Yes! With read-only set, the values stay saved. But there is not sound in dos yet.

I've set the pci where audigy is plugged with IRQ 10 on the bios. I've reserved in bios IRQs 5,7,9 so any pci device choose this IRQs.

Apparently all is loaded without errors in dos mode. If I run sbecfg, I have all the parameters ok, but when I run "sbego", it hangs the program and sounds a pc speaker tone freezing the system.

In windows it's all ok and sounds without problem.

I don't know where is the problem....

Maybe the problem is related with this: Re: Can't get SB Live! SB16 emulation to work

My motherboard is the same model and probably the PCI SERR# to CPU NMI routing via is disabled. There is no answer from post creator but it's something that I can try.

]--Freeman--[ wrote on 2025-02-02, 23:18:

Yes! With read-only set, the values stay saved. But there is not sound in dos yet.

Just to check, you are running AUDIGY12.EXE to unmute the card in pure DOS, right? Assuming you have an Audigy 2 or ZS card of course.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-02-03, 07:30:

]--Freeman--[ wrote on 2025-02-02, 23:18:

Yes! With read-only set, the values stay saved. But there is not sound in dos yet.

Just to check, you are running AUDIGY12.EXE to unmute the card in pure DOS, right? Assuming you have an Audigy 2 or ZS card of course.

Yes! I'm running Audigy patch and there is not errors. Yes, my card is an Audigy 2 ZS (SB0350).

]--Freeman--[ wrote on 2025-02-03, 08:50:

Yes! I'm running Audigy patch and there is not errors. Yes, my card is an Audigy 2 ZS (SB0350).

In that case, I'm guessing there's some sort of hardware incompatibility, as indicated in the thread that you linked.

The SB16 emulation of SBLive and Audigy cards is harder to achieve on newer chipsets.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-02-03, 08:55:

]--Freeman--[ wrote on 2025-02-03, 08:50:

Yes! I'm running Audigy patch and there is not errors. Yes, my card is an Audigy 2 ZS (SB0350).

In that case, I'm guessing there's some sort of hardware incompatibility, as indicated in the thread that you linked.

The SB16 emulation of SBLive and Audigy cards is harder to achieve on newer chipsets.

Thanks Joseph, I've tried the "Serr" enable stuff but it doesn't work. Anyway, in SB16 emulation in windows 98 is working perfectly. A pity that in pure dos or dos mode doesn't work.

Followed the guide and made it through installation without a hitch. However, I don't believe SB16 emulation is working correctly. When Win98 boots and runs the autoexec.bat, the output from SBEINIT.COM gives an error "Could not allocate code/patch RAM below 4 Mbyte boundary. Try loading SBEINIT.COM before SMARTDRV.EXE or minimizing VDISK RAM. Creative SB16 Emulation Driver NOT loading."
I tried searching for solutions for this, but came up empty.
Any help would be much appreciated.

YamMasterMash wrote on 2025-02-18, 00:55:

Followed the guide and made it through installation without a hitch. However, I don't believe SB16 emulation is working correctly. When Win98 boots and runs the autoexec.bat, the output from SBEINIT.COM gives an error "Could not allocate code/patch RAM below 4 Mbyte boundary. Try loading SBEINIT.COM before SMARTDRV.EXE or minimizing VDISK RAM. Creative SB16 Emulation Driver NOT loading."
I tried searching for solutions for this, but came up empty.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Interesting error, don't think I've seen that one before. Sound like it's either a chipset incompatibility issue, or that there isn't enough free conventional memory for the driver to load. Try using the NOEMS switch like so:

1DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS

I'm not sure if it will help in your case, since the error is a bit different than usual. It could be that the motherboard/chipset is simply too new, or that it has too many option roms already loaded into memory. Difficult to say without knowing the exact hardware configuration.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-02-18, 06:42:

Interesting error, don't think I've seen that one before. Sound like it's either a chipset incompatibility issue, or that there […]
Show full quote

YamMasterMash wrote on 2025-02-18, 00:55:

Followed the guide and made it through installation without a hitch. However, I don't believe SB16 emulation is working correctly. When Win98 boots and runs the autoexec.bat, the output from SBEINIT.COM gives an error "Could not allocate code/patch RAM below 4 Mbyte boundary. Try loading SBEINIT.COM before SMARTDRV.EXE or minimizing VDISK RAM. Creative SB16 Emulation Driver NOT loading."
I tried searching for solutions for this, but came up empty.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Interesting error, don't think I've seen that one before. Sound like it's either a chipset incompatibility issue, or that there isn't enough free conventional memory for the driver to load. Try using the NOEMS switch like so:

Copy code to clipboard

1DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS

I'm not sure if it will help in your case, since the error is a bit different than usual. It could be that the motherboard/chipset is simply too new, or that it has too many option roms already loaded into memory. Difficult to say without knowing the exact hardware configuration.

Unfortunately the NOEMS switch didn't make a difference.

Motherboard is TriGem Lomita. Chipset is Intel 810E.

YamMasterMash wrote on 2025-02-18, 14:17:

Unfortunately the NOEMS switch didn't make a difference.

Motherboard is TriGem Lomita. Chipset is Intel 810E.

Can't say I'm familiar with that one.

