Sound Blaster Live! DOS Drivers

[Jorpho]

How mysterious.

Do you still have the manually-configured IRQs in your BIOS? Have you tried toggling the "Plug n Play OS Installed" option?

[ktorpil]

I reverted the IRQ to automatic, PnP OS is already on, nothing has changed..

[Jorpho]

What happens if you change PnP OS to "off" ?

Also, are you using some kind of fancy hard drive controller card, or just the standard interface on your motherboard?

[ktorpil]

Same thing happens when I set it to NO. I'm using the onboard IDE controller...

[Jorpho]

Why is it on IRQ10, anyway? Do you have many other devices installed on this computer?

If you never intend to print, for example, you can probably disable the onboard parallel port in the BIOS and free up IRQ7. If you're not using a modem or a serial mouse, you can disable the onboard serial ports, too.

[HunterZ]

I'd try using an SB16 ISA for DOS compatibility if you have a free ISA slot, and use the SB Live! only for Windows apps. It's just not worth the hassle to try to get PCI sound cards to work with DOS.

[ktorpil]

Why is it on IRQ10, anyway? Do you have many other devices installed on this computer?

If you never intend to print, for example, you can probably disable the onboard parallel port in the BIOS and free up IRQ7. If you're not using a modem or a serial mouse, you can disable the onboard serial ports, too.

What I have is on the signature. Other than that there's a PCI ethernet card. I always disable ports I don't need (it's an old habit)

I'd try using an SB16 ISA for DOS compatibility if you have a free ISA slot, and use the SB Live! only for Windows apps. It's just not worth the hassle to try to get PCI sound cards to work with DOS.

CUV4X-C doesn't have an ISA slot unfortunately...

[Jorpho]

What I have is on the signature. Other than that there's a PCI ethernet card. I always disable ports I don't need (it's an old habit)

Okay, so what does Windows Device Manager say about your IRQs? (I forget where that information is, exactly. View->Resources By Type, I think?)

[ktorpil]

There are no conflicts if that's what you mean. Do you want me to write the IRQs for each device?

[Jorpho]

Sure, or take a screenshot or something.

[the123zach]

I too am trying to get the Dos SB16 emulation drivers working on my Audigy sound card and it detects the card ok but it is unusable.

None of the games will detect the card and when i try to use the drivers diagnostics utility sbego.exe I just get the error Is SB16 emulation enabled???? and It is indeed enabled.

Also i am trying to get this working on a pure dos installation with no Windows installation just the pure dos.

I have no idea why this is happening as far as i can tell all the settings are what they are supposed to be.

If anyone has any insight on this it would be very helpful to me to get this working.

[Skoynay]

My experience with audigy 2 : The midi volume was 0 in SBEMIXER.EXE, so no !sound fx! played. Dos drivers for audigy 2 - bottom of the page http://mpxplay.cjb.net/

Extract both ZIPs in c:\SBLIVE, you may view there the readme's also.

Autoexec.bat

call c:\sblive\liveinit.bat
c:\sblive\AUDIGY12.EXE

Config.sys

SBESET -A220 -I5 -D1 -H5 -P330 -j0 -d1 -w0 -c

Ctsyn.ini - change it this way

[ctsyn.drv]
SBEnable=true
*or TRUE JoyEnable=FALSE
Waveset=C:\sblive\default.ecw
*no need to change PCIPort=
*no need to change PCIIRQ=
OPLPort=388
MPUPort=330
SBPort=220
SBIRQ=5
SBDMALO=1
SBDMAHI=5
JoyPort=200

[SBEINIT]
CONFIG=SBESET.CFG

[SBESET.CFG]
SBPORT=220
MPUPORT=330
SBIRQ=5
SBDMALO=1
SBDMAHI=5
OPLPORT=388
SBENABLE=TRUE
JOYPORT=200
*or TRUE JOYENABLE=FALSE
WAVESET=C:\sblive\DEFAULT.ECW
*no need to change PCIPort=
*no need to change PCIIRQ=

[SBEMIXER]
MasterVolL=250
MasterVolR=250
WaveVolL=250
WaveVolR=250
CDVolL=250
CDVolR=250
SynthVolL=250
SynthVolR=250
*or TRUE MT32=FALSE
*or TRUE DigitalSpeakerEnable=FALSE

Liveinit.bat

@echo off
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
SET CTSYN=c:\sblive
c:\sblive\sbeinit.com
c:\sblive\audigy12.exe

Aces over europe now have sound in pure DOS with Audigy 2!

[fdlchris]

I need a fresh pair of eyes on this one. I have the same problem as the123zach.


BACKGROUND
-------------------

I have modern-ish system:

ASUS A7V8X-X
Athlon XP 2200+
256Mb RAM
Windows 95c / Windows 2000 SP4 (dual boot)
NVIDIA GeForce 256

and a Sound Blaster PCI 128 (CT5808) PCI sound card. I believe this is the one with the Ensoniq 1373 chipset (which I thought my be causing my problem).

For the sake of this post, I have been using only WINDOWS 95c throughout this test. Exclude Windows 2000.

So, I couldn't get the Sound Blaster PCI 128 to work in pure MS-DOS. It works fine under Windows 95. I came across this thread to download the Sound Blaster DOS drivers.

I made my own DOS boot floppy, downloaded the DOS drivers for the card and linked these into the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files.

DOS told me that I'd successfully inititated the card using SBINIT tool. However, when trying to select the card in many classic game audio setups (SETUP, SETSOUND etc...) the card couldn't be found!

