Any idea why my SB16 CT2230 won't play nice on IRQ5? \ VOGONS

Any idea why my SB16 CT2230 won't play nice on IRQ5?

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First post, by Lostdotfish

Posted on 2026-06-06, 14:49

Lostdotfish Offline

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Picked up this nice "faulty" CT2230. Nothing wrong with it so probably a config issue with the previous owner's system.

One thing that's bugging me, I cannot get it to sit on IRQ5.

Card is going into a system that had a SB32 (on IRQ5) and everything works just fine with that card. When I removed the SB32 and put the CT2230 in, it moves over to IRQ 7 and refuses to operate on IRQ5.

I've set my blaster environment variables correctly and run diagnose /s (which also reports success) but when I run diagnose the card is still on IRQ 7 not IRQ 5.

If I pop the card out and put the SB32 back in, that card immediately starts working on IRQ 5...

Could the Creative CD interface or Gameport on the CT2230 be stealing IRQ 5? It's the only thing I can think of...

Reply 1 of 4, by wierd_w

Posted on 2026-06-06, 14:53

wierd_w Offline

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Some pnp sb16 cards have a config eprom on them.

This irq7 based config might be written to such a chip on the card.

Reply 2 of 4, by Lostdotfish

Posted on 2026-06-06, 14:55

Lostdotfish Offline

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wierd_w wrote on 2026-06-06, 14:53:

Some pnp sb16 cards have a config eprom on them.

This irq7 based config might be written to such a chip on the card.

I thought diagnose /s writes the settings from your set blaster variables to the card...

Also, CT2230 isn't a PNP card. It has jumpers for the base address and then software configuration for the other resources.

Reply 3 of 4, by Grzyb

Posted on 2026-06-06, 15:27

Grzyb Offline

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You can try replacing Creative's software with UNISOUND.

In 2003, I voted in favour of joining the European Union. However, due to recent developments - especially the restrictions on cash usage - I'm hereby withdrawing my support. DOWN WITH THE EU!

Reply 4 of 4, by Lostdotfish

Posted on 2026-06-07, 06:34

Lostdotfish Offline

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Found the issue. Had my PicoGUS jumpered to IRQ5. It was running in USB/CDRom mode so I didn't think it would use an IRQ.

Not sure why the other cards (SB32 and Awe64) we're managing to get priority on IRQ5 originally.

Anyway, diagnose /s successfully putting the CT2230 on IRQ5 with the PicoGUS out.

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