Alex mex wrote on 2021-02-22, 00:42:

I do not know what the problem is, try with a fresh installation of Windows 98se but I had the same results so I tried another installation on another hard drive this time windows xp-sp3 and a geforce 6800xt and it worked perfectly, no blue screens or freezes

I understand everything works until you install the drivers for the sound card.
Did you only change the hard drive and graphics card or was it a completely new system?
Did you install the drivers from the same CD on XP or let the OS take care of it?
Have you tried a different version of Windows 98 SE or the same twice?
Have you tried Windows 98 SE on a different system with the same sound card?

Yes is the same system the only thing different is the video card and hard drive in the case of the xp sp3 testing even the same driver from the CD for the audigy 2

And in the other config in the same system with the voodoo 5 and win 98 se and fresh new install usigng same hard drive and driver disc have same results blue screen and freezing

So I test another sound card a Soundblaster 128 with original CD driver and works fine no blue screens at all...

but sound quality is not great and unfortunately that's the only two sound cards that I have

The Audigy 2 ZS driver installation also installs DirectX 9.0 as a prerequisite.
Never tried it myself, but it's very possible that the Voodoo 5 driver has issues with this version of DirectX (which was released two years after 3dfx went bankrupt).

What I do know, is that some time ago I tried the following combo and it worked perfectly:
Asus TUSL2-C (BIOS version 1012)
Tualatin 1.4
nVIDIA GeForce 3 & GeForce 4 Ti 4600 (driver version 30.82)
Audigy 2 ZS.

I feel like the Audigy 2 ZS is a bit overkill for a Voodoo 5. Personally, I would pair the Voodoo 5 with either a Creative Sound Blaster Live 5.1 card (SB0060, SB0100) or an Aureal Vortex 2 (ideally, a Diamond Monster MX300). The latter is a bit of a collectable, so it could end up costing quite a bit of money, but a Creative SB Live is still pretty cheap (I usually find them locally for < $10 a piece).
Furthermore, I would not go beyond DirectX 7.0 with a Voodoo 5, it's just not needed.

you should check the other threads. Guide: Installing Windows 9x and DOS drivers on Audigy cards (version 3.1)

Hi, that is one awesome retro PC you got there. I had the same issue with Audigy 2 zs on my Pentium 4 with Intel 865 Chipset, the install cd woud blue screen during install. My understanding Audigy 2 zs was made to be used on win2k/XP, but you can make it work on 9X as well. I followed the guide posted above and installed VXD drivers, my system works great with no lockups or crashes. I'm running Voodooo 2 in sli pared with 9800Pro no issues with DX9 breaking voodoo 2, not sure how DX9 would affect Voodoo 5.

Warlord wrote on 2021-02-22, 09:12:

you should check the other threads. Guide: Installing Windows 9x and DOS drivers on Audigy cards (version 3.1)

Yes I think Is to much of a sound card for win 98se I will use it for another pc

For my retro pc I will stay with Soundblaster 128 until I find something better

Thanks for your comment

Blaster wrote on 2021-02-22, 19:28:

Hi, that is one awesome retro PC you got there. I had the same issue with Audigy 2 zs on my Pentium 4 with Intel 865 Chipset, the install cd woud blue screen during install. My understanding Audigy 2 zs was made to be used on win2k/XP, but you can make it work on 9X as well. I followed the guide posted above and installed VXD drivers, my system works great with no lockups or crashes. I'm running Voodooo 2 in sli pared with 9800Pro no issues with DX9 breaking voodoo 2, not sure how DX9 would affect Voodoo 5.

Thanks already try it and same results

Thanks every one for your comments this blog/community is awesome I will try to do more test with the audigy and if it still fails I use it in another machine with windows xp and will search a Soundblaster live 5.1 instead

That's what I do, it was made for XP games, with EAX 4 support.

Somethings not quite right, I've got 2 Slot 1 systems and a S478 system running Win98 and Audigy 2 ZS card.

You can try one of the drivers from here http://vogonsdrivers.com/index.php?catid=7
I forget which one I grabbed. I usually extract the iso to a folder on the hard drive but think I've installed from the iso mounted with daemon tools as well.
Thinking of what I usually install, Have you installed chipset drivers and Direct X
You say your using a USB stick, maybe its the drivers from that? It's just a guess as I don't use USB in 98 so that's a fairly big difference between our systems.

