Did you try going to control panel and multimedia properties? Make sure a suitable sound device is selected; make sure it's not greyed out either. If it's greyed out you definitely have a driver problem.

Also right-click "My Computer" and go to properties. Click device manager tab and check for yellow exclamation marks, or red X's. If any are visible, that's another indication of a non-functioning driver.

The only devices I have under multimedia audio are "use. Suitable device" and soundmax digital audio. Under midi I have sound max again and Microsoft gs wavetable sw synth. I don't see any X's. Under devices I have a lot of things under audio compression, under audio devices I have the soundmax again, and midi devices says soundmax and midi for wdm devices and instruments. I probably have something selected wrong. I'm just not sure what to choose where cause under audio playback tab neither midi or soundmax work. I just ordered one of those brown 5.1 soundblaster live! Cards. Hopefully that helps. But I really want to play some baldurs gate 2 or icewind dale tomorrow on my day off

If you ordered the Live! then totally forget about the onboard sound. Disable onboard sound via bios if you can, otherwise disable it in device manager in system properties.

Live! is the best hardware for native DOS gaming inside windows 98. Get the WDM drivers (had DOS sound trouble going newer than 09-2001 wdm drivers). Most people here will say to use the older vxd drivers but they're very old and unpredictable. WDM drivers give flawless sbpro emulation and you don't need to mess around with real-mode DOS. It just works period. You also get native hardware wavetable via soundfonts with DOS games (forget blowing $100 on a 4mb external module or daughterboard; why not do better while being free). It even has native soundfont wavetable in Linux (can load 1.6+ GB soundfonts with DMA patch); dosbox works just great with Live! in linux (sdl supports dma access via alsa; no need for software mixing and frees up CPU for better things). Live! is supported by OpenAL too IIRC.

I'm sorry you're not having much luck ATM with the onboard sound. Keep trying different things carefully until the Live! arrives. Good luck!

Ask hardware questions in Marvin.

Holering wrote:

If you ordered the Live! then totally forget about the onboard sound. Disable onboard sound via bios if you can, otherwise disable it in device manager in system properties.

Live! is the best hardware for native DOS gaming inside windows 98. Get the WDM drivers (had DOS sound trouble going newer than 09-2001 wdm drivers). Most people here will say to use the older vxd drivers but they're very old and unpredictable. WDM drivers give flawless sbpro emulation and you don't need to mess around with real-mode DOS. It just works period. You also get native hardware wavetable via soundfonts with DOS games (forget blowing $100 on a 4mb external module or daughterboard; why not do better while being free). It even has native soundfont wavetable in Linux (can load 1.6+ GB soundfonts with DMA patch); dosbox works just great with Live! in linux (sdl supports dma access via alsa; no need for software mixing and frees up CPU for better things). Live! is supported by OpenAL too IIRC.

I'm sorry you're not having much luck ATM with the onboard sound. Keep trying different things carefully until the Live! arrives. Good luck!

Marvin, got it.

Thanks for the information. I'm still learning about old PC's. I will be certain locate the drivers you mentioned.

Where is the best place to find drivers in general? Like windows updates for 98 SE, and the sound blaster cards? I used that major gooks before, but I wasn't sure how reliable and virus free it is. Most sites look kind of sketchy. I feel like I am navigating a ROM website on most of these places, which is not what I want to be doing. I found the falconfly website for the video cards, and directX, which looks safe.

What is a good video card to use with a Pentium IV 2.8ghz? I was reading last night that my voodoo2 card I am waiting for in the mail might not work properly because my processor is too fast. What would be the best voodoo card to go for that I can use?

oh, I forgot to mention. Still no sound out of my speakers or headphones. But I am using a Yapster blaster and in the multimedia area I am getting waveforms through the yapster mic. But no sound still.

jforrest1980 wrote:

Where is the best place to find drivers in general? Like windows updates for 98 SE, and the sound blaster cards? I used that major gooks before, but I wasn't sure how reliable and virus free it is. Most sites look kind of sketchy. I feel like I am navigating a ROM website on most of these places, which is not what I want to be doing. I found the falconfly website for the video cards, and directX, which looks safe.

SquallStrife started VOGONSDrivers.com for just that reason. It doesn't stash Windows updates but has a decent collection of popular drivers, and still growing.

Besides that? I often hit manufacturer's sites first, and if they no longer support their product, then I hit Google. You can download pretty much anything from DriverGuide, and there are some workarounds to avoid their tagalong adware.

What stiletto said. You can try VOGONSDrivers.com. You could try this http://www.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=77216 but after several hits, driverguide will bug you about making an account; this is the latest driver I used without giving me problems with DOS sound inside 9X, and it even gives you CD digital audio (can use sata drive without audio cable and you get perfect digital cd audio in DOS games).

There are some ISO driver cds but these are huge downloads if you only want a driver (there's only one I know of that has wdm drivers and they're kind of old). This has quite a few drivers and good links http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/115903-compil … for-windows-9x/

Holering:
DriverGuide.com’s Not-so-surprising Scammy Tactics 😉

Holering wrote:

If you ordered the Live! then totally forget about the onboard sound. Disable onboard sound via bios if you can, otherwise disable it in device manager in system properties.

Live! is the best hardware for native DOS gaming inside windows 98. Get the WDM drivers (had DOS sound trouble going newer than 09-2001 wdm drivers). Most people here will say to use the older vxd drivers but they're very old and unpredictable. WDM drivers give flawless sbpro emulation and you don't need to mess around with real-mode DOS. It just works period. You also get native hardware wavetable via soundfonts with DOS games (forget blowing $100 on a 4mb external module or daughterboard; why not do better while being free). It even has native soundfont wavetable in Linux (can load 1.6+ GB soundfonts with DMA patch); dosbox works just great with Live! in linux (sdl supports dma access via alsa; no need for software mixing and frees up CPU for better things). Live! is supported by OpenAL too IIRC.

I'm sorry you're not having much luck ATM with the onboard sound. Keep trying different things carefully until the Live! arrives. Good luck!

I found the DOS drivers and install CD for the Sound Blaster Live! on the vogonsdrivers website. That is a nice site. Also vogon thank you for the link!

If I can I would just like to get the drivers here, or even the install CD. but I noticed they're are a few different ones. Could you tell me which is the correct one(s)

here is a link to the ebay auction I won. I got the borwn one that actually says Soundblaster Live 5.1. Because I read the green ones sold as 5.1 are not actually 5.1 at all. Mine is model EMU10K1-JFF

http://www.ebay.com/itm/370991013409?ssPageNa … 984.m1439.l2649

heres the direct link to the sound drivers vogons page...

http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/index.php?catid=3

I am thinking I need the DOS drivers, and also either the Sound Blaster Live "standard", or just regualr sound blaster live applications and driver edition CD's. If I had to guess I would say standard edition.

Thanks so much for all the help and patience! I really appreciate it. Without you guys I would probably have gave up. Hopefully some day I can lend a hand around here and lend some advice.

I believe I have the XP drivers for this MB, I have an old PC I built around this board, if your interested.

SoundMAX is a big clue. One of the less popular audio chips. To find the exact model you can search the motherboard for a little chip with SoundMAX written on it. Usually it is close to the audio ports.

You can also run a Linux Live CD and it should tell you what chip / model number it is.

Drivers you can get from all sorts of sources. Other brands with similar specification. So a SoundMax driver from an Asus board should install just fine.

PCI devices don't have to be cards, they can be on the motherboard.

When you buy a dedicated PCI card you can go into the BIOS and turn off the motherboard sound card. Also, when you look at the back of the PC and it has the 3 or more headphone ports: That's the motherboard sound card 😀