I have problems with ESS ES1879s Audiodrive ISA sound card. It works fine under DOS (it is perfectly compatible with SB16, no drivers needed), it works also with Windows 98 and default WDM drivers. But when I install Windows 98SE, there are serious problems. Card is detected, but it's not playing sound. When I want to play a sound, the program using sound card is freezing, sometimes entire Windows freezes. Sometimes short bits of audio are playing in a endless loop. Card reacts to the volume settings - when I set the volume low, there is no noise, and when I'm increasing the volume, I can hear some noise. Under DOS mode it works properly. I checked that with 2 motherboards with different chipsets and I had the same problem. I tried reinstalling Win98SE 5 times, i wass messing with copying some system files from Win98FE and had no luck. I tried installing Win95 drivers but it didn't work, I got exclamation mark on the sound card.

So, I have a question: does anybody else have such problems in Win98SE? If would like to know if it's driver or system related, or maybe I have broken card. I need that card because it's only 5 cm high and I'm building custom low-profile case, so if it's a problem with broken card, i will order new 1879s chip from aliexpress for 6 USD, desolder the older chip with hot air station and solder the new one. It's a single chip card so it should be easy to replace, but I would like to know if it would fix the problem. In fact, it would be probably possible to design and etch new pcb and make brand new card, because these chips are still manufactured... but not entire cards.