Try this driver CD.

IIRC, that card was marketed as Sound Blaster 128 PCI or Vibra 128 PCI back in the day. There were quite a few revisions of it though, so it can be tricky to find the right driver.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-05-29, 20:30:

Try this driver CD.

IIRC, that card was marketed as Sound Blaster 128 PCI or Vibra 128 PCI back in the day. There were quite a few revisions of it though, so it can be tricky to find the right driver.

Unfortunately no luck with this card.
I tried this CD as well as several other Vibra 128 related drivers and none of them passed through XP or Win98 either.
Then, I tried to manually install through XP driver update, it offered me the Creative AudioPCI (ES1370), SB PCI64/128 (WDM) driver, which it installed successfully, but with a warning that it might not be the correct driver.
Of course, after the restart, there was no sound or the speaker icon in the systray.
It was similar with Win98, while for Windows 7 it seems that there are no drivers for this card.
I also tried a couple of online driver updaters, but they didn't detect it either.
If anyone has any other advice, right now this card is just a good candidate for junk, probably a fake model...

Just clean the PCI contacts, have the same problem until cleaning.

Babasha wrote on 2023-05-30, 11:35:

Just clean the PCI contacts, have the same problem until cleaning.

I did a thorough cleaning of the contacts with isopropyl alcohol yesterday, I have no idea what kind of card this is, especially the Vendor ID is strange to me, there is literally no mention of a driver anywhere...

clean it with stationery eraser or look at chip contacts loss or scratches on PCB... I see something strange on photo (top-left corner)

I've got the same card and this driver did work well:
https://archive.org/details/creative-sound-bl … 2201-ml-0002058

If it still has issues it could be hardware related. Either damage on the card itself or some kind of conflict with the rest of the system. It's hard to say remotely.

Ok, I'll clean everything thoroughly again and try these other drivers...

retrofan011 wrote on 2023-05-30, 13:38:

Ok, I'll clean everything thoroughly again and try these other drivers...

Hello retrofan011, sorry to read about your troubles. I'm the OP of the thread you linked in your initial post. My last post in that thread was very dense so I'll try to condense it the best I can:

- Switching the slots at a time will definitely help, any way that you can to trigger the plug and play feature is a plus. If you have another Creative card with known working drivers (meaning they just need to install correctly) then you can do what I did and just plug it in, install it, fully uninstall it (registry entries and all) and plug in the CT4810 right after. I'm still weirdly convinced that there was something left by my CT4830 that allowed plug and play to finally find the drivers in the CD for the CT4810 that it didn't find previously in many tries.

- This is the key feature here: what surprised me when plug and play popped up and it finally identified the drivers from the CD I burned (after many tries) was that during installation it never found all the files needed in one driver package only. Luckily I burned several drivers to the CD and I was able to find file by file the ones Windows kept asking me for. I will leave here the packages I used to pluck file by file here to complete the installation successfully, apart from the main ones "sb128_multi_OS" contained most files too iirc. This was definitely weird and something I've never seen before.

The original drivers are very hard to find nowadays, as the most commonly found are the "Web Update" versions that exist all over. You can only find the original drivers if you search for specific file name, which took a lot of research, I was saved by a description alongside a dead link for the drivers, which I managed to find elsewhere. These "CT5880_9X" drivers attached here are the real deal, but again, you will need all others to pluck all individual files that Windows required.

Of course you can and should rule out hardware issues, but to be honest it wouldn't surprise me that it was the same problem. You probably may need to just try it out many times like I did, until it immediately recognizes drivers from the CD as soon as plug and play pops up.

On a reIated tangent, I keep saying that the Live! cards could have been a truly wonderful product, still plentiful and cheap today, but Creative screwed up with the drivers so bad that it just cripples the cards performance hugely. Luckily people around here are starting to realize this more and more. I've tried all drivers and CD images under the sun for the CT4830 and it never solved any problems.

Signal noise issues, compatibility problems with speakers causing weak signal output like it happened with my Yamaha PC speakers that were considered a top product in 1999... The drivers even kept my Win98SE PC from soft restarting for years, with people kindly pointing out that it was nusb causing it but it really was the Live! drivers in the end. I had CT4830 (the "good" versions) cards in my Win98SE, Win95 and WinME builds, with different speakers and hardware between them obviously, and I had the same problems in all of them for years, with sluggish SBEmulation in all of them, music slowing down, etc. Recently I switched them all for an Audigy, the infamous CT4810 (when finally working) and a HDA Digital Mystique respectively, and it immediately solved all issues.

