Jump to content

Windows ME and Dual SoundBlaster Issues


jm764

Recommended Posts

I been working on a retro Win9X gaming build for quite some time now and I finally got a reasonable build that can work with all the games I used to play back in the day, How ever I've run into a few problems with the setup, most of which I can deal with for now, but there's a major design flaw it seems.

A lot of my games use the old midi format for music (as most did in the 90) so having a Soundblaster (or any sound card for that matter) is a must. Lot of my more recent Win 9x games also use Wav, Mp3, etc for sound as well and since I have a old stereo as my speakers I naturally want the best sound played through it so an old sound card doesn't cut it that well in my opinion.

To make a long story short, I settled on a CT 4520 I freely got from an trashed Celeron system and a CT 4830 I bought for the build awhile back.

Everything was fine until I installed Windows ME, then the problem arose.

1. The CT 4830 (SoundBlaster Live!) COMPLETELY freezes the entire system after playing sound or even doing nothing for awhile, though outside of that it works perfectly fine. I have tried the CT 4830 on many Win ME systems and the problem occurs there as well unfortunately, so I assume it's the card or the OS and not the PC it's self at least.

2. The CT 4520 (AWE 64 Value) has a precise repeating clicking/popping noise at all times when not using the midi synth. Also it can't play ANY digital sound (like Wav, Mp3, etc.) at all in Windows Me. Thankfully the midi synth is 100% ok which is my only real reason for keeping the card in the first place for that AWEsome (Sorry had to write that! XD) late 90's synth.

I've already determined that having both sound cards in at the same time is perfectly fine, but the CT 4830 is the biggest problem as even when it's the only card installed it still freezes.

I really wish that I could get the setup working with this configuration, but if not I do have 2 (maybe 3) other older model sound cards I could try instead.

Thanks for your help. :) (NOTE: I'll be out of town from Aug. 4th till the 26th so I won't be able to test anything until I get back, but please keep sending suggestions to fix it during my trip. ^_^)

Also here's the detailed specs for my build in case it helps.

MOBO: Techram P6Pro-A+ (Btw, if you know what drivers this board needs that would help as I can't find much info for the board these days.)

CPU: Pentium 3 @850mhz (Socket 370 with Slot 1 adapter)

RAM: 512mb

GPU: Geforce FX 5900 XT

Sound Cards: AEW 64 CT4520 (ISA) & Soundblaster Live! CT4830

Edited by jm764
forgot the "u" in the title
Link to comment
Share on other sites


Is there a reason why you choose to have two sound cards instead of one? Is there no card available to handle both tasks?

I have done work with multiple Soundblaster cards (which is not supported by Creative btw) in order to get concurrent outputs. It was no small task.

The first thing I would recommend is to verify that you have enough resources to run both cards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, Tripredacus said:

Is there a reason why you choose to have two sound cards instead of one? Is there no card available to handle both tasks?

I have done work with multiple Soundblaster cards (which is not supported by Creative btw) in order to get concurrent outputs. It was no small task.

The first thing I would recommend is to verify that you have enough resources to run both cards.

1. Well I just love how the CT4520 sounds over the CT 4830 for the most part. I could just use the CT4830, but again it doesn't seem to work properly on any system using Windows ME. It works just fine in XP though. I haven't tried it in Win 98 SE though, but I prefer using ME as it can run far more advanced programs and connects with my home network better than 98 SE.

2. Yeah I know. I did get them working together for about 30 min once, but things usually lock up with in 5 -10 min. The CT4520 did successfully run for 24 hours without failing though (minus the lack of digital sound problem stated earlier) so I know that works.

3. The system has more than enough resources and doesn't seem to conflict as far as I can tell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/29/2016 at 11:09 AM, jaclaz said:

Well I've already found these links as I was hoping for a more detailed guide about the board, but thanks for sharing them.

Also for those wondering I think there might be a "physical" problem with the CT4830. I replaced it with a CT4780 (Dell OEM) I had sitting around, and low and behold the CT4780 runs perfectly fine with the CT4520 without hanging the entire system like the CT4830 does.

Not 100% sure why, but at least I can enjoy digital sounds again. If I get time tomorrow I'll make a video about the issues with the setup.

Edited by jm764
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well after a bit more testing it seems there was a resource issue after all with the CT4520. Idk, what I did to really resolve it as the settings seem to be the exact same as they were when I started. Regardless the Awe 64 CT4520 can play digital sound once again, and as an additional bonus can be recorded directly from Audacity 2.0.0 as well.

Sadly the CT4830 still doesn't work no matter what I do, so I'll move the topic to the hardware fourms for it as well as the rather poor Pentium 3 performance (though it could just be Audacity 2.0.0 having high requirements though it supposedly can run on just a 300MHz Pentium 2).

I'm still going to try and make the video as I do have a few minor issues left to fix.

Thanks you for your help everyone. ^_^

- Jason M.

Edited by jm764
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...