sure I can try tyrain 2 and Descent. I just deleted that 98se install and reinstalled again using the same procedure and was able to duplicate that. I didn't speak right it's not "Force" its whatever the tickbox at the bottom of the CTZAPXX.exe says. Might say something like delete or overwrite shared files.
Tested with DukeNukem 3D under windows. Works fine with SC55 sound font and sb16 emulation. Check your mail
Warlord wrote on 2021-03-26, 20:55:Tested with DukeNukem 3D under windows. Works fine with SC55 sound font and sb16 emulation. Check your mail
Cheers!
I'll take a look at your approach over the next couple of days. If it works out, I'll update the guide.
I just cannot get this to work, and I've now spent hours on it!
My process always falls down at the "installing VxD drivers" part, as it just causes my Windows 98 to hang. I even left the machine on overnight to see if it was hanging or just being very slow at installing. It was definitely hanging, as 8 hours later, it was still saying "This may take a few minutes".
Not sure what the issue could be?
LemmyBarnett wrote on 2021-03-27, 08:11:My process always falls down at the "installing VxD drivers" part, as it just causes my Windows 98 to hang. I even left the machine on overnight to see if it was hanging or just being very slow at installing. It was definitely hanging, as 8 hours later, it was still saying "This may take a few minutes".
Possibly a resource conflict, though it could be a number of other things as well, such as having a previous version of Creative's drivers installed, not doing a clean install of Win98 or using an unofficial service pack. When I update the guide, I'll add another set of steps which should be performed prior to the driver installation, in order to ensure that the prerequisites are met.
Of course, everyone's system is different, and it's impossible to account for all the potential issues, but I should at least be able to point out some things that might make the installation go smoother. Such as disabling unused COM and LPT ports in the BIOS in order to free up additional resources etc.
🤣 yeah, you need free IRQs before attempting this. That means go into bios and disable both serial ports, the parallel port, the onboard sound, the modem if it has one, and 75% of your USB ports. A lot of people never think about USB either but if you have more than 2 ports Id suggest disabling all but 2 ports or disabling usb entirely. You might want to try to set IRQ based on PCI slot if the bios lets you so you don't use up IRQ5. On my 865 chipset with 8 USB ports and USB 2.0. 98 will literally spread USB across all my IRQs making it aids. If I disable all but 2 ports and leave 2,0 enabled it only uses 1 irq, instead USB will use like 4 of my IRQs.
The issue is the sound card requires 3 IRQs. One IRQ for the main PCI part that should be 11 but it could be something else, and another IRQ for the emulation irq 5, that's why you disable the parallel port cuz parallel is usually 5 or 7 and an irq for the firewire usually any free IRQ ideally irq 3 or 4 from disabling the serial ports.. It also requires all of the DMA channels and addresses a normal sb16 would need.
That part does take a long time. On my Pentium M it took a couple minutes, so on a PIII or slower I can imagine it taking like 10 minutes, but not 8 hours. 8 hours there's some other problem. I'm not sure why it takes that long. You might want to try our advice and do it on a fresh install, after you installed chipset drivers and enabled DMA on the hard drive in the device manager. Without DMA enabled it even takes a pretty long time on my overpowered computer.
And yeah don't use those service packs they are aids. 98se can't be secured so the patches are stupid, they do nothing for gaming compatibility or boosting performance. All they do is make things slower.
Theres only a couple patches you actually need, like MSI installer update, and maybe tcpip 1.4 if you do a lot of networking, there are several patches for the tcp ip stack that actually do boost performance. Besides that sometimes some app might complain you need IE 5.5sp2 or higher to run or complain you need an updated version of visual C++ runtime to install or run or direct X but that's about it. NUSB can be installed separately if you use usb stuff.
Warlord wrote on 2021-03-26, 07:30:I just deleted that 98se install and reinstalled again using the same procedure and was able to duplicate that. I didn't speak right it's not "Force" its whatever the tickbox at the bottom of the CTZAPXX.exe says. Might say something like delete or overwrite shared files.
I tried this using the instructions you sent me in the PM, but I'm still getting a non-functional SB16 emulation device.
Could it be that you have a slightly different revision of the card? Here's a picture of mine. It's an Audigy2 ZS model SB0350, made by Creative (not Dell or some other OEM). Which model are you using?
I have updated the guide to include a couple of steps which should be performed prior to the driver installation process.
The goal is to help people determine if their system has enough free resources to install the card.
LemmyBarnett wrote on 2021-03-27, 08:11:I just cannot get this to work, and I've now spent hours on it!
My process always falls down at the "installing VxD drivers" part, as it just causes my Windows 98 to hang. I even left the machine on overnight to see if it was hanging or just being very slow at installing. It was definitely hanging, as 8 hours later, it was still saying "This may take a few minutes".
Not sure what the issue could be?
I got this working in the end - did a fresh Windows 98SE install, and worked from there. Thanks for the detailed write up, I wouldn't have got anywhere without it.
I spent several hours doing the Barnards Star -> Sol trading route on Sunday night on Frontier: Elite II! Just need to get my Sidewinder Precision 2 working in Windows, and then I can move onto Tie Fighter!
LemmyBarnett wrote on 2021-04-06, 09:39:I spent several hours doing the Barnards Star -> Sol trading route on Sunday night on Frontier: Elite II! Just need to get my Sidewinder Precision 2 working in Windows, and then I can move onto Tie Fighter!
Glad you got it working!
