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Windows 98SE - no sound with WDM audio drivers

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First post, by JayCeeBee64

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I have a problem that has defied all my attempts to fix it and I'm at my wit's end. I'm hoping the experts here will be able to help me.

In short, when I install WDM audio drivers in Windows 98SE, the process appears to go well until the computer reboots; but afterwards, there is no sound or sound devices present, even though the sound card appears in Device Manager without any apparent problems or conflicts.

Here is a list of the hardware I'm using right now:

Soyo P4I-845pe socket 478 mobo
Pentium 4 2.4Gh Northwood CPU
512MB Infineon DDR RAM PC2700
Nvidia GeForce FX 5500 256MB AGP video card
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz PCI sound card w/NEC XR385 WT board
Davicom 9102/A Ethernet Adapter (integrated in mobo)
Lite-On 16x DVD ROM & 52x-16x-8x CD/DVD recorder
Iomega ZIP100 ATAPI drive
Promise Ultra100 TX2 IDE controller
Seagate 80Gb and WD 80, 160 and 500Gb hard drives
Windows 98SE and Windows 2000 SP4 OS in dual-boot configuration

I have done everything I can think of to correct this: uninstalled/reinstalled drivers (both in normal and safe mode), try newer/older/OEM WDM drivers (from both Turtle Beach and Cirrus Logic/Crystal SC), moved the card to different PCI slots, changed IRQ assignments; I even tried the solution outlined here http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/wdm-no-sound … e-t2015031.html. Nothing works, however. VxD drivers work, but they have very bad performance overall and are very buggy (erratic volume control, severe slowdowns when running games and/or applications, unexpected reboots and/or crashes).

If the only way out is to do a fresh install of everything, then I will have to do so; but I'm hoping someone has another suggestion or solution for me to try before I commit myself to such a lengthy procedure.

NOTE: Sorry, I forgot to add this. The sound card works fine and without any problems in Windows 2000. I have also tried a Phillips Seismic Edge Audio card and is the same result with WDM drivers: no sound in Windows 98SE, sound in Windows 2000. I even activated the Soyo mobo's built-in sound chip (C-Media AC97), with the same results.

Ooohh, the pain......

Reply 3 of 8, by sprcorreia

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You need to have special attention to the drivers you are using. Read more here:

http://www.turtlebeach.com/support/index.php? … tryID=585214044

Latest drivers From Turtle beach here:

http://www.turtlebeach.com/support/index.php? … oad&EntryID=901

Latest driver from Videologic is SFV4W9M.EXE. Videologic site is gone.

If nothing works, reinstall windows.

Last edited by sprcorreia on 2012-08-11, 20:33. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 4 of 8, by TheMAN

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don't forget.... just because it says "WDM" doesn't mean it's good..... many WDM drivers back in the early days (98/2k) were just crappy, and the non-WDM drivers were either more feature rich or just plain worked

Reply 5 of 8, by JayCeeBee64

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Oh well, I guess I'll accept the inevitable - I'll continue using the VxD drivers on Win98SE until I'm ready to do the clean install (and upgrade Win2k to WinXP in the process as well).

Thanks everyone for your help. I really appreciate it.

Ooohh, the pain......

Reply 6 of 8, by TheMAN

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Win2k will run good on that system because of how little RAM there is.... with XP SP3, it will be choking! It is also possible to use WinFLP, Windows Embedded 7 or Windows ThinPC on it as they are light weight... newer software support (if you want it), but you may have issues with older hardware..... so stick to Win2k or WinFLP based on those specs

Reply 8 of 8, by JayCeeBee64

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After doing some more thinking, I've decided to go in a different route. A few days ago I went to visit my sister, and her husband had a few interesting items he didn't want around anymore - so I gladly took them off his hands (for free!). One of them were four 1GB sticks of DDR 333 RAM; since my mobo can only see up to 2GB, I took the 512MB out and replaced it with two 1GB sticks. Next, I replaced the video card with a GeForce 6600 GT 256MB AGP, and the Santa Cruz with a Dynex DX-SC51 sound card (these two I bought at eBay). I also removed the two 80GB hard drives and left the 160GB and 500GB in their place. Finally, I installed Windows XP SP2 (I also got this from him). So far, everything works as expected and without any major problems.

In the end, though, this is only temporary; I'm already making initial plans to replace this setup with a new Sandy or Ivy Bridge-based system within a year or two; and when I do, I'll reconfigure my current setup and turn it into a fast Windows 98SE system to run games and programs from the late 90's to early 2000's.

Ooohh, the pain......

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