Motherboard model please.

kolderman wrote on 2020-05-08, 02:19:

Motherboard model please.

The computer is a Dell Dimension V400, knowing Dell I imagine it is their own board although I don't know the model number for the board specifically.

SB Live! is known to be incompatible with VIA motherboard chipsets. I can't find out what motherboard the V400 has, but if you look at it and see a VIA northbridge/southbridge, that may well be the problem. If you can get your hands on an Augidy2 that is known to work, or another brand like an Aureal Vortex 2.

kolderman wrote on 2020-05-08, 05:30:

SB Live! is known to be incompatible with VIA motherboard chipsets. I can't find out what motherboard the V400 has, but if you look at it and see a VIA northbridge/southbridge, that may well be the problem. If you can get your hands on an Augidy2 that is known to work, or another brand like an Aureal Vortex 2.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-713801-212-Slot … I-/123788724422 <-- This isn't my exact board but is the same board as the one I have.

I got drivers for a different soundblaster (was told it was for a 4760) installed although they are older drivers. It works although I don't know if I'm just getting audio or if I'm getting everything out of it that I can.

So I don't think it's a via chipset....but you have an onboard yamaha xg....why not just use that? Comes with genuine opl3 too for dos games.

kolderman wrote on 2020-05-08, 06:27:

So I don't think it's a via chipset....but you have an onboard yamaha xg....why not just use that? Comes with genuine opl3 too for dos games.

I was seeing the Yamaha drivers, but I didn't know it was there till I got the card. I didn't know which was better to use. I mostly have this card to put on a different 98 machine but was testing it out here until the parts for it come in. That is nice to know though. I've been learning a lot about these older systems lately and this has been another experience. Thanks for your help.

Quick question, would it matter if I'm running 98, or 98 SE?

thenix wrote on 2020-05-08, 21:20:

Quick question, would it matter if I'm running 98, or 98 SE?

I don't think it would matter per se, but I would recommend running 98SE with the 2004 update pack applied.

thenix wrote on 2020-05-08, 21:20:

Quick question, would it matter if I'm running 98, or 98 SE?

Only 98 SE can use WDM drivers, so if you're trying to use those, then it absolutely matters.

Jorpho wrote on 2020-05-08, 22:03:

thenix wrote on 2020-05-08, 21:20:

Quick question, would it matter if I'm running 98, or 98 SE?

Only 98 SE can use WDM drivers, so if you're trying to use those, then it absolutely matters.

The drivers from the creative website were WDM drivers I believe. Guess I'll update the OS then

thenix wrote on 2020-05-08, 23:53:

Jorpho wrote on 2020-05-08, 22:03:

thenix wrote on 2020-05-08, 21:20:

Quick question, would it matter if I'm running 98, or 98 SE?

Only 98 SE can use WDM drivers, so if you're trying to use those, then it absolutely matters.

The drivers from the creative website were WDM drivers I believe. Guess I'll update the OS then

If the installer for the WDM drivers did not complain about Windows 98 First Edition, I have nothing positive to say about software quality control at Creative at the time .

darry wrote on 2020-05-09, 00:12:

thenix wrote on 2020-05-08, 23:53:

Jorpho wrote on 2020-05-08, 22:03:

Only 98 SE can use WDM drivers, so if you're trying to use those, then it absolutely matters.

The drivers from the creative website were WDM drivers I believe. Guess I'll update the OS then

If the installer for the WDM drivers did not complain about Windows 98 First Edition, I have nothing positive to say about software quality control at Creative at the time .

the WDM drivers say it's for 98SE, I don't think I tried it yet. I found the drivers i were using were VFX? It was saying there was a problem and the card wouldn't work.

