Strange issues with the VxD driver... Windows randomly plays the windows start-up sound, or other previously played sounds like right-click menu sounds, there are random crackling sounds etc. Would love to go back to WDM, but there is just no sound with it.
I'm wondering if anyone had similar issues with Audigy 2 ZS?

Not sure if this is reason for the lack of audio with WDM, but when using the WDM driver, Windows gives an error about a missing DLL C:\Windows\System\drmstor.dll on start up.
No such error with VxD driver.

VXD is the driver of choice for this era of machines due to the higher performance and better support for sound in 16-bit applications and the guides focus on this driverset. It's possible that the shortcut install method used doesn't result in functioning WDM drivers, I only ever used the retail install CD for WDM and the shortcut/easy method for VXD. The issues you are having don't seem to be VXD specific either as people don't report crackling or repeated sounds as a normal experience.

My guess is whatever was messing with the graphics card, is now doing the same thing to the sound card.

Do you have Win98 or Win98SE?

Celeron 466 mostly shipped with Win98SE or Win2K.
The Audigy2 is supported in Win98SE-WinXP.

So if you trying Win98 (original) then you are out of step on both components.

MattRocks wrote on Today, 11:00:

Do you have Win98 or Win98SE? […]
Show full quote

Do you have Win98 or Win98SE?

Celeron 466 mostly shipped with Win98SE or Win2K.
The Audigy2 is supported in Win98SE-WinXP.

So if you trying Win98 (original) then you are out of step on both components.

Celeron 466 and Audigy 2 VXD drivers do not work with Win98, only Win98SE? Seems odd to me. 😀

NeoG_ wrote on Today, 07:24:

... people don't report crackling or repeated sounds as a normal experience ...

I have a thread almost dedicated to EMU10K1 crackling in Win98 like a saucepan - that is how I remember those Creative DSPs behaving on similar spec CPUs.

I don't recall problems on Linux or on *GHz CPUs so I suspect crackling stems from Big WAVs + Big Creative Labs drivers vs. Slow IDE HDDs + Slow CPUs. My view is that in that era people only bought Creative Labs cards because Creative Labs sponsored the games studios. Unless you specifically want EAX demos there is probably a sweeter sound card to pair.

There are utilities that measure latency.
For example, LatencyMon.
But not for Windows 98, unfortunately.
With their help, you can determine which driver or programme is abusing the bus and CPU time.
It could be anything.

shevalier wrote on 43 minutes ago:

There are utilities that measure latency. For example, LatencyMon. But not for Windows 98, unfortunately. With their help, you c […]
Show full quote

There are utilities that measure latency.
For example, LatencyMon.
But not for Windows 98, unfortunately.
With their help, you can determine which driver or programme is abusing the bus and CPU time.
It could be anything.

Win98SE is the right environment to surface how good (or bad) Creative Labs' EMU-based sound cards really are.

LatencyMon is for Win7, and EMU hardware acceleration (most of the driver stack) is disabled on Win7 -Microsoft removed hardware DirectSound and forced all mixing through a software audio engine that emerged with Windows Vista. So if you run LatencyMon on Win7, you’re not testing Creative’s stack at all — you’re testing Microsoft’s software mixer. And if Win7 is your environment for experiencing Creative Labs' EMU-based sound output then you have only ever heard the DAC, because everything else Creative Labs shipped was disabled or bypassed.

In the war between MacOS and Windows, maybe Microsoft considered Creative Labs a liability that needed silencing? I'm not joking - my recollection of period accurate Creative Labs noise is truly dire, and if Creative were as great as people seem to believe then why did Apple - the multimedia experts - never buy a Creative chip? And, Creative didn't compete in music studios either. If Creative had any credibility in audio fidelity then you'd expect amateur musicians to sometimes choose Creative over M-Audio, Ensoniq, Digigram, Turtle Beach - and they did not!

Truthfully, the only thing going for Creative Labs is that a video game specifically targeted Sound Blaster boards - and that only happened because Creative Labs provided free tools, middleware, and technical support to games studios. The historical record is very revealing.