Indeed, I tried installing Audigy drivers before installing the graphics drivers and had issues with soundfonts. For me, I do this order: DX9 > Nvidia > Audigy.

RE: Audigy 1, that's interesting, do these games otherwise work fine if digital is used or do certain games only support analog audio?

AaronS wrote on 2025-11-23, 23:56:

RE: Audigy 1, that's interesting, do these games otherwise work fine if digital is used or do certain games only support analog audio?

In this context, digital audio is referring to sound effects and speech in DOS games. That's how various setup programs called it back in the day.

Not to be confused with SPDIF, which doesn't work at all on Audigy cards in pure DOS, due to how Creative coded their drivers.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-23, 23:55:

Yep. Did that, too. Just the other day, in fact.

Afraid I'm completely out of ideas then.

Maybe you just happen to have a rare hardware combination which causes some unknown incompatibility. Or you're experiencing stability problems which only come to light under certain circumstances. I can't help with either of those.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-24, 00:02:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-23, 23:55:

Yep. Did that, too. Just the other day, in fact.

Afraid I'm completely out of ideas then.

Maybe you just happen to have a rare hardware combination which causes some unknown incompatibility. Or you're experiencing stability problems which only come to light under certain circumstances. I can't help with either of those.

Okay, no worries. Thanks anyway. I'll try starting a new thread at some point. See if something can be dug up.

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-24, 00:07:

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-24, 00:02:

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-23, 23:55:

Yep. Did that, too. Just the other day, in fact.

Afraid I'm completely out of ideas then.

Maybe you just happen to have a rare hardware combination which causes some unknown incompatibility. Or you're experiencing stability problems which only come to light under certain circumstances. I can't help with either of those.

Okay, no worries. Thanks anyway. I'll try starting a new thread at some point. See if something can be dug up.

https://www.sharkyforums.com/showthread.php?5 … ighPoint-HPT366
https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/need-he … -sblive.992290/

If you are still using the onboard HPT IDE controller on your Abit board, it's known to cause problems with Soundblaster Live cards. I know you have an Audigy but it sounds similar to what you're experiencing. Not using the HPT controller, lowering UDMA speeds or downgrading the HPT windows drivers seems to help.

Unplug all drives from the HPT controller and disable it in BIOS, then see if any of this keeps happening.

asdf53 wrote on 2025-11-24, 04:49:

https://www.sharkyforums.com/showthread.php?5 … ighPoint-HPT366 https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/need-he … -sblive.992290/ […]
Show full quote

DustyShinigami wrote on 2025-11-24, 00:07:

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-24, 00:02:

Afraid I'm completely out of ideas then.

Maybe you just happen to have a rare hardware combination which causes some unknown incompatibility. Or you're experiencing stability problems which only come to light under certain circumstances. I can't help with either of those.

Okay, no worries. Thanks anyway. I'll try starting a new thread at some point. See if something can be dug up.

https://www.sharkyforums.com/showthread.php?5 … ighPoint-HPT366
https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/need-he … -sblive.992290/

If you are still using the onboard HPT IDE controller on your Abit board, it's known to cause problems with Soundblaster Live cards. I know you have an Audigy but it sounds similar to what you're experiencing. Not using the HPT controller, lowering UDMA speeds or downgrading the HPT windows drivers seems to help.

Unplug all drives from the HPT controller and disable it in BIOS, then see if any of this keeps happening.

Ohh, okay. Interesting. I’ve yet to read through the thread, but is there any mention of DirectX 9 being a problem?

I’m not sure if I’m able to downgrade…? Would it even let me now that 1.25 is installed? Worst case I can just revert to an earlier image. But instead of downgrading, I’d probably just settle for disabling the whole lot and sticking everything on IDE 1 and 2. Thanks.

Just ran through this guide to install my SB0090 in Windows 98SE. I haven't tested extensively yet, but everything seems to be working well so far. Thanks for pulling this together!

smax wrote on 2025-12-02, 02:38:

Just ran through this guide to install my SB0090 in Windows 98SE. I haven't tested extensively yet, but everything seems to be working well so far. Thanks for pulling this together!

Glad to hear it. Enjoy!

Hi, I used this guide to install dos drivers for the audigy 2 (sb0240) on windows 98 se. I use Phils .pif te boot into dos mode: Phil's MS-DOS Mode Tutorial: Working Memory, Mouse, CD-ROM and Sound Blaster 16/32/64 in Windows 9x MS-DOS Mode.

I have tried all different settings in ctsyn.inf, the pif (autoexec.bat and config.sys settings like set blaster). Disabling parallel and serial port in bios to free up irq5 and irq7.
but whatever I do, sbego.exe always fails with "No sound blaster found"...