I'm saying all of this because if the Live! line of cards from Creative already has all these issues then I can perfectly imagine that mistakes were made inbetween the Ensoniq / Creative transition at the time, of which the CT4810 is a part of. I got the CT4810 for my Win95 build because it was the cheapest option at hand to use in Windows with the occasional late DOS game launched from within it with SBEmulation. It's a good card for that , genuine good quality in Windows and the SBEmu when using SBlaster for Sound FX and General Midi for Music is actually very acceptable/good, never slows down or is sluggish in any way, and has none of the Live! cards' issues - provided you get it working.

I'm all for using the hardware that we have at hand so if you're determined try what I described before some more times and I'm confident that you will eventually get the drivers recognized. If all else fails then if you're using Win98/Win98SE just skip this and the Live! BS also and get an Audigy 1 or 2 for example, straightforward .vxd drivers, excellent Windows quality and good SBEmulation, and you'll solve all your issues immediately.

I'll leave the main drivers here and this link for the driver packages to complement it with files during the installation:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/5a0glqamts7l3e … ckages.zip/file

I believe you'll get it working though, good luck!

Hezus wrote on 2023-05-30, 12:45:

I've got the same card and this driver did work well:
https://archive.org/details/creative-sound-bl … 2201-ml-0002058

If it still has issues it could be hardware related. Either damage on the card itself or some kind of conflict with the rest of the system. It's hard to say remotely.

No success, unfortunately.
With these drivers I get a BSOD during installation in win98.
The only driver I managed to fully install was the Vibra 128, but still no sound.
First I installed with setup and when Windows updated the driver database, I manually selected the Vibra 128 driver from the Creative section.
It installed everything correctly, I also got a yellow speaker in the systray, device manager shows that the driver is working properly, but no sound is heard from the speakers.
I think I've run out of patience with this card, it's most likely defective.
Thanks for the replies, I learned something in this process.
If anyone has a recommendation for a PCI sound card, which has been proven to work in a DOS/Win98 environment, please advise.

@andre_6

Thanks for the reply and drivers, I will try them but now I need a rest from all this...

retrofan011 wrote on 2023-05-30, 19:06:

@andre_6

Thanks for the reply and drivers, I will try them but now I need a rest from all this...

Just burn all of the driver folders into one CD or through whatever means you have and give it a try. If necessary change the slot for the sound card to force plug and play to retool. It's unfortunate because I'm 99% certain you have the same problem I had and that the card is indeed working, it's just that you need to retry it hopefully just once or twice for it to work.

This is the unfortunate reality of Creative's drivers from the Ensoniq transition period all the way through all of the Live! product line. The Win9x drivers just plain suck, not to mention the "good Live! card revisions as opposed to the crap revisions" BS. And for XP then the Live! just doesn't make sense anymore even if the drivers ended up working well, and for before the Win9x period it's the same thing, so there's just no point.

From what I see from our troubles the most known problem with the CT4810 lies in getting it to install but once it does you're fine, as opposed to the Live! cards line which install easily but never quite work as they should.

Like I said, if all else fails just skip all that time period of products and go straight for a Sound Blaster Audigy or Audigy 2 for Win98, whatever's cheaper. Install the .vxd drivers and DOS drivers and you're done. Win9x especially Win98 is a tricky beast to get 100% working at its rock solid full potential, it can be done but requires trial and error for each setup and its specific drivers, etc. But the Audigy will save you a lot of pain. Sleep on it and give the CT4810 a good try when you have the motivation

Babasha wrote on 2023-05-30, 12:38:

clean it with stationery eraser or look at chip contacts loss or scratches on PCB... I see something strange on photo (top-left corner)