The 2 ZS is a great card for Win98 but I've also got SBLive! in a number of systems and I cant tell the difference if you asked me honestly. and they can be had for cheap.

The drivers that I use for my Live are like 5.5 mb, only containing the .vxd drivers. It just works!

I know you said you gonna get another card, but have you tried moving Audigy 2 to a different PCI slot?

Audigy2/2zs is perfect for Windows 98. And it just works on any Slot 1 or s370 motherboard. No need to search for some specific drivers on the web. Just use VXD drivers from CD which came with the soundcard (using provided Creative utility ctzap or whatever it's called).
Check that there are no IRQ conflicts and preferably do not use shared IRQ (on slot 1 and S370 motherboards some PCI slots usually share IRQ with one another, consult your motherboard's user manual). Also to troubleshot the issue - try disabling onboard USB controller. See if it helps.

Even though 2/2ZS was released way into XP era, it shares most of its architecture with Audigy which had great windows 98 drivers including proper SB16 emulation). Audigy 2/2ZS drivers are mostly tweaked Audigy 1 drivers with SB16 emulation removed (you still can tweak it in though).

chinny22 wrote on 2021-02-23, 10:26:

Somethings not quite right, I've got 2 Slot 1 systems and a S478 system running Win98 and Audigy 2 ZS card. […]
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Somethings not quite right, I've got 2 Slot 1 systems and a S478 system running Win98 and Audigy 2 ZS card.

You can try one of the drivers from here http://vogonsdrivers.com/index.php?catid=7
I forget which one I grabbed. I usually extract the iso to a folder on the hard drive but think I've installed from the iso mounted with daemon tools as well.
Thinking of what I usually install, Have you installed chipset drivers and Direct X
You say your using a USB stick, maybe its the drivers from that? It's just a guess as I don't use USB in 98 so that's a fairly big difference between our systems.

The 2 ZS is a great card for Win98 but I've also got SBLive! in a number of systems and I cant tell the difference if you asked me honestly. and they can be had for cheap.

Yes I use the iso CD from here and the one that came with the card and same results the funny thing is that I use the same config I just move to win xp and everything works fine so the problem is win 98 se

So I decided to buy a live 5.1 and even use the same hard drive that I was using with the audigy zs same installation just uninstalling the drivers from the audigy And installing the drivers of the live and everything was solved

No blue screens or freezing

texterted wrote on 2021-02-23, 12:08:

The drivers that I use for my Live are like 5.5 mb, only containing the .vxd drivers. It just works!

I use the original driver CD and some drivers from here

the thing is that I'm using several hard drives and diferent windows installations to test and
When I use win xp in the same machine no changes works fine

Any way audigy zs is not quite period acurated so I change it for a live 5.1

Blaster wrote on 2021-02-23, 22:43:

I know you said you gonna get another card, but have you tried moving Audigy 2 to a different PCI slot?

No but I tried the same config with xp and works fine so the problem is not the slot or bios or chipset is win 98 se

Hello everyone, it seems that the freezing problem was a defective ide cable but even so the vxd driver continued to cause conflict

in the end the result was a dead 40gigs ide hard drive (I have like 10 of those so no big deal) 😉 15 dollars for a soublaster live 5.1 plus shipping and many hours of driver compatibility hell and honestly
I don't notice a sound difference between the two cards since I'm using speakers and not headphones, maybe you have to have a musician's ear to notice a difference thanks to everyone for the coments and suggestions
The machine finally works fine
Asus TUSL2-C
Pentium 3-s 1400 mhz stock
512 mb 133 mhz cl2 Samsung ram
3dfx voodoo 5 5500
Soundblaster live 5.1
2 ide hard drives 40 gigs
Win 98 se.

I've only got the Live! value CT4830 and maybe if I carefully listened to both side by side possibly I'd notice a difference if concentrated while listing to music.
but playing games where your busy trying not to die and not listing for imperfections I wouldn't know which is which.
I'll admit I use the Audigy 2 cards more as it feels cool having the latest and greatest card supported by the OS then any practical reason.

For $15 you fix the problem and no real noticeable difference, yeh that's what I would have done as well.