So I tried running the game audio setups in DOS under Windows 95. The same problem! Even though, the CT5808 driver has an extended feature for DOS Driver settings (i.e. SB16 Emulation) and in Windows, it says everything is working correctly, it try to run a game audio setup (SETSOUND.EXE) in a windowed MS-DOS Prompt window, and it won't detect the f**k**g card!

So I thought that the card is probably faulty in some way and I decided to buy a Sound Blaster Live! (CT4670).

I read about the Sound Blaster Live! in many places, having good SB16 Emulation, and being able to emulate the SB16 in pure DOS with the aid of the DOS drivers.



PROBLEM
------------

I have the same problem with the Live! as I did with the PCI 128.

I successfully installed the live under Windows 95 using the LiveWare 3.0 CD (thanks swaaye) and once again, tried both the LIVE DOS drivers from here, and the ones that ship with the LiveWare CD.

The Live! card works perfectly under Windows 95. All devices are working properly (including SB16 Emulation under Creative Misc. Devices), there are no IRQ conflicts or any other hardware problems (I've disabled my onboard sound & MIDI, onboard modem, printer port, serial ports etc..).

AUTOEXEC.BAT

Code: Select all

@ECHO OFF

rem [set variables]
PROMPT=$P$G
PATH=C:\;C:DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND

rem [sound, Live!]
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330  T6
SET CTSYN=C:\WINDOWS
C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\SBLIVE\DOSDRV\SBEINIT.COM
C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\SBLIVE\DOSDRV\SBESET.EXE -c

rem [keyboard]
keyb uk,,C:\DOS\KEYB\keyboard.sys

rem [mouse]
C:\DOS\MOUSE\MOUSE.COM /L=GB

rem [cdrom]
C:\DOS\CDROM\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001

CONFIG.SYS

Code: Select all

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE I=B000-B7FF RAM D=256 AUTO
DOS=HIGH,UMB
FILES=50
BUFFERS=50
LASTDRIVE=Z
DEVICE=C:\dos\cdrom\VIDE-CDD.SYS /D:MSCD001 /P:1F0,14 /P:170,15 /P:1E8,12 /P:168,10
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\display.sys con=(ega,,1)
Country=044,850,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\country.sys

SBEINIT
-----------
When booting into DOS and SBEINIT loads, the screen reads:

Creative SB16 Emulation Driver, Version 4.00

Creative Audio @ Port d800, IRQ 10
Initilization Complete

*** After this stage, with the headphones plugged in, I hear them kick in. I can hear the quiet static noise running through them, like they are ready. ***


SBESET
-----------
When running, the SBESET -c, the following values are assigned:

SBPort : 0220
IRQ : 05
LoDMA : 01
HiDMA : 05
MPUPort : 0330
JoyPort : 0200
OPLPort : 0388
SB Emulation : TRUE
JoyEnable : TRUE


SBEGO
-----------
When running the SBEGO, I get the error:

Error: Is SB Emulation Enabled ??? ...


GAME SETUPS
----------------------

When I select SB16 or AWE32, it does not find the card.
When I select SB or 100% Compatible, or SB PRO or 100% Compatible options, it takes a few seconds longer, but in the end, doesn't find anything.

When I sometimes select Roland RAP-10, the system locks up.

I'm really out of ideas now, and don't know what else to try.

Someone who has successfully got a Live! or any other SB PCI card working under DOS, please help out!

[Jorpho]

I read about the Sound Blaster Live! in many places, having good SB16 Emulation, and being able to emulate the SB16 in pure DOS with the aid of the DOS drivers.

Eh? [EDIT: Oops, I thought that said without the aid.]

To take a wild guess, do you have any other devices installed on your system? If you aren't using the serial or parallel ports, have you tried disabling them in the BIOS?

[fdlchris]

there are no IRQ conflicts or any other hardware problems (I've disabled my onboard sound & MIDI, onboard modem, printer port, serial ports etc..).

As I said, I disabled all the unused ports and I/O devices. This being done through the BIOS.

The only other onboard I/O device left enabled is my LAN port.

[Mau1wurf1977]

There was a thread about PCI soundcards the other day and it mentioned that it boils down to the chipset.

Basically these cards use certain features to simulate IRQ and DMA and on later boards these are missing.

My cards work find on a Super Socket 7 and Slot 1 Boards, but fail on a modern Phenom II board.

There are other cards you can try (look at that PCI soundcard thread) I mentioned. Personally: ISA all the way!

[swaaye]

Yup some games simply will not work right with a PCI sound card. PCI cards are really annoying that way. They can also cause instability that isn't immediately apparent.

[gerwin]

You are using SBEINIT. was that not the dos driver for the SB Live!. I think my SB 128 PCI used SBINIT instead. But I am not home to check...

[fdlchris]

So you're saying it could be mobo-related or game-independent?

Well, I have a stack of other DOS games that I can try and see if I have any luck with them.

As for the mobo ... not a lot I can do with that really.

What this means is, is that there could actually be nothing wrong with my SB PCI 128 (CT5808)? That it could actually have been used to provide SB16 Emulation in DOS, just as well as the Live! can do it (or not, in this case).

This is truly worrying and disheartening because I have a Chaintech 7VJL APOGEE (Socket A) at home, waiting to be used as part of a Retro Rig, and that I could actually be facing the same problem with that?

Are there any other BIOS options that I can check to see if they are not a cause of the problem?

[Mau1wurf1977]

In my case it was a main board / BIOS / Chipset issue (Phenom II board). But the old SS7 and Slot 1 boards worked just fine.

Under W95 / 98 installing the basic driver (from the the creative site) should be all you need to open a Dos Window and launch Doom or Descent. This should work no matter what AFAIK.

Apart from that you can try other PCI cards (Vortex 2, ESS) and see if you have more luck.