I have a Dell Latitude E5440 laptop that I am trying to play some of the old SSI games on. I have Win10 Pro installed. the games I'm trying to play are Pool of Radiance and Neverwinter Nights Diamond . These are the versions I purchased on GOG. The games appeared to install ok. When I go to play Pool, the only character I can create is a Dwarf Fighter, with no sound. I can't even start the playthru unless I go with 4 dwarf fighters, which I do not want to do. With Neverwinter, I have no sound or video adjustments. The video and audio outside of GOG is fine.

Any help will be appreciated.

Probably because the version of Dosbox bundled with those games is the old creaky 0.73 or dreadful 0.72 whose codebases range anywhere from 14 to nearly 20 years ago. And that's just not built for modern systems.

Try shoving them into DosBox staging.

I can't provide much advice for Pool of Radiance, since I don't have that game. But as for Neverwinter Nights...

Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition is a native Windows 98/2000/XP application. It runs natively under Windows and has nothing to do with DOSBOX. But still -- it's over 20 years old. And, yeah, thanks - you just made me realize how old I am too. :-D

The Dell Latitude E5440 doesn't have a discrete GPU, so it's running all graphics processing off the integrated Intel CPU chipset. Unfortunately, integrated graphics tend to be very hit-or-miss with older games since they're designed to be a cheap, simple and minimalistic solution to provide basic graphics capabilities for modern applications. Your audio issues with the game are probably along the same lines. The original Neverwinter Nights uses an older audio system which isn't fully compatible with some modern budget sound chips. Most mainstream desktop motherboards with integrated audio should still compatible, but some laptops can use scaled down audio chips that cut legacy compatibility in order to reduce cost.

TL;DR: Most modern non-gaming laptops suck at being compatible with legacy games.

If you want a simple "Press the I WIN BUTTON and make it work" solution with minimal effort: just buy Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition. It's been completely rewritten to be compatible with current hardware and operating systems, and it runs MUCH better with laptops and other systems using integrated graphics and audio. Speaking from personal experience: I had a family member who could not get the Diamond Edition to run on her laptop for anything. She purchased the Enhanced Edition (on sale), and it loaded right up with zero issues. Definitely not worth it at full price if you already have the classic game, but it goes on sale several times per year for 50 - 75% off. This version is actually still being developed (albeit, very... very... slowly). In fact, there was a new patch for it just a few weeks ago.

If you want to press on with the Diamond Edition, try right-clicking on the NWN.EXE file in the game's installation folder, select PROPERTIES, click the COMPATIBILITY tab, and then try different COMPATIBILITY MODE options.

You can also try reinstalling the Microsoft DirectX Runtime Libraries, which will make sure you have the latest version of Microsoft's legacy DirectX drivers:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

I also checked the PCGamingWiki article on the game (always a good first step), and didn't see anything else about graphics and audio issues:
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights

Good luck and may Tymora's blessings be with you!

I'm not sure anyone can get Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition to run under DOSBox as it simply isn't a DOS game. Did you mean that you had sound problems with it anyway (as a separate issue from DOS games)? Try installing OpenAL and see it that makes a difference as the newer Baldur's Gate EE, IceWind Dale EE, Planescape Torment EE, etc, games require it. Otherwise the sound settings for DOSBox games are stored in .conf files in the game folder. Look for Soundblaster, Midi, PC speaker, etc, settings and make sure they're not disabled.

Edit: If you have no sound in many other games outside of DOSBox then try finding and reinstalling Realtek HD Audio driver for your laptop.

I've found some posts saying that there wasn't really much of a sound in Pool of Radiance (and other Gold Box games) aside from some PC speaker beeps. Perhaps that's the problem?

Go request Neverwinter from the request thread. Benkii has 3 and they expire, so try that out.

Indeed, IIRC there's only bits and pieces of digitized sound and music sprinkled in here and there, but most of the times you'll be staring at stats with only your thoughts to keep you company. The classic D&D experience.

From my memories of having the CD version of the game (CD as in the PDF's and 6 games were on CD, but it was still a 80's game), it wasn't built with graphical or sound power behind it. Sprites weren't much better either.

You also have to have a heavy reliance on the instruction book as it would go on like 'you listen in at the bar and hear some rumors, read #5,6,12,13 on page 14' or something. This was partially limitations of hardware and ram and the game, as well as copy protection. Plus the code-wheel needed to access said games.

The real fact is that Pool of Radiance runs perfectly fine and Neverwinter Nights Diamond is not a DOS game.

As I was about to type that "Neverwinter Nights is not a DOS game", I realized that Neverwinter Nights is now as old as DOS was when Neverwinter Nights was released. A strange coincidence.