Any ideas?

vogoff wrote on 2025-12-18, 12:27:

Hi, I used this guide to install dos drivers for the audigy 2 (sb0240) on windows 98 se. I use Phils .pif te boot into dos mode: […]
Show full quote

Hi, I used this guide to install dos drivers for the audigy 2 (sb0240) on windows 98 se. I use Phils .pif te boot into dos mode: Phil's MS-DOS Mode Tutorial: Working Memory, Mouse, CD-ROM and Sound Blaster 16/32/64 in Windows 9x MS-DOS Mode.

I have tried all different settings in ctsyn.inf, the pif (autoexec.bat and config.sys settings like set blaster). Disabling parallel and serial port in bios to free up irq5 and irq7.
but whatever I do, sbego.exe always fails with "No sound blaster found"...

Any ideas?

Does the card work in pure DOS if you just click Start > Shutdown > Restart in MS-DOS Mode, without using Phil's modifications?

If so, there might be a problem with your custom PIF file.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-12-18, 12:33:

Does the card work in pure DOS if you just click Start > Shutdown > Restart in MS-DOS Mode, without using Phil's modifications?

If so, there might be a problem with your custom PIF file.

Had to uninstall ForceWare 81.98 Modded/Unofficial and install official 77.72 drivers to make power and reboot work again.
However, Start > Shutdown > Restart in MS-DOS Mode doesn't work. It reboots and then I get a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left.

To get around this I edited c:\windows\msdos.sys and changed BOOTGUI=1 to 0.
Now I could boot into MS-Dos right after boot.

ran c:\audigy12\audigy12.exe and then ran sbego.exe. But still same error unfortunately.

vogoff wrote on 2025-12-18, 14:04:

To get around this I edited c:\windows\msdos.sys and changed BOOTGUI=1 to 0.
Now I could boot into MS-Dos right after boot.

That shouldn't be needed, so it looks like something is indeed wrong with your system.

Do a clean install of Windows 98SE, follow my guide through every step, and then try Restart in MS-DOS Mode once again. That should automatically load the Audigy's DOS drivers. You never need to run sbego.exe manually if you followed the guide correctly.

I'm in process of shuffling my old setups a bit so I want to try some newer systems. I have successfully used this guide in numerous old setups (thanks for making it!), but does it have a chance to work in the following or shouldn't I even try?

1. MSI K8N Neo2 (nforce 3 250 chipset, socket 939)
2. MSI K8M NeoV (KM800 chipset, socket 754)
3. DFI PS83-BL (i865PE chipset, socket 478)

My primary retro setup during the last years has been an ASUS A7V600 (KT600 chipset) with Athlon XP 3200+ Barton and various graphics cards (6800LE unlocked, MX440-128bit, Radeon 9550 with Omega drivers etc), but it's hard to find good PSUs with 30+A on the +5v rail and the luck of SSE2 instructions is limiting some software (eg later GOG installers etc), not to mention SATA compatibility with the 8237 southbridge.

Honestly I'm more interested in early 00s Windows performance because that's the era I have most nostalgia with, but since this era is covered with good compatibility even with Core2/pcie hardware, it would be a nice bonus to occasionally run legacy Win9x with late DOS games within its built-in support.

GeorgeMan wrote on 2025-12-19, 17:11:

I'm in process of shuffling my old setups a bit so I want to try some newer systems. I have successfully used this guide in numerous old setups (thanks for making it!), but does it have a chance to work in the following or shouldn't I even try?

Cheers! The SB16 emulation component probably won't work on any nForce chipset. I never tried that myself, but there are many reports stating that nForce just doesn't do DOS compatibility. The VIA K8M800 should work fine. I used a motherboard with that chipset in one of my previous retro builds and had no issues with the Audigy.

No idea about the i865PE though. You may want to see if there's any info on that here: PCI sound cards and Chipsets from various manufacturers...

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-12-19, 17:22:

Cheers! The SB16 emulation component probably won't work on any nForce chipset. I never tried that myself, but there are many reports stating that nForce just doesn't do DOS compatibility. The VIA K8M800 should work fine. I used a motherboard with that chipset in one of my previous retro builds and had no issues with the Audigy.

No idea about the i865PE though. You may want to see if there's any info on that here: PCI sound cards and Chipsets from various manufacturers...

Thanks. I tried and indeed it's not working on the nForce chipset, yet it works fine on the other two. 😀 i865PE is very nice, stable and great for retro stuff, yet I don't like Pentium 4 architecture at all...
Merry Christmas and happy new year!

@Joseph_Joestar, i've got time to test the real SC-55 and MT-32 to works with the Audigy 2 ZS and indeed the VDMSound does the trick ! (under Windows 98 MS-DOS).

