Jorpho wrote on 2020-06-01, 03:16:

[Technically, yes, but as per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_98#Wind … _Second_Edition , 98 SE had "improved WDM audio and modem support". As noted above, Creative's installers specifically required 98 SE for WDM drivers.

Improved != Introduced
Though I don't see any reason to use Win98FE over SE anyway

A few minutes of Googling has failed to reveal what, exactly, "improved" means in a technical context here. So, sure, maybe 98 FE has exactly the same support for WDM audio drivers as 98 SE, and people have just been spreading unfounded rumors for the last twenty years. Why not. 😜 But I doubt you're going to find anything from Creative that officially supports installing WDM drivers in 98 FE.

Jorpho wrote on 2020-06-01, 17:18:

A few minutes of Googling has failed to reveal what, exactly, "improved" means in a technical context here. So, sure, maybe 98 FE has exactly the same support for WDM audio drivers as 98 SE, and people have just been spreading unfounded rumors for the last twenty years. Why not. 😜 But I doubt you're going to find anything from Creative that officially supports installing WDM drivers in 98 FE.

For all we know, maybe they just included better WDM drivers and an improved NTKERN.VXD. And no, I don't think 98FE has exactly the same support as 98SE, or else NUSB wouldn't have needed to have two different versions for FE and SE. Either way, there are many other reasons to use 98SE instead of 98FE anyway, like somewhat better stability. As for people spreading unfounded rumors for decades, well it's not at all impossible.

boxpressed wrote on 2020-05-09, 02:43:

SB Live! cards are notorious for needing just the right driver. Some of the information on vogonsdrivers is misleading because just because a card model is listed in an INF file doesn't mean that that driver package will work.

I have a CT4780 and was able to install using this CD. I have uploaded the ISO to archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/sblive-1024

Thank you from me for this file! I had struggled with several incompatible drivers until this one.

boxpressed wrote on 2020-05-09, 02:43:

SB Live! cards are notorious for needing just the right driver. Some of the information on vogonsdrivers is misleading because j […]
Show full quote

thenix wrote on 2020-05-08, 01:34:

Hello all. I recently got a Sound Blasters Live! CT4870 card to put in my Windows 98 computer. I found some newer drivers that were supposed to work I think from this site. I had the card installed and installed the drivers but it would have an error at the end of installation. After restart it would recognize 4 drivers for the sound card but 1 (the creative driver, the main one) would have a yellow icon saying Windows couldn't start it so it stopped trying. Sound didn't work. I decided I was going to uninstall the drivers and try the older drivers from creative's website but after uninstalling the drivers windows started crashing. Even now when I have the card inserted windows will crash and not let me log in. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

SB Live! cards are notorious for needing just the right driver. Some of the information on vogonsdrivers is misleading because just because a card model is listed in an INF file doesn't mean that that driver package will work.

I have a CT4780 and was able to install using this CD. I have uploaded the ISO to archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/sblive-1024

Wow, I really can't thank you enough. I have about 30 of these and I managed to get them to work with your driver after weeks of trying with others. Cheers mate! You made my day...

thenix wrote on 2020-05-09, 13:40:

boxpressed wrote on 2020-05-09, 02:43:

SB Live! cards are notorious for needing just the right driver. Some of the information on vogonsdrivers is misleading because j […]
Show full quote

thenix wrote on 2020-05-08, 01:34:

Hello all. I recently got a Sound Blasters Live! CT4870 card to put in my Windows 98 computer. I found some newer drivers that were supposed to work I think from this site. I had the card installed and installed the drivers but it would have an error at the end of installation. After restart it would recognize 4 drivers for the sound card but 1 (the creative driver, the main one) would have a yellow icon saying Windows couldn't start it so it stopped trying. Sound didn't work. I decided I was going to uninstall the drivers and try the older drivers from creative's website but after uninstalling the drivers windows started crashing. Even now when I have the card inserted windows will crash and not let me log in. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

SB Live! cards are notorious for needing just the right driver. Some of the information on vogonsdrivers is misleading because just because a card model is listed in an INF file doesn't mean that that driver package will work.

I have a CT4780 and was able to install using this CD. I have uploaded the ISO to archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/sblive-1024

Thank you, I saw a bunch of sound blasters ISOs on archive.org but couldn't tell which one was for what card.

I've got a similar machine with the ct4780 sound card. I got the sound in w98se but not in dos 6.22 or 7.1 would you be willing to share what you did, maybe the config.sys and autoexec.bat entries. I can't get the sound in the dos.

mbguy1 wrote on 2025-09-21, 18:17:

thenix wrote on 2020-05-09, 13:40:

boxpressed wrote on 2020-05-09, 02:43:

SB Live! cards are notorious for needing just the right driver. Some of the information on vogonsdrivers is misleading because just because a card model is listed in an INF file doesn't mean that that driver package will work.

I have a CT4780 and was able to install using this CD. I have uploaded the ISO to archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/sblive-1024

Thank you, I saw a bunch of sound blasters ISOs on archive.org but couldn't tell which one was for what card.

I've got a similar machine with the ct4780 sound card. I got the sound in w98se but not in dos 6.22 or 7.1 would you be willing to share what you did, maybe the config.sys and autoexec.bat entries. I can't get the sound in the dos.

Some driver packages do not have the DOS driver set, try the ones from PhilsComputerLab here

https://www.philscomputerlab.com/sound-blaster-live.html (livedos.zip)