VOGONS


First post, by Intel486dx33

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I hate all these Sound blaster variants and driver versions.

I am trying to get a Sound blaster Live 5.1 (SB100) to work with Windows 98 but no success.
I think I have tried every driver version.

I am getting ready to swap it out for another type of SB card.

Why did they make these so difficult ?

I think the Sound Blaster Live card is the hardest to get working out of all the SB cards.

Reply 2 of 15, by Jo22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
Intel486dx33 wrote:

I am trying to get a Sound blaster Live 5.1 (SB100) to work with Windows 98 but no success.

Hi, I'm no Creative "fan", either. Though perhaps the issues are related to your PC rather than the soundcard ? It's just a wild guess.
If you can, please make a backup of your Win98 partition (Ghost, Acronis True Image 7 or 9) and try another OS, like Windows 95C or Windows Me.
If your motherboard has buggy ACPI support, for example, then the system would suffer stability issues or encounter issues with certain drivers.
Personally, I would try the system under Windows Millennium first. It can handle murdern hardware better and has more modern system files.
Also, I'd check if there's a BIOS update available. Or a change log for it (any issues related to ACPI/APIC ?)..

pan069 wrote:

Phils Computer Lab is pretty positive about this card, made a whole video about it. Maybe user error?

https://www.philscomputerlab.com/sound-blaster-live.html

Interesting. I thought that by the early 21th century, people would already gladly have had freed themselves of Creative on their own will.
Can't believe they still used that cra- -ahem- "stuff" ( 😉 ) , rather than SoundMaxx, Realtek and other AC97 soundchips..

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 6 of 15, by kikendo

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
Kubik wrote:

You should always check the model number (SB0060, SB0100, CT4760...) and look for drivers for that particular model.

I did but I couldn't find any, and there's a million models.
In the end I lucked out with one that worked.

Reply 7 of 15, by Intel486dx33

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

During the installation from the OEM install CDROM. I was asked to swap out the Sound Blaster Live install CD to the Win98 install CD a few times.
Almost caused the installation to fail. Why did they make the install so difficult ?
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … 805&menustate=0

Reply 8 of 15, by canthearu

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Intel486dx33 wrote:

During the installation from the OEM install CDROM. I was asked to swap out the Sound Blaster Live install CD to the Win98 install CD a few times.
Almost caused the installation to fail. Why did they make the install so difficult ?
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … 805&menustate=0

A heap of programs and utilities and drivers will ask you to provide the windows disk. It is pretty normal for this series of windows.

To combat this, the best way to install windows 98 is to copy the contents of the Windows 98 CD directory WIN98 to your hard drive, then install from the hard drive, rather than directly from the CD. Then you can just point the computer to C:\WIN98 whenever it wants to get something from the Windows 98 CD.

Reply 9 of 15, by Jo22

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
Intel486dx33 wrote:

During the installation from the OEM install CDROM. I was asked to swap out the Sound Blaster Live install CD to the Win98 install CD a few times.
Almost caused the installation to fail. Why did they make the install so difficult ?

Windows 98SE needs access to its driver library, which is located on the installation CD by default.
Windows Me is more intelligent in that respect - it copies the library (database) to hard disk during installation.
Anyway, you can fix this on Windows 9SE, too, by copying the DRIVERS (+WIN98) folder to C: drive and change some paths in the Windows system files (win.ini/system.ini/registry ?).
Or just start Windows' Setup.exe from hard disk next time (copy all the important CD ROM content to C:).
That way, Windows will remember where the on-board drivers or additional system files are located.😀

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 10 of 15, by kikendo

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
Intel486dx33 wrote:

During the installation from the OEM install CDROM. I was asked to swap out the Sound Blaster Live install CD to the Win98 install CD a few times.
Almost caused the installation to fail. Why did they make the install so difficult ?

This is incredibly common. Since back in the day, I always kept a copy of the Windows 98 CD in a folder my hard drive's root.

Reply 11 of 15, by Intel486dx33

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Yeah, But the Sound Blaster installation CD process did not provide for an option to select where to find the drivers.
It only asked to switch CDROM disks to Win98 install. The install process would only load files from the CDROMS and not the Hard-drive.

Reply 12 of 15, by oeuvre

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Argh sometimes installing drivers are a royal PITA. At least you were able to get it up and running. Happy MIDI'ing

HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620, 32GB, RADEON HD7850 2GB, SSD + HD, XP/7
ws90Ts2.gif

Reply 13 of 15, by SirNickity

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Was it actually the SB installer, or the Windows driver installation dialogs? I've never had any of the Creative installers ask for a Windows CD. Windows' driver installation wizard from early 9x is beyond dumb, though. Like others, I just make a \Windows\Cabs folder, copy <cdrom>\winxx\*.* to that folder, and run setup from there. It will still do dumb things, like ask you multiple times in the same process for the path to the drivers you just told it to install, but at least it's only the one path it's asking about.

Reply 14 of 15, by foil_fresh

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

I tried 2 or 3 sb live install cds without success and then used a sblive9x installer separate from the driver cds and it worked no problem. then I installed the rest of the tools etc from the CDs including the dos drivers. i have 3 sb live cards and none of them have worked with any of the installer cds, only this 4mb standalone installer.

i'd tell you what the file is but i'm not at my home pc.

Reply 15 of 15, by bjwil1991

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

I had issues with my sound card's MIDI portion not working because of a lingering driver from an Aztech Sound Galaxy NX Pro and when I would try to play MIDI files, I had a blue screen. Now I need to repair Windows Media Player to get it to work correctly as it won't open for some reason.

Are there any error messages you're receiving and have you removed and uninstalled every other sound card driver that was on there?

Discord: https://discord.gg/U5dJw7x
Systems from the Compaq Portable 1 to Ryzen 9 5950X
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/retropcuser