I've cleaned VDMSound of useless stuff and only keeped MPU-401 stuff, like this it works in pair with the Audigy (should works also on Live cards btw).
So here the tutorial for others, it's for MS-DOS under Windows 98 :

1) First extract the VDMSound.zip archive (in attachments) to the root of the C:\ drive on Windows 98.
-> Keep the structure and the folder untouched, so it should be C:\VDMSOUND.

2) Edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT and add this line :
-> SET VDMSPATH=C:\VDMSOUND

3) *VERY IMPORTANT* : Go into VDMSOUND folder and install vcredist.exe then reboot the PC when it's asked
-> This step is required to allow the installation of the VXD driver and his DLL modules.

4) Click on "InstallFix.reg" to install changes to the registry
-> This will fix a Windows error related to Tips during install of the driver.

5) Click on "Install.bat" it will install the VXD driver and his DLL modules.
-> Wait for completion then when you see "Installation complete" you can close the MS-DOS window.

6) Create a MPU.BAT file on the root of C: with this content :

1@echo off
2cd VDMSOUND
3vxdsload
4vxdsinit
5vxds1
6cd ..

-> This will allow quick init for the VDMSound MPU-401 under MS-DOS Prompt.

7) Go to Windows Control Panel | Multimedia icon, and then choose the MIDI tab
-> Select the MPU-401 output device (it's the output who send MIDI commands to a external device and not using the internal wavetable).

8 ) Run MS-DOS prompt
-> Go to C:\
-> Write MPU
-> Go to the directory of your game and use IRQ 330 for the General Midi / Sound Canvas setting.
-> Now the DOS games musics will be played directly on your SC-55/MT-32 or any external device who accept Midi commands.

Note: As long you keep the MS-DOS prompt opened the driver remains loaded. As soon you close that window the driver is unloaded.
So you need reopen the MS-DOS prompt and re-init the VDMSound MPU-401 AND load your game in that same window.
Only games loaded in that MS-DOS prompt window will benefit from the driver.
If you load any .BAT or .EXE outside they won't be able to use the driver. In that case just load them in that MS-DOS prompt window and it will works fine.

* Additionnal notes *

You can change the port of the VDMSound MPU-401, if you really want, by editing the file VDMS.INI in VDMSound folder at that line :

1[MPU401 Controller.config]
2port    = 0x330         ; usually 0x300 or 0x330

@Joseph_Joestar,
I just wanted to report that I got SB16 Emulation successfully working on an Asus A7N8X Deluxe (v. 1.04) with an Audigy 2 ZS (SB0350). This is an NFORCE 2 motherboard. Followed your instructions to the "T," and Ultimate Doom (DOS release, not the Doom95 release exe) is successfully using Sound blaster emulation and General Midi. Sounds amazing!

Things disabled in BIOS: 3COM NIC (using Nvidia LAN), Firewire, Soundstorm Audio, COM1 and COM2, LPT. USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 was left alone and not disabled.

--photios

TgamesFR wrote on 2025-12-29, 09:29:

@Joseph_Joestar, i've got time to test the real SC-55 and MT-32 to works with the Audigy 2 ZS and indeed the VDMSound does the trick ! (under Windows 98 MS-DOS).

Cool! This seems to be a nice workaround for Creative's hardcoded driver behavior under Win9x. Too bad there isn't anything like that for pure DOS, where SBLive and Audigy cards always default to the ECW sets, and ignore external MIDI devices.

photios wrote on 2026-01-05, 12:48:

@Joseph_Joestar,
I just wanted to report that I got SB16 Emulation successfully working on an Asus A7N8X Deluxe (v. 1.04) with an Audigy 2 ZS (SB0350). This is an NFORCE 2 motherboard. Followed your instructions to the "T," and Ultimate Doom (DOS release, not the Doom95 release exe) is successfully using Sound blaster emulation and General Midi. Sounds amazing!

This is surprising, but certainly nice to hear! Usually, people with nForce systems can't get any DOS functionality out of various PCI sound cards, not just the ones from Creative.

@Joseph_Joestar,

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2026-01-05, 14:23:

This is surprising, but certainly nice to hear! Usually, people with nForce systems can't get any DOS functionality out of various PCI sound cards, not just the ones from Creative.

Just to add one piece of clarification. PnP Bios had to be set to manual and IRQ 5 was set to reserve, because the Audigy 2 ZS and my Quadro 4 kept grabbing that one, so the SB16 Emu could take that slot.

--photios

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2026-01-05, 14:23:

Cool! This seems to be a nice workaround for Creative's hardcoded driver behavior under Win9x. Too bad there isn't anything like that for pure DOS, where SBLive and Audigy cards always default to the ECW sets, and ignore external MIDI devices.

@Joseph_Joestar,
Btw i've noticed the DOS Driver for Sound Blaster 16 emulation is stereo-reverted by default like old Sound Blaster Pro cards.
It is possible to change that ?