I assume you've tried disabling all the integrated devices (LAN, on-board sound, parallel and serial ports etc.) in the BIOS or via jumpers, if applicable? No other ideas on my end, but maybe someone else can offer some suggestions.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-02-18, 14:26:

YamMasterMash wrote on 2025-02-18, 14:17:

Unfortunately the NOEMS switch didn't make a difference.

Motherboard is TriGem Lomita. Chipset is Intel 810E.

Can't say I'm familiar with that one.

I assume you've tried disabling all the integrated devices (LAN, on-board sound, parallel and serial ports etc.) in the BIOS or via jumpers, if applicable? No other ideas on my end, but maybe someone else can offer some suggestions.

All integrated devices that could be disabled are (sound, parallel, and serial ports (no onboard lan)). The only thing not disabled is the integrated graphics, there wasn't an option to do so.

I saw suggestions in other threads mentioning this problem to try using LIMITMEM.SYS

1DEVICE=C:\DOS\DRIVERS\LIMITMEM\LIMITMEM.SYS 32

Unfortunately, this didn't work.

I saw another suggestion to use XMSRES around the SBEINIT.COM like this:

1%XMSRES_DIR%\XMSRES.EXE /L 8
2%SBDIR%\SBEINIT.COM
3%XMSRES_DIR%\XMSRES.EXE /U

This also did not work.

I've had weird things happen in DOS with too much physical memory installed. Generally, 256-512MB is the upper limit, from my experience. Sure, it can work with more, but things can go pear shaped.

If your motherboard has USB 2.0 ports, these can also cause a lot of memory and resource problems.

Kahenraz wrote on 2025-02-18, 16:43:

I've had weird things happen in DOS with too much physical memory installed. Generally, 256-512MB is the upper limit, from my experience. Sure, it can work with more, but things can go pear shaped.

If your motherboard has USB 2.0 ports, these can also cause a lot of memory and resource problems.

I currently have 384MB of physical memory. I reduced it to a single 128MB stick and that made no difference.

To my knowledge, the USB ports are 1.1.

YamMasterMash wrote on 2025-02-18, 00:55:

Followed the guide and made it through installation without a hitch. However, I don't believe SB16 emulation is working correctly. When Win98 boots and runs the autoexec.bat, the output from SBEINIT.COM gives an error "Could not allocate code/patch RAM below 4 Mbyte boundary. Try loading SBEINIT.COM before SMARTDRV.EXE or minimizing VDISK RAM. Creative SB16 Emulation Driver NOT loading."
I tried searching for solutions for this, but came up empty.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Does your BIOS have a memory hole setting?

kingcake wrote on 2025-02-18, 17:13:

YamMasterMash wrote on 2025-02-18, 00:55:

Followed the guide and made it through installation without a hitch. However, I don't believe SB16 emulation is working correctly. When Win98 boots and runs the autoexec.bat, the output from SBEINIT.COM gives an error "Could not allocate code/patch RAM below 4 Mbyte boundary. Try loading SBEINIT.COM before SMARTDRV.EXE or minimizing VDISK RAM. Creative SB16 Emulation Driver NOT loading."
I tried searching for solutions for this, but came up empty.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Does your BIOS have a memory hole setting?

No memory hole setting. The BIOS is pretty limited.

YamMasterMash wrote on 2025-02-18, 18:21:

kingcake wrote on 2025-02-18, 17:13:

YamMasterMash wrote on 2025-02-18, 00:55:

Followed the guide and made it through installation without a hitch. However, I don't believe SB16 emulation is working correctly. When Win98 boots and runs the autoexec.bat, the output from SBEINIT.COM gives an error "Could not allocate code/patch RAM below 4 Mbyte boundary. Try loading SBEINIT.COM before SMARTDRV.EXE or minimizing VDISK RAM. Creative SB16 Emulation Driver NOT loading."
I tried searching for solutions for this, but came up empty.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Does your BIOS have a memory hole setting?

No memory hole setting. The BIOS is pretty limited.

I would install QEMM9. It should be able to work around this. With QEMM9 installed you can also just use SBEMU with that card. Which will sound better anyway.

After a TON of trial and error, I finally found a solution that works for me.

In Config.sys I swapped out HIMEM.SYS with HIMEMX2.EXE. (v3.38 downloaded from github)

That's the spirit.

Just wanted to thank you for this guide Joseph_Joestar, I have used it to successfully install my Audigy2 (SB0240) with the DOS drivers and all, really cool stuff! Just wanted to ask… is EAX 4 supported with these drivers?

Mastran wrote on 2025-03-13, 04:04:

Just wanted to thank you for this guide Joseph_Joestar, I have used it to successfully install my Audigy2 (SB0240) with the DOS drivers and all, really cool stuff!

Cheers! 😀

Just wanted to ask… is EAX 4 supported with these drivers?

Not by default. From my testing, it looks like Creative never bothered with adding EAX 4.0 support to their VxD drivers.

If you need EAX 4.0 under Win9x, you can install WDM drivers from the official Audigy 2 ZS driver CD, and that will work fine. However, this will result in lower compatibility with some older EAX games like Need for Speed: High Stakes and Baldur's Gate 2. Also, DOS game compatibility will be far worse. In my opinion, EAX 4.0 games are too new for Win9x, and it's better to play them on a more powerful WinXP system.