Creative SBLive 5.1 in w98SE/ME

[Offler]

I have been examining drivers for SBLive 5.1 for some time now (approx for three months). Normally from this era there are two types of drivers - VXD and WDM. Here i identified THREE different types.

1. VXD

Standard VXD driver. Its limitations are based it low DirectSound functionality. If using AC3 filter of FFD audio filter you dont get sound if DirectSound is set as a default audio renderer. Games running with EAX (Oblivion) are running very good.

2. WDM (based on emu10kf.sys - year 2001)

Looks like classical WDM driver. DirectSound and additional filters are fully functional. But if you try to run Oblivion you shall see that game is more choppy as before.

3. WDM (based on ctaud2k.sys - year 2004)

Audio filtering works, Oblivion works, Creative surround mixer works (asio?). At least the driver which is worth it, but... The installation process of this driver is very bad.

Since i bought my SBlive card from my friend (which lost his driver cd) i was unable to run original drivers from the CD, and also partially unable to install any update (due error messages refering that driver is intended for Windows 2000 or higher). I tried manuall instalations. in some cases i was sucessful, in other cases i failed - device was running but no sound was being played.

here are the methods i tried:

- installation with INF file - failed - no sound present

- installation with installer - failed again

- installation with instaler in safe mode - sometimes failed sometimes sucess, but installer always freezed.

- first uninstallation - during reboot system reffered to missing system.ini - it was in fact present. Some kind of bug - lead to boot fail. after third boot (not second) i booted sucessully while old SB drivers were actually erased (at least). i have installed the drivers from this new package and again no sound. (instaler has hanged again). Then i tried to install surround mixer - still not able connect to the driver. I executed driver installer again and voilá - the driver works - SUCESS

symptoms:

- if the driver is installed as "Emu 10k1 audio processor (wdm)" surround mixer and sound at all will not work.

- if the surround mixer is installed first and later driver it seems to work

- if the driver is installed as "Creative SBLive! Series" all works.

actually correct name of driver is reffering more to VXD than to WDM, but in DXdiag and in other test it acts as WDM driver based on ctaud2k.sys.

Since the installation process of the best driver is very... screwed up, i want to ask somebody here for some help, if he has some experience with this driver.

[Eck]

Okay, the latest WDM stuff for 9x that people got to work pretty well was the Frankenstein installation of the Audigy 2 (not Audigy 2 ZS) cd, modified by the file that when executed upon the copied Creative cd on the hard drive would add some SBLive information to the Setup file to let it all install on whichever the model SBLive card was on the machine.

That process worked fine but needed some work-arounds to use the EAX Advanced EQ (had to click the mouse on its volume tab in EAXControl to unmute it each time), and the mix didn't really sound authentic with unnatural booming base and even with adjusting that down and the treble up you got missing midrange. The drivers were really tuned for the Audigy 2 series even though they included SBLive compatible files so it could be used with it.

Those are likely the ones you are struggling with. I found them too much bother for too little reward.

What I used when I wasn't insistent upon using the older VXD's that included Windows MS-DOS box compatible SB16 drivers (turns out to be my favorite, but you might not love the old LiveWare stuff like I do), was the installation cd that came with the last SB0224 retail box release. It's a full set of software and drivers that include a version of what is in the Live Uni-Pack for Windows XP they post in their download section, except it installs on Windows 98SE and Me. That's the middle driver in your list, and the ones I always wound up using on both 98SE (when I didn't care about ms-dos box soundblaster sound) and on XP. Perhaps they give you problems on some games I don't play, but the whole driver/software combination worked just fine for me.

That same combo can be done without that cd if you look around for the Creative replacement cd which is offered from a link in the Creative forum and is still being served and maintained, or by calling Creative and purchasing it. I have an older one of those, which includes 244's instead of the 252's, but at least you can install the other software and PlayCenter without installing the old LiveWare versions first and then upgrading, which is full of problems as the really old stuff doesn't mix well with the newer. The other software offered for download by Creative in their legacy section are only updates which need a previous version installed. That frustrated a lot of Platinum breakout box owners. The full cd's include the software and driver mod's necessary to make the breakout box work properly but the downloads offered do not (the drivers) or won't install without the previous version (the software). But the full cd's install the whole package. They are equivalent to the Compaq driver and installation cd's but have the newer versions of the software already on them. The updates on the net only run on XP, so you'd actually need one of the full cd's to use the latest versions on 9x. Only the PlayCenter update works on 9x. Even that Uni-Pack driver will not install on 9x. But the cd version contains that driver with 9x installation capability.

Sometimes the 252 (or other) driver setup's will tell you that no SoundBlaster hardware is detected. In that case you need to browse to the Audio or Audio/Drivers or Audio/Setup folder and find CTZAPP.EXE or similar. Have it install the WDM drivers, point Windows to either the system folder, a cat folder, your Windows installation folders (should have them somewhere on your system for times like this when you may have your cd drive occupied), or some folder on the cd when it asks for certain files it can't find. They ARE somewhere. Maybe even a temp folder sometimes has them. Reboot and then the cd setup should work to install the rest, just uncheck Windows Drivers in the Custom Install checklist as sometimes that doesn't go smoothly on top of already installed drivers.

You'll have to search around for some of the older information for details depending upon what you want to do. The legacy Creative forums on the uk Creative site used to have some nice guides in some threads, but I don't know if they still have those up. Other private websites offered specific guides for just about every method available.

If you really want to use those Audigy 2 era drivers, you will need that executable (forget what it's called) that modifies the Creative setup files and inf's for all the card numbers. driverheaven.net used to have some guides there for doing this sort of thing.

Good luck!

[Offler]

Nono. these drivers are surely not intended for Audigy. i am not sure, but they look tweaked up little bit, but i am sure that they contain file SB0100.DAT which refers to SoundBlaster Live!, and also its internal files (inf) contains sections for Win98.

I was able to install "Audigy audio processor" driver on this card without trouble but during play it acts as Emulated driver withoud EAX/other features available.

The driver which i use seems to be intended for Windows 2000+ (ctaud2k.sys), while in this case it contains some files which are actually are not Win9x compatible (installer), but the rest (Driver itself and Surround Mixer) are fully compliant with WDM standard.

the problem is still to be solved. it is possible that part of the driver is in surround mixer (required dll, or whatever) and the driver shall not work until surround mixer is present. i shall test it.

if i shall be sucessul i shall find a link where those files shall be for download.

[Eck]

There are packages available in the driverheaven forums called U-PAX I recall. They have their own site too as well as their own forum.

They haven't worked on SBLive stuff in a long time, but you can download full iso's to burn of full setup cd's for the SBLive cards. You just need to locate the link for the last versions of the packages for the SBLive.

They are full software/driver suites, tweaked to provide the latest drivers and software available for the SBLive, mostly adapted from the Audigy 2 stuff. If you don't want to tweak the official cd's yourself or just use the official SBLiveWare offered, that may be the best way to go. Lot's of folks loved their packages.

[Offler]

I am not sure where i have found this driver. i added here new dlls from last version (2006) and it works, but sys files are not able to work with ntkern and mmdevloader. If i use game which has low framerate sound is churming littlebit. that means that driver is working with system, not beyond or over it.

if game is slowed and sound go well it means that sound has too high priority and it can consume cpu usage more than other tasks.

edit:

ok problem solved. the driver installer needs 3 or 5 minuts while it looks frozen but it works. not usable in safe mode - only in real mode.

Edited February 17, 2008 by Offler