That solder blob does not look right. I have a similar CT4810 card but with the ES1373 audio controller chip. The card layout is similar and the solder point on mine does not bridge several traces.
Another point is your PCI vendor/device ID of 1274/1880, as you guessed correctly it should be 1274/5880, as though one bit is not set when it should be. Looking at the entry for Ensoniq in the PCI device repository, there is indeed no device 1880 butunderdevice 5880, there is an entry for subsystem vendor device of 1274/2000 which matches the CT4810.
With the incorrect device ID, drivers will not match and simply won't work so it's worth cleaning up that solder blob to see if it changes to the correct one.
Some years ago, I had a similar issue with an ESS Solo-1 ES1938 (those "new" PCBs with recycled chips) whose PCI ID should be 125d/1969 but it came up as 125d/1869 and naturally didn't work. I simply removed and reinserted it into the PCI slot and luckily that fixed it, and it has remained fixed ever since.

andre_6 wrote on 2023-05-30, 21:17:

Success at last, my friends!
I decided to sublimate all the good advice from here and give it another try.
I took the card out again, cleaned it more thoroughly with eraser, put it back in and the Vendor ID correctly recognized the number as 5880!
After that I started trying out the drivers.
WInXP driver was installed plug&play, but for win98 I managed to install manually CT5880_9X - MAIN DRIVERS from @andre_6 attachment.
During the installation, it asked me for three files EAPCI2M, EAPCI4M and EAPCI8M to complete process, which I found in the AudioPCI folder.
All the other drivers I had wouldn't work (BSOD) and this one only installed when I set the PCI IRQ to 11, i dont know why.
After installation, it also works fine on other IRQs that are free (10,9,7,5).
Unfortunately, I'm stuck with the DOS driver, which I can't seem to initialize.
I used the drivers from here (second post) and the installation went super easy.
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … =49&menustate=0
Autoexec.bat and config.sys are set automatically, everything looks fine, the driver loads with the message:
SB PCI @ port f800, IRQ 11
Output mode is analog
Initialization complete
Also, sbcfg shows normal values, but sbtest gives Could not reset SB16 error message and of course there is no sound in DOS games.
I tried to reserve IRQ 5 and 7 in the BIOS, changed the PCI IRQ to other values than 11 (10,9,7,5), but I always end up with that error in the sbtest.
The whole problem is very similar to the one in this thread, also I attached the autoexec.bat and config.sys created by the installer.
SB 128PCI under W98 real mode DOS
I also tried different values for autoexec.bat and config.sys suggested on the page 2, but no luck.
Hope this gets resolved, the sound in DOS games is the main reason why I embarked on this adventure.
Any suggestion is highly welcome and ofc, many thanks to everyone for the help so far.

retrofan011 wrote on 2023-05-31, 16:06:

Success at last, my friends! I decided to sublimate all the good advice from here and give it another try. I took the card out a […]
Show full quote

andre_6 wrote on 2023-05-30, 21:17:

Success at last, my friends!
I decided to sublimate all the good advice from here and give it another try.
I took the card out again, cleaned it more thoroughly with eraser, put it back in and the Vendor ID correctly recognized the number as 5880!
After that I started trying out the drivers.
WInXP driver was installed plug&play, but for win98 I managed to install manually CT5880_9X - MAIN DRIVERS from @andre_6 attachment.
During the installation, it asked me for three files EAPCI2M, EAPCI4M and EAPCI8M to complete process, which I found in the AudioPCI folder.
All the other drivers I had wouldn't work (BSOD) and this one only installed when I set the PCI IRQ to 11, i dont know why.
After installation, it also works fine on other IRQs that are free (10,9,7,5).
Unfortunately, I'm stuck with the DOS driver, which I can't seem to initialize.
I used the drivers from here (second post) and the installation went super easy.
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … =49&menustate=0
Autoexec.bat and config.sys are set automatically, everything looks fine, the driver loads with the message:
SB PCI @ port f800, IRQ 11
Output mode is analog
Initialization complete
Also, sbcfg shows normal values, but sbtest gives Could not reset SB16 error message and of course there is no sound in DOS games.
I tried to reserve IRQ 5 and 7 in the BIOS, changed the PCI IRQ to other values than 11 (10,9,7,5), but I always end up with that error in the sbtest.
The whole problem is very similar to the one in this thread, also I attached the autoexec.bat and config.sys created by the installer.
SB 128PCI under W98 real mode DOS
I also tried different values for autoexec.bat and config.sys suggested on the page 2, but no luck.
Hope this gets resolved, the sound in DOS games is the main reason why I embarked on this adventure.
Any suggestion is highly welcome and ofc, many thanks to everyone for the help so far.

