. The CPU sends commands to this address and reads data back from it. Each device needs its own unique address. Common examples: 220 for the Sound Blaster, 240 for the Gravis UltraSound, 300 for the NE2000 network card.

IRQ (Interrupt Request) is how a device signals the CPU that it needs attention — for example, when a sound card has finished playing a buffer and needs more data. Each device needs its own IRQ number; sharing an IRQ between two active devices will cause one or both to malfunction.

DMA (Direct Memory Access) lets a device transfer data directly to or from system memory without involving the CPU for every byte. Sound cards use DMA to stream audio data efficiently. The original IBM PC provided DMA channels 0–3 for 8-bit transfers; the AT added channels 4–7 for 16-bit transfers.

High DMA is used by 16-bit sound cards (Sound Blaster 16 and later) for 16-bit audio. These cards need two DMA channels: a low DMA channel for 8-bit audio backward compatibility with older games, and a high DMA channel for native 16-bit audio. If a game’s setup asks for “16-bit DMA” or “HDMA”, this is what it means.

Default resource assignments¶

Configurable devices¶

These devices have I/O, IRQ, and/or DMA settings you can change in the DOSBox Staging configuration:

Device	I/O base	IRQ	DMA	High DMA	Config section
Sound Blaster	220	7	1	5	`[sblaster]`
Gravis UltraSound	240	5	3	—	`[gus]`
IBM Music Feature Card	2A20	3	—	—	`[imfc]`
Innovation SSI-2001	280	—	—	—	`[innovation]`
NE2000 Ethernet	300	3	—	—	`[ethernet]`

Tip

When a game’s setup utility asks for sound card settings, the most common combination is: Address 220, IRQ 7, DMA 1 for Sound Blaster. If it also asks for a High DMA (sometimes labelled “16-bit DMA” or “HDMA”), enter 5.

Devices with fixed settings¶

These devices use hardcoded resource assignments that cannot be changed in the configuration:

Device	I/O base	IRQ	DMA
AdLib / OPL (FM synth)	388	—	—
MPU-401 (MIDI interface)	330	9	—
Tandy DAC	C4	7	1
Tandy / PCjr PSG	C0	—	—
PC speaker	61	—	—
Parallel port DACs (Covox, Disney, Stereo-on-1)	378	—	—
IBM PS/1 Audio	200–205	—	—
Serial ports (COM1 / COM2 / COM3 / COM4)	3F8 / 2F8 / 3E8 / 2E8	4 / 3 / 4 / 3	—

Note

The AdLib’s fixed I/O address at 388 is separate from the Sound Blaster’s configurable base address. Games can access the OPL chip through either address; this is how the Sound Blaster maintains AdLib backward compatibility.

Conflicts and the Tandy DAC¶

The most common resource conflict in DOSBox Staging is between the Tandy DAC and the Sound Blaster. The Tandy DAC is hardcoded to IRQ 7 and DMA 1 — the same defaults as the Sound Blaster. On real Tandy hardware, later Sound Blaster models included IRQ sharing to work around this, but in practice, running both simultaneously is unreliable.

If you’re using machine = tandy and also want Sound Blaster support, set tandy = psg in the [speaker] section. This keeps the Tandy 3-voice PSG synthesiser (which has no DMA or IRQ requirements) but disables the Tandy DAC, freeing DMA 1 and IRQ 7 for the Sound Blaster.

[speaker]
tandy = psg

[sblaster]
sbtype = sbpro2

Additionally, the Tandy PSG occupies I/O ports starting at C0, which overlaps with the second DMA controller’s address range. DOSBox handles this by shutting down the second DMA controller (channels 4–7) when Tandy sound is active. This means high DMA is unavailable on Tandy/PCjr machines, so Sound Blaster 16 16-bit audio will not work. Use sbtype = sbpro2 or earlier when combining Sound Blaster with Tandy sound.

Common issues¶

Game asks for settings not shown in its setup¶

Some games only offer a limited set of IRQ or DMA values. If the DOSBox defaults aren’t among the options, change the DOSBox config to match what the game expects. For example, if a game only offers IRQ 5 for the Sound Blaster, set irq = 5 in the [sblaster] section.

The same applies to I/O base addresses. If a game only supports address 240 for its Sound Blaster setup, set sbbase = 240 in the [sblaster] section.

No sound despite correct settings¶

Double-check that the I/O address, IRQ, and DMA channel all match between the game’s configuration and the DOSBox config. Many games silently fail if even one value is wrong. Also verify that the correct sbtype is selected — some games only work with specific Sound Blaster models.

For Sound Blaster 16 games with no 16-bit audio, make sure the high DMA channel is also set correctly in both the game and DOSBox config.

Garbled or stuttering audio¶

This can happen when two emulated devices share the same IRQ or DMA channel. Ensure each enabled device uses unique values. Check the tables above for potential conflicts, especially if you have multiple sound devices enabled.

Games that hardcode settings¶

A number of early DOS games (roughly 1988–1991) assume fixed Sound Blaster settings and don’t provide a setup utility at all. The most commonly hardcoded values are I/O 220, IRQ 7, DMA 1 — which happen to be the DOSBox defaults. If a game with no setup option produces no sound, these assumptions are usually the reason, and the defaults should work.