those 2 jumpers mentioned control enable/disable the ASP chip... you don't have the chip obviously so it'll do nothing at best
QSound requires the ASP chip unless you use software based solutions, which are CPU intensive
There's no 3dctrl.exe because you don't have the binaural 3D sound chip... it's a very small square chip, I forgot what the # is

ASP = CSP... creative labs renamed it to "CSP" I guess to avoid confusion with Microsoft's thing

QSound support is weak when using the ASP chip and Creative never really cared much for it. To get it to work properly, driver hacks are needed... I mentioned this in malik's driver thread.. I forgot if I made a separate thread for this or not, just search if you don't see it. I doubt you'll get the chance to do this though because the ASP chip is almost impossible to find.

As for TextAssist that came with the SB16 install, you should run the update to get it to the latest version.. the "tamo" directory also works in case the updater program doesn't work as it is a standalone install that includes mosaic.

If the big "Creative" chip in the lower left quadrant of the photo is a CT1747 (can't quite read it on the photo), then the OPL3 is in there. And it's the real thing, not the cheap CQM emulation. 😉

The recording sounds just as I remember it. 😀

retro games 100 wrote:

1) Sometimes when I install a SoundBlaster card, I get these lines added to my config.sys file: […]
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1) Sometimes when I install a SoundBlaster card, I get these lines added to my config.sys file:

DEVICE=C:\SB16\DRV\CTSB16.SYS /UNIT=0 /BLASTER=A:220 I:5 D:1 H:5
DEVICE=C:\SB16\DRV\CTMMSYS.SYS

What software needs these lines? Any games? And I wonder why the installation that I have just done (software link 1 at the top of this post) did not insert these 2 lines in to my config.sys file. Did the installation routine examine my sound card hardware, and determine that these lines were not suitable? If you examine the "C:\SB16\DRV" file structure image which I posted above, those two files are there, but they don't get used. This has just jogged my memory. I'm sure this has happened once before. I wonder if the installation partly failed, and it was not able to correctly update my config.sys file?

When Soundblaster was introduced Creative also delivered their own API to use the card with those drivers. Since it was so unflexible noone used it and direct access was the way to go. Some older own Creative programs require this drivers (as the sound test in diagnose.exe f.e., playcmf...).
For your boot configuration you can remove the lines from config.sys and need only the following lines in your autoexec.bat (in this order):
SET BLASTER=Axxx Ix Hx Dx Tx Pxxx
diagnose.exe /S
mixerset.exe /P

The address should be the same as jumpered and T6 for SB16.
Other values to the resources you would like to have.

Thanks a lot for the info people! BTW, that chip is a CT1747, so that's good news! I'm now trying to get the card installed under Windows 95. It's not a PnP card, and so when W95 boots up, it does not "instantly" see the card. That's perfectly OK. So, I try and run this setup.exe:

Setup.exe file, 3rd file from bottom. This setup.exe is found on TheMAN's ISO file. It's in a sub directory called \SB16AWE\WIN95.

When I run this setup.exe, I get this message. It says that the audio drivers must be installed before the applications.

To get this to work, I could allow Windows 95 to automatically install the card for me. I can do this, by using W95's add hardware wizard. That will use the drivers from the Windows 95 CD-ROM. If I do that, I am sure this applications setup.exe mentioned above will be OK. But what exactly does setup.exe do? I think it just installs applications, and not drivers. But if that is true, why is there this /DRIVERS sub folder:

I tried another approach, which did not work. I tried to manually add the SB16 card's drivers, by "pointing" the W95 hardware wizard at this /DRIVERS folder. It didn't work because the hardware wizard was looking for an .inf file, and there is no .inf file inside this /DRIVERS folder.

I notice on the net, that there is a similar download package, compared to TheMAN's ISO subfolder called "WIN95". It's structured in the same way. And when you run its setup.exe, it does the same thing: it says that the audio drivers must be installed first. In fact, the "error message" picture above is taken from an alternative download package that I tried. (They both look the same, and say the same thing.)

So, because I do not have the manual, I don't know if Creative's advice is to allow Windows 95 to detect the card (using the add hardware wizard) so that the basic W95 drivers are loaded first. And then, perhaps Creative's advice is to tell the user to run the setup.exe mentioned above, so that the applications are installed. Perhaps Creative also advise the user to then upgrade the standard W95 drivers with the ones found inside the \DRIVERS sub folder, also mentioned above.