I always use original Ensoniq’s AudioPCI drivers in DOS or Win98 but they are SB Pro compatible only 🙁 and with original Ensoniq Soundscape support 😀

Babasha wrote on 2023-05-31, 16:43:

retrofan011 wrote on 2023-05-31, 16:06:

Success at last, my friends! I decided to sublimate all the good advice from here and give it another try. I took the card out a […]
Show full quote

andre_6 wrote on 2023-05-30, 21:17:

Success at last, my friends!
I decided to sublimate all the good advice from here and give it another try.
I took the card out again, cleaned it more thoroughly with eraser, put it back in and the Vendor ID correctly recognized the number as 5880!
After that I started trying out the drivers.
WInXP driver was installed plug&play, but for win98 I managed to install manually CT5880_9X - MAIN DRIVERS from @andre_6 attachment.
During the installation, it asked me for three files EAPCI2M, EAPCI4M and EAPCI8M to complete process, which I found in the AudioPCI folder.
All the other drivers I had wouldn't work (BSOD) and this one only installed when I set the PCI IRQ to 11, i dont know why.
After installation, it also works fine on other IRQs that are free (10,9,7,5).
Unfortunately, I'm stuck with the DOS driver, which I can't seem to initialize.
I used the drivers from here (second post) and the installation went super easy.
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … =49&menustate=0
Autoexec.bat and config.sys are set automatically, everything looks fine, the driver loads with the message:
SB PCI @ port f800, IRQ 11
Output mode is analog
Initialization complete
Also, sbcfg shows normal values, but sbtest gives Could not reset SB16 error message and of course there is no sound in DOS games.
I tried to reserve IRQ 5 and 7 in the BIOS, changed the PCI IRQ to other values than 11 (10,9,7,5), but I always end up with that error in the sbtest.
The whole problem is very similar to the one in this thread, also I attached the autoexec.bat and config.sys created by the installer.
SB 128PCI under W98 real mode DOS
I also tried different values for autoexec.bat and config.sys suggested on the page 2, but no luck.
Hope this gets resolved, the sound in DOS games is the main reason why I embarked on this adventure.
Any suggestion is highly welcome and ofc, many thanks to everyone for the help so far.

I always use original Ensoniq’s AudioPCI drivers in DOS or Win98 but they are SB Pro compatible only 🙁 and with original Ensoniq Soundscape support 😀

So, does this mean that this card cannot work under DOS ?

retrofan011 wrote on 2023-05-31, 17:21:

Babasha wrote on 2023-05-31, 16:43:

retrofan011 wrote on 2023-05-31, 16:06:

Success at last, my friends! I decided to sublimate all the good advice from here and give it another try. I took the card out a […]
Show full quote

Success at last, my friends!
I decided to sublimate all the good advice from here and give it another try.
I took the card out again, cleaned it more thoroughly with eraser, put it back in and the Vendor ID correctly recognized the number as 5880!
After that I started trying out the drivers.
WInXP driver was installed plug&play, but for win98 I managed to install manually CT5880_9X - MAIN DRIVERS from @andre_6 attachment.
During the installation, it asked me for three files EAPCI2M, EAPCI4M and EAPCI8M to complete process, which I found in the AudioPCI folder.
All the other drivers I had wouldn't work (BSOD) and this one only installed when I set the PCI IRQ to 11, i dont know why.
After installation, it also works fine on other IRQs that are free (10,9,7,5).
Unfortunately, I'm stuck with the DOS driver, which I can't seem to initialize.
I used the drivers from here (second post) and the installation went super easy.
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … =49&menustate=0
Autoexec.bat and config.sys are set automatically, everything looks fine, the driver loads with the message:
SB PCI @ port f800, IRQ 11
Output mode is analog
Initialization complete
Also, sbcfg shows normal values, but sbtest gives Could not reset SB16 error message and of course there is no sound in DOS games.
I tried to reserve IRQ 5 and 7 in the BIOS, changed the PCI IRQ to other values than 11 (10,9,7,5), but I always end up with that error in the sbtest.
The whole problem is very similar to the one in this thread, also I attached the autoexec.bat and config.sys created by the installer.
SB 128PCI under W98 real mode DOS
I also tried different values for autoexec.bat and config.sys suggested on the page 2, but no luck.
Hope this gets resolved, the sound in DOS games is the main reason why I embarked on this adventure.
Any suggestion is highly welcome and ofc, many thanks to everyone for the help so far.

