You could try newer drivers for that voodoo monster, the one from the CD is probably too outdated.

hmm nice oxymoron? Edit: and why did I think it was a voodoo just by reading monster... sigh

buckeye wrote on 2025-08-28, 17:29:

Works great in windows 98 but after installing the drivers off the diamond cd keep getting the message: error #6 while booting (something about the AU30DOS driver not loaded).

AU30DOS is a dos driver for the aureal vortex 2 (is one installed?), maybe you have a resource conflict between cards.

Try a different driver. Don't assume the one on the CD is the best just because it came with the card

PD2JK wrote on 2025-08-28, 17:41:

You could try newer drivers for that voodoo, the one from the CD is probably too outdated.

Pickle wrote on 2025-08-28, 17:54:

AU30DOS is a dos driver for the aureal vortex 2 (is one installed?), maybe you have a resource conflict between cards

The Diamond Monster Sound Mx300 IS an aureal vortex 2 based sound card ( and not a voodoo graphics accelerator) 😀

Falcosoft wrote on 2025-08-29, 01:12:

PD2JK wrote on 2025-08-28, 17:41:

You could try newer drivers for that voodoo, the one from the CD is probably too outdated.

Pickle wrote on 2025-08-28, 17:54:

AU30DOS is a dos driver for the aureal vortex 2 (is one installed?), maybe you have a resource conflict between cards

The Diamond Monster Sound Mx300 IS an aureal vortex 2 based sound card ( and not a voodoo graphics accelerator) 😀

yeah i think i read the posts too quick 😉

@buckeye go to phils computer lab for drivers to try. You also might also want to try different pci slots. Sometimes the slots share irq's.

As far as I remember the problem is due to IRQ conflict with other devices.

Full error message when booting Windows 98:

1ERROR #6: AUREAL VORTEX AUDIO; SOUND BLASTER EMULATION DISABLED IN WINDOWS. DRIVER NOT LOADED PROPERLY.

This error can be ignored if you don't need DOS support.

Solution:

I think the Vortex cards don't like to share resources and require a PCI Master slot.

In my case, Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500 worked successfully without IRQ conflicts on the middle PCI slot (PCI#3) of Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 (i865PE) motherboard, including DOS driver.
I also added a second sound card and a network card to make sure there were still resources left for further experimentations.

These IRQs were automatically assigned in Windows 98:

• AGP — ASUS V7100 Pure GeForce2 MX 32MB 128bit
  - IRQ #10 — NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400
• PCI #1 — free/not used
• PCI #2 — free/not used
• PCI #3 — Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500 → PCI Bus Mastering
  - IRQ #03 — Vortex AU8830 Multifunctional PCI Platform
  - IRQ #03 — Vortex AU8830 PCI Audio
  - IRQ #07 — Vortex AU8830 Sound Blaster Pro Emulation
• PCI #4 — Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS SB0350
  - IRQ #05 — PCI OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
  - IRQ #10 — Creative Audigy Audio Processor (WDM)
• PCI #5 — ASUS NX1101 (10/100/1000Mbps)
  - IRQ #05 — ASUS NX1101 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

I forgot to add: before installing Windows 98, I disabled unnecessary devices (COM, LPT, etc.) in BIOS to free up resources.

Before that I tried other PCI slots and combinations of devices without success.

Also, there is no guarantee that your PCI middle slot will work like mine, I think everything is individual here.

Pickle wrote on 2025-08-29, 03:05:

You also might also want to try different pci slots. Sometimes the slots share irq's.

That's right, on Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 motherboard PCI#1 and PCI#5 slots share a common IRQ.

buckeye wrote on 2025-08-28, 17:29:

Perhaps this is not the ideal setup for this card like a slot 1 or socket 370?

Getting late era DOS games working isn't a must but just curious as to why the error is occurring. Any ideas would be appreciated thanks!