I'm a big fan of space trading games too. Elite, Frontier, Privateer 1&2 and Freelancer are all on my "to replay" list. Enjoy your playthrough!
Hello, I try install DOS driver on Audigy 2 ZS (I have SB0350 model). Fresh install win98, install VIA KT 133 chipset driver, all USB, COM, LPT, sound card etc. off in BIOS.
3.1 step - I don't have "Ad Lib Compatible (OPL2)" in device manager.
3. 5 step VxD not possible to use, only WDM.
Alex1981 wrote on 2021-04-18, 08:37:3.1 step - I don't have "Ad Lib Compatible (OPL2)" in device manager.
That's fine. Apparently, this step is only necessary if there is another sound card present (e.g. an integrated one).
3. 5 step VxD not possible to use, only WDM.
Is it possible that you didn't extract VxD.cab into the specified folder? The contents of that cab file need to be extracted precisely into the C:\AU1\Audio\Drivers\VxD folder, without creating any sub folders inside it.
Have anyone here tested how the Audigy 2 compares to Audigy Vortex 2 when it comes to DOS compatibility? I have the choice of using either one in my Win9x/WinXP system.
Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-04-18, 09:06:That's fine. Apparently, this step is only necessary if there is another sound card present (e.g. an integrated one). […]
Alex1981 wrote on 2021-04-18, 08:37:3.1 step - I don't have "Ad Lib Compatible (OPL2)" in device manager.
That's fine. Apparently, this step is only necessary if there is another sound card present (e.g. an integrated one).
3. 5 step VxD not possible to use, only WDM.
Is it possible that you didn't extract VxD.cab into the specified folder? The contents of that cab file need to be extracted precisely into the C:\AU1\Audio\Drivers\VxD folder, without creating any sub folders inside it.
thi is it, thx
vetz wrote on 2021-04-18, 10:30:Have anyone here tested how the Audigy 2 compares to Audigy Vortex 2 when it comes to DOS compatibility and compatibility? I have the choice of using either one in my Win9x/WinXP system.
Phil's video indicates he is of the opinion that the Aureal Vortex 2 has the edge for DOS compatibility:
https://youtu.be/z-HiLp5p820?t=905
vetz wrote on 2021-04-18, 10:30:Have anyone here tested how the Audigy 2 compares to Audigy Vortex 2 when it comes to DOS compatibility and compatibility? I have the choice of using either one in my Win9x/WinXP system.
I did. In Win9x, both are fully functional (with VXD drivers), difference is in the supported standards: Vortex2 = A3D 2.0 + DLS sound banks for soft MIDI + SB Pro emulation for DOS apps; Audigy2 = EAX 4 + SF2 sound banks for soft MIDI + SB16 emulation for DOS apps.
If you're intending to run DOS apps exclusively from Win98, either option can be ok, provided you are satisfied with proper card's FM synthesis: in Vortex it's simulated by the software (and is just bad), and Audigy2 is producing a typical Creative CQM sound (better than Vortex, but many ppl don't like it).
But in 'true' DOS, or Win9x 'restart in DOS mode', drivers of both sound cards have more constraints.
Audigy 2: Strong points - card's MIDI is still working in 'true' DOS; and it's possible to replace default 2Mb sound font with better Ensoniq 4Mb/8Mb versions. Constraints - DOS driver requires EMM386; no working MPU-401, line-in and mixer app in 'true' DOS (e.g. external MIDI modules can't be used); card's MIDI can utilize only ECW sound banks in 'true' DOS (very few options); with several sound cards in the system - Audigy driver may cause conflicts in some games (I observed this in Descent).
Vortex 2: Strong points - DOS driver doesn't require EMM386; wavetable header/MPU-401 and line-in are available in 'true' DOS + working DOS mixer app exists (hence it's still possible to use MIDI daughterboards or ext MIDI modules, or pair Vortex with other cards). Constraints - card's MIDI isn't working in 'true' DOS (supported in Win drivers only); DOS driver is not tolerant to some DPMI implementations (for instance CWSDPMI, RSX) - such applications are freezing the system even if they're not using sound at all. Typical examples of incompatible apps are some DOS archivers (like RAR or 7-ZIP), or games like Quake (though you can eithr run them only in Win9x, or replace the DPMI servers).
crvs wrote on 2021-04-19, 22:41:If you're intending to run DOS apps exclusively from Win98, either option can be ok, provided you are satisfied with proper card's FM synthesis: in Vortex it's simulated by the software (and is just bad), and Audigy2 is producing a typical Creative CQM sound (better than Vortex, but many ppl don't like it).
The Audigy/SBLive FM synth emulation is different from CQM found on Vibra/AWE64 cards. Here's a comparison: OPL3 vs. ESFM vs. CQM vs. SBLive
Otherwise, excellent analysis.
Cheers for the pros and cons list. I do use a SC55 external MIDI device, so I guess I'll be using the Vortex 2 since it actually has a working MPU-401 interface in DOS. Most of the times I'll play directly from Windows, as its late DOS games that'll be the target of this build.
The machine is too fast for FM synth games, so in that regard it doesn't matter when it comes to the emulation. I have a proper DOS machine for those games.
Guys, PCMCIA Creative Audigy2 ZS Notebook is not the same hardware thing as the desktop one? No chance to have it working under Win 98 and pure DOS?
it's not the same it's not supposed to work under 98 at all, but I swear one time I managed to hack some drivers together to make it work under windows using WDM drivers. I doubt any chance VXDs would work. no chance at all it will ever work under dos. I just haven't gotten around to trying it again, also for someone to try as well.