I always use original Ensoniq’s AudioPCI drivers in DOS or Win98 but they are SB Pro compatible only 🙁 and with original Ensoniq Soundscape support 😀

So, does this mean that this card cannot work under DOS ?

No. It means just what i use other drivers. I got a nice DOS compatibility with Ensoniq’s drivers.

Babasha wrote on 2023-05-31, 18:48:

retrofan011 wrote on 2023-05-31, 17:21:

Babasha wrote on 2023-05-31, 16:43:

I always use original Ensoniq’s AudioPCI drivers in DOS or Win98 but they are SB Pro compatible only 🙁 and with original Ensoniq Soundscape support 😀

So, does this mean that this card cannot work under DOS ?

No. It means just what i use other drivers. I got a nice DOS compatibility with Ensoniq’s drivers.

Ok, thanks.
Can you send example of autoexec.bat and config.sys from your working DOS drivers ?

retrofan011 wrote on 2023-05-31, 16:06:

I took the card out again, cleaned it more thoroughly with eraser, put it back in and the Vendor ID correctly recognized the number as 5880!

Nice work. Is the solder blob still there? I'd try to clean that off as well, it just doesn't look right (if it is a solder blob).

retrofan011 wrote on 2023-05-31, 16:06:

Hope this gets resolved, the sound in DOS games is the main reason why I embarked on this adventure.

You have an ICH7 chipset, AIUI ICH5 is the last version that has legacy support so the DOS drivers won't work.
The good news is that SBEMU does support this card and has better sounding OPL3 emulation. As you're using Win98, you'll have set up a multiboot menu and disable auto-starting the Windows 98 GUI. One menu option for himem.sys (and optionally emm386) for Windows, and another for jemmex to use with SBEMU and plain DOS.

jtchip wrote on 2023-06-01, 00:02:

Nice work. Is the solder blob still there? I'd try to clean that off as well, it just doesn't look right (if it is a solder blob).

Not sure if it was a solder blob, more like dirt, looks a lot better now.

You have an ICH7 chipset, AIUI ICH5 is the last version that has legacy support so the DOS drivers won't work.
The good news is that SBEMU does support this card and has better sounding OPL3 emulation. As you're using Win98, you'll have set up a multiboot menu and disable auto-starting the Windows 98 GUI. One menu option for himem.sys (and optionally emm386) for Windows, and another for jemmex to use with SBEMU and plain DOS.

Thank you for this info, you saved me a lot of time and effort to testing different DOS driver settings.
I've heard about SBEMU recently and will definitely go that route.
I already found an excellent multiboot DOS menu here on the site, so I am ready to go and study SBEMU thread.
Btw, my Realtek AC97 onboard card is currently disabled in BIOS, but I noticed that there is no conflict with Creative SB, so I can use it for Windos 7, for which I don't have SB drivers.
I read that its also supported in SBEMU, but I guess real card is a better solution.

retrofan011 wrote on 2023-06-01, 04:34:

Not sure if it was a solder blob, more like dirt, looks a lot better now. […]
Show full quote

jtchip wrote on 2023-06-01, 00:02:

Nice work. Is the solder blob still there? I'd try to clean that off as well, it just doesn't look right (if it is a solder blob).

Not sure if it was a solder blob, more like dirt, looks a lot better now.

You have an ICH7 chipset, AIUI ICH5 is the last version that has legacy support so the DOS drivers won't work.
The good news is that SBEMU does support this card and has better sounding OPL3 emulation. As you're using Win98, you'll have set up a multiboot menu and disable auto-starting the Windows 98 GUI. One menu option for himem.sys (and optionally emm386) for Windows, and another for jemmex to use with SBEMU and plain DOS.

Thank you for this info, you saved me a lot of time and effort to testing different DOS driver settings.
I've heard about SBEMU recently and will definitely go that route.
I already found an excellent multiboot DOS menu here on the site, so I am ready to go and study SBEMU thread.
Btw, my Realtek AC97 onboard card is currently disabled in BIOS, but I noticed that there is no conflict with Creative SB, so I can use it for Windos 7, for which I don't have SB drivers.
I read that its also supported in SBEMU, but I guess real card is a better solution.

Good to know that you made it, well done