Any ideas please people? Thanks a lot for any advice. BTW, I haven't burnt TheMAN's ISO file on to a CD-R yet, because I'm waiting for a new spindle of CD-Rs to be sent to me. So, I do not know if TheMAN's ISO automates some of the installation process. However, I really want to know what goes on "behind the scenes", so that I can learn about what software is needed, and which versions are needed. Etc.

Edit: I think I can answer my own question. On TheMAN's ISO file, I have just spotted another sub folder called \SBAWE16\WIN9XDRV. I'm sure that's what I need. I'll try pointing the W95 add hardware wizard at that folder, and then run the setup.exe to install the application software afterwards...

What goes in that big, empty socket?

sliderider wrote:

What goes in that big, empty socket?

The ASP/CSP chip as mentioned above. It was supposed to accelerate speech processing and other signal processing functions, but virtually nothing was ever developed to use it.

Actually, the way I got it working was to run W95's add hardware wizard, and get it to detect any new hardware. It found the card and also the joystick port. It then installed the drivers from the W95 CD-ROM. After that, I could then install the SB16 applications OK, by running the setup.exe mentioned earlier.

Also, I was able to update the W95 drivers, by selecting the "update driver" button, found inside the card's resource properties. I checked the driver version, before and after this upgrade, and they appeared to be the same. So, it's likely that the final SB16 drivers are found on the W95 CD-ROM - well, the W95 CD-ROM that I am using, which is OSR21 (I think that is what it is called - the one with IE built in to it.)

Edit: Here is another recording of the same reggae MIDI track. This time, it's done using the final Windows 95 driver, using an upgraded Creative MIDI player, version 2.05.0. The mixer settings for both the earlier Windows 3.x version, and this new Windows 95 version were the same. If you listen very carefully, the W95 version sounds better because the Win 3.x version has a few partial "dropped notes".

hi
a CT1748A goes in that socket which is the ASP AFAIK.
i have a slightly older sb16 which has one soldered on
along with a useless sony cd interface.

here is a picture for your enjoyment.

bye

megatron-uk wrote:

sliderider wrote:

What goes in that big, empty socket?

The ASP/CSP chip as mentioned above. It was supposed to accelerate speech processing and other signal processing functions, but virtually nothing was ever developed to use it.

Is that anything like a DSP?

retro games 100 wrote:

Actually, the way I got it working was to run W95's add hardware wizard, and get it to detect any new hardware. It found the card and also the joystick port. It then installed the drivers from the W95 CD-ROM. After that, I could then install the SB16 applications OK, by running the setup.exe mentioned earlier.

Also, I was able to update the W95 drivers, by selecting the "update driver" button, found inside the card's resource properties. I checked the driver version, before and after this upgrade, and they appeared to be the same. So, it's likely that the final SB16 drivers are found on the W95 CD-ROM - well, the W95 CD-ROM that I am using, which is OSR21 (I think that is what it is called - the one with IE built in to it.)

Edit: Here is another recording of the same reggae MIDI track. This time, it's done using the final Windows 95 driver, using an upgraded Creative MIDI player, version 2.05.0. The mixer settings for both the earlier Windows 3.x version, and this new Windows 95 version were the same. If you listen very carefully, the W95 version sounds better because the Win 3.x version has a few partial "dropped notes".

OSR2.1 is the same as OSR2 except it adds USB support. It does not have the latest SB16 drivers. My ISO does have the latest SB16 drivers as well as the older ones that allows QSound to function properly. Anyway, the SB16 installer is stupid... it wants you to have the drivers working first, it assumes Win95 auto detected it (the SB16 CD came out when the first PnP cards came out) and automatically installed the drivers. So it won't let you install the apps without the drivers working first. This is the reason why you can't run the installer in NT because it uses different drivers.

the latest drivers on the CD are revision 16

I believe most of the win95 apps are 32bit... at least hybrid

Here is a video on YouTube by Lazy Game Reviews. It is called MMPLAY, and is the multimedia play demo for the SB16. It's quite good!

SB16 application setup. A friend of Pac Man, perhaps?