I'm not a big fan of DOS games, but this is the best sound card of its time.

ott wrote on 2025-08-29, 03:32:

As far as I remember the problem is due to IRQ conflict with other devices. […]
Show full quote

As far as I remember the problem is due to IRQ conflict with other devices.

Full error message when booting Windows 98:

Copy code to clipboard

1ERROR #6: AUREAL VORTEX AUDIO; SOUND BLASTER EMULATION DISABLED IN WINDOWS. DRIVER NOT LOADED PROPERLY.

This error can be ignored if you don't need DOS support.

Solution:

I think the Vortex cards don't like to share resources and require a PCI Master slot.

In my case, Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500 worked successfully without IRQ conflicts on the middle PCI slot (PCI#3) of Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 (i865PE) motherboard, including DOS driver.
I also added a second sound card and a network card to make sure there were still resources left for further experimentations.

These IRQs were automatically assigned in Windows 98:

• AGP — ASUS V7100 Pure GeForce2 MX 32MB 128bit
  - IRQ #10 — NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400
• PCI #1 — free/not used
• PCI #2 — free/not used
• PCI #3 — Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500 → PCI Bus Mastering
  - IRQ #03 — Vortex AU8830 Multifunctional PCI Platform
  - IRQ #03 — Vortex AU8830 PCI Audio
  - IRQ #07 — Vortex AU8830 Sound Blaster Pro Emulation
• PCI #4 — Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS SB0350
  - IRQ #05 — PCI OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
  - IRQ #10 — Creative Audigy Audio Processor (WDM)
• PCI #5 — ASUS NX1101 (10/100/1000Mbps)
  - IRQ #05 — ASUS NX1101 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

I forgot to add: before installing Windows 98, I disabled unnecessary devices (COM, LPT, etc.) in BIOS to free up resources.

Before that I tried other PCI slots and combinations of devices without success.

Also, there is no guarantee that your PCI middle slot will work like mine, I think everything is individual here.

Pickle wrote on 2025-08-29, 03:05:

You also might also want to try different pci slots. Sometimes the slots share irq's.

That's right, on Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 motherboard PCI#1 and PCI#5 slots share a common IRQ.

buckeye wrote on 2025-08-28, 17:29:

Perhaps this is not the ideal setup for this card like a slot 1 or socket 370?

Getting late era DOS games working isn't a must but just curious as to why the error is occurring. Any ideas would be appreciated thanks!

I'm not a big fan of DOS games, but this is the best sound card of its time.

Yes, I did move it to the middle slot (only have three total) but that didn't help unfortunately. Regarding disabling unneeded ports that was also done.

I'll try moving the card to the remaining slot and see what happens. Failing that I'll look into the other drivers recommended. Thanks for chiming in!

Not sure if it affects dos thingy, there is the sb emulation that always causes problems when installing drivers.
What you need to do is set one irq, I have irq5, as reserved.

buckeye wrote on 2025-08-29, 22:12:

I'll try moving the card to the remaining slot and see what happens. Failing that I'll look into the other drivers recommended. Thanks for chiming in!

I forgot to add that after each moving the card to next PCI slot, I also had to reinstall Windows 98 because the IRQ conflict error remained. Luckily, it didn't take long time on SSD.

To my shame I still don't know how the IRQ assignment works in Win9x and whether it is possible to reset them without a clean reinstall.

You want to look at the last table posted by the bios and see what IRQs are getting assigned.
Resetting the escd might help.
You could also try go onto safe mode and delete entries in the device manager to cause the device to reinstall.

Still no joy. Did a fresh install of win98 and installed the reference Aureal drivers 2048 and 2041. Both caused a windows protection error upon reboot.

So tried my luck with the SB Live 5.1 with again a fresh os install. Ugh, windows protection error came up again.

This mobo is actually a stripped down Gateway model so perhaps the bios is gimped. That would explain why there is no option to enable PNP os.
it won't even show an IRQ table. Like I said before, parallel port/serial port/ lan port are disabled so the resources should be there.

I may have to wave the white flag and be content without the sb emulation or try it on one of my slot 1 boards.