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[Fixed] System freezes since Sound Blaster Live

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First post, by Bubu2000

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Hey guys.

I have a problem with my SBLive CT4620.

I can play games just fine, but everytime I exit the game to the main menu or back to the desktop, the screen turns black, the sound starts looping and the whole system freezes. It doesn't freeze while playing, I can play for hours. It only freezes while switching back to the games main menu or while exiting the game. This happens every time.

Sometimes, but not very often, the system freezes randomly while idling. It even freezes after a fresh win98 install, when no drivers for the card are installed. It's enough that the card is installed in a PCI slot.

Those 2 problems are gone if I remove the card.

What I tried so far:
Different PCI Slots
Automatic and manual IRQ assignment
Different drivers
Recap of the main caps on the card

Specs:
Asus A7V600-X
Athlon XP 1600+
512 MB RAM
60 GB IDE HDD
GeForce FX 5500
Windows 98 SE

Last edited by Bubu2000 on 2022-12-31, 08:42. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 4, by AlexZ

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To rule out driver issues you could try Windows XP. Lastly just try a different card. I have like 4 different types of SB Live. They are very cheap to buy.

Pentium III 900E, ECS P6BXT-A+, 384MB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 128MB, Voodoo 2 12MB, 80GB HDD, Yamaha SM718 ISA, 19" AOC 9GlrA
Athlon 64 3400+, MSI K8T Neo V, 1GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT 512MB, 250GB HDD, Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 2 of 4, by Gmlb256

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The VIA chipset could be the culprit as SBLive! used PCI protocols that VIA didn't bother to implement. On some occasions one could be lucky if that sound card worked fine on these chipsets.

Lastly, the WDM drivers for the SBLive! will be installed by default which aren't reliable in Windows 98. Phil's review of the sound card has a guide for installing the VxD driver around 5:00: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-HiLp5p820&t=300s

VIA C3 Nehemiah 1.2A @ 1.46 GHz | ASUS P2-99 | 256 MB PC133 SDRAM | GeForce3 Ti 200 64 MB | Voodoo2 12 MB | SBLive! | AWE64 | SBPro2 | GUS

Reply 4 of 4, by Bubu2000

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Ydee wrote on 2022-12-29, 14:00:

IIRC, some troubles with Creative audio cards like Live! and Audigy on VIA chipsets could be solved with PCI latency patch from G.Breese: https://www.georgebreese.com/net/software/

This patch doesn't work and isn't really needed on newer Chipsets, like my KT600

Gmlb256 wrote on 2022-12-28, 14:29:

Lastly, the WDM drivers for the SBLive! will be installed by default which aren't reliable in Windows 98. Phil's review of the sound card has a guide for installing the VxD driver around 5:00: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-HiLp5p820&t=300s

I've installed the VXD drivers from that guide, didn't solve the problem.

AlexZ wrote on 2022-12-27, 21:04:

To rule out driver issues you could try Windows XP. Lastly just try a different card. I have like 4 different types of SB Live. They are very cheap to buy.

I did that, and it didn't solve my problem. I even bought a new Audigy 2 ZS.

Status update

The problem is solved. It was neither the sound card, nor the chipset or any drivers, but the brand new power supply.

I bought a 460 watt power supply, with 33A on the 3.3V and 5V rail. After some measurements, I found that the power supply can not hold the voltage and fluctuates so much during load changes that the entire PC freezes.

I now bought a Corsair RM 550 X with only 25A on the 3.3V and 5V rails and it works like a charm. The board is rock solid now, not a single crash.

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