Win98 + PCI SoundBlasters = Bad luck (FIXED) \ VOGONS

Win98 + PCI SoundBlasters = Bad luck (FIXED)

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First post, by arizonapalms

Posted on 2022-06-29, 05:53

arizonapalms Offline

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Not having much luck with a few sound cards.
My P3 build (440bx) normally has an ISA SB32 which is fine but I recently upgraded to the Audigy 2 ZS as I don't use this machine for DOS games, and I wanted to put the SB32 in another machine.
I installed the drivers from the CD but now a lot of games have a weird stutter, I tried changing the audio settings of these games (if they had the option) but no dice. So far I've tested and Call of Duty 1 and Diablo 2 both have this isssue.

I removed the audigy 2 zs and replaced it with a spare PCI 128 I had lying around, and PnP wouldn't even detect the drivers so I have no idea what's going on there.

Should I just go back to the ISA card? Seems a shame as these are both decent PCI sound cards!

Last edited by arizonapalms on 2022-06-30, 05:10. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 6, by TrashPanda

Posted on 2022-06-29, 05:59

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Creative drivers strike again !

Reply 2 of 6, by Sombrero

Posted on 2022-06-29, 06:15

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Did you use default WDM drivers that most likely got installed or did you use the Driver Utility Program to swap them to VxD? You should use VxD drivers with win98 for gaming.

Reply 3 of 6, by Repo Man11

Posted on 2022-06-29, 06:50

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Around the six minute mark Phil goes over how to install the vxd drivers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfmYYG1rVug&t=31s

"I'd rather be rich than stupid" - Jack Handey

Reply 4 of 6, by Gmlb256

Posted on 2022-06-29, 16:24

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Sombrero wrote on 2022-06-29, 06:15:

Did you use default WDM drivers that most likely got installed or did you use the Driver Utility Program to swap them to VxD? You should use VxD drivers with win98 for gaming.

This. Creative Sound Blaster cards weren't known for having a good out-of-the-box experience.

Reply 5 of 6, by arizonapalms

Posted on 2022-06-30, 01:19

arizonapalms Offline

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I burned the setup iso to disc and the installer wouldn't detect the card. I did some reading online and mine might be a 'Dell variant' and not a 'true' Audigy 2 ZS.
I explored the driver CD and found a file VXD.cab which I extracted then forced windows to use that driver.

I also found the utility on the CD that Phil uses to change drivers (ctdrvswx.exe) and the only option is to switch to WDM drivers. Looks good.

Tested in Diablo II, Call of Duty, GTA Vice City (Direct3d software emulation), Counter Strike 1.5.
Sounds fantastic, the issues are gone now. As for the PCI128 i'll save that for another machine, I'm sure it'll fit nicely in a WinXP build of some kind down the line.

Reply 6 of 6, by swaaye

Posted on 2022-07-01, 03:47

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PCI 128 is basically the same as the AC97 audio integrated on motherboards but it might have better analog signal quality. The PCI 128 / PCI 64 are acquired Ensoniq AudioPCI tech. It's also where Creative got their DOS driver for the PCI sound cards.

They do support DS3D, EAX 1.0 and A3D 1.0 (in software) and also have a somewhat decent software midi synth with effects. Some models even have a 4 speaker mode by repurposing one of the input jacks as an output.

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