You might want to try the card in a different PCI slot , just in case .

thenix wrote on 2020-05-08, 01:34:

Hello all. I recently got a Sound Blasters Live! CT4870 card to put in my Windows 98 computer. I found some newer drivers that were supposed to work I think from this site. I had the card installed and installed the drivers but it would have an error at the end of installation. After restart it would recognize 4 drivers for the sound card but 1 (the creative driver, the main one) would have a yellow icon saying Windows couldn't start it so it stopped trying. Sound didn't work. I decided I was going to uninstall the drivers and try the older drivers from creative's website but after uninstalling the drivers windows started crashing. Even now when I have the card inserted windows will crash and not let me log in. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

SB Live! cards are notorious for needing just the right driver. Some of the information on vogonsdrivers is misleading because just because a card model is listed in an INF file doesn't mean that that driver package will work.

I have a CT4780 and was able to install using this CD. I have uploaded the ISO to archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/sblive-1024

boxpressed wrote on 2020-05-09, 02:43:

SB Live! cards are notorious for needing just the right driver. Some of the information on vogonsdrivers is misleading because j […]
Show full quote

thenix wrote on 2020-05-08, 01:34:

Hello all. I recently got a Sound Blasters Live! CT4870 card to put in my Windows 98 computer. I found some newer drivers that were supposed to work I think from this site. I had the card installed and installed the drivers but it would have an error at the end of installation. After restart it would recognize 4 drivers for the sound card but 1 (the creative driver, the main one) would have a yellow icon saying Windows couldn't start it so it stopped trying. Sound didn't work. I decided I was going to uninstall the drivers and try the older drivers from creative's website but after uninstalling the drivers windows started crashing. Even now when I have the card inserted windows will crash and not let me log in. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

SB Live! cards are notorious for needing just the right driver. Some of the information on vogonsdrivers is misleading because just because a card model is listed in an INF file doesn't mean that that driver package will work.

I have a CT4780 and was able to install using this CD. I have uploaded the ISO to archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/sblive-1024

Thank you, I saw a bunch of sound blasters ISOs on archive.org but couldn't tell which one was for what card.

thenix wrote on 2020-05-09, 13:40:

Thank you, I saw a bunch of sound blasters ISOs on archive.org but couldn't tell which one was for what card.

No problem. Let me know if it works. This was the only ISO I uploaded that did not come from a retail box I verified myself. I found the ISO somewhere, and it worked perfectly with a loose CT4780 I had.

I would start with a fresh install of Windows.

boxpressed wrote on 2020-05-09, 15:00:

thenix wrote on 2020-05-09, 13:40:

Thank you, I saw a bunch of sound blasters ISOs on archive.org but couldn't tell which one was for what card.

No problem. Let me know if it works. This was the only ISO I uploaded that did not come from a retail box I verified myself. I found the ISO somewhere, and it worked perfectly with a loose CT4780 I had.

I would start with a fresh install of Windows.

I haven't had a problem all day with it. Thanks again.

Jorpho wrote on 2020-05-08, 22:03:

Only 98 SE can use WDM drivers, so if you're trying to use those, then it absolutely matters.

According to Wikipedia, Win98FE (and even 95 OSR2) can also use WDM drivers.

I also found this post on General Hardware:

hyoenmadan wrote on 2017-05-07, 02:03:

Jorpho wrote:

hyoenmadan wrote:

is recomendable to disable even USB and Firewire, which use WDM only drivers

But Windows 98 FE was completely capable of using USB and had no support for WDM.

No really. USB support in Win98 (and Win95 by extension) has been always done via WDM, and since Win95 is present in a limited way via the "Detroit" update package (Detroit.exe). As side note, this driver model was originated in NT5 (Win2k) during its development, and then backported to Win9x series, by including a subset of the NTOS kernel as a system VxD (a complete and real heresy, which made the whole system 50% less stable). MSFN, and rloew has more information about this specific subject.

TechieDude wrote on 2020-06-01, 01:22:

Jorpho wrote on 2020-05-08, 22:03:

Only 98 SE can use WDM drivers, so if you're trying to use those, then it absolutely matters.

According to Wikipedia, Win98FE (and even 95 OSR2) can also use WDM drivers.

Technically, yes, but as per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_98#Wind … _Second_Edition , 98 SE had "improved WDM audio and modem support". As noted above, Creative's installers specifically required 98 SE for WDM drivers.