no go on CD digital audio

[mlvance]

Was unable to get audio play on HiVal True 40x CD ROM until
I unchecked DMA. This CD ROM is connected to a SB LIVE card
via SPDIF digital cable (scsi TEAC CD-R connected via analog
CD input cable). Abit BH6 board, WIN98. HiVal unit is on secondary IDE as master
(nothing else). All cables/connections
triple checked, drivers current. Data read fine w/ DMA enabled, just no audio via CD
(could play wav). Another quirk...in control panel/multimedia/audio properties for CD
music, I cannot access the "enable digital CD audio" checkbox
(it's visible > grayed out). Am I taking a hit on performance
with no DMA? Options? Why can't I enable digital audio in WIN 98? TIA,mike

[kwai]

there are two potential problems with the spdif cable. one is that the live's drivers were a little buggy with the spdif support. the other is that though most cdrom drives have the spdif header, they don't have all the circuitry to actually enable it (go figure).

as for dma, i think that would decrease your cpu utilization but not increase your perf any.

[Bleeding Edge]

True 40x works with DMA.

It works with SPDIF on SBLive.

Since you checked and rechecked all the hardware (seems fine from here,) let's head towards the obvious, something easily overlooked?

Could you take a second and open SB's AudioHQ icon. There's that Mixer thing right. Double click it. Over towards the right side, under the "CD Digital" image there's that tiny little image of a speaker. Click it to make it blue so it activates.

Did that help.

About the grayed out item. Even if it remains grayed-out (and it will,) it will not prevent the True40x from delivering digital signals to your SBLive. It will work.

There's about a couple sentences in MS Knowledge Base about this and it's not worth mentioning.

[mlvance]

Mr Edge, thanks for being polite, but yes I do have the cd digital (and SPDIF) unmuted.
I also had tried to uncheck the "disconnect" checkbox under CD properties sheet (post elsewhere) but it didn't help. I've even tried to re-enable DMA just for the fun of it
but the PC just hangs (C-A-D then shows creative playcenter is not responding). I guess I'm going to have to call HiVal just to find out....unless any other ideas.

[kwai]

have you tried checking out the creative support pages?

they list some cd drives that support spdif here (hival/kenwood not listed but that might just be an old list). i just noticed that my cd drive is supposed to be supported, but spdif never worked for me either. it didn't hang my computer either. anyway here it is:

http://www.sblive.com/experience/support/cdrom.html

they also have a few updated drivers here:

http://support.soundblaster.com/files/download.asp?product=sblive&OS=Win95

if you dig around a bit, they mention having trouble getting spdif to work with the first drivers, but no update on the prob.

i see you've been posting at quite a few places. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Bleeding Edge]

I overlooked something in your post.
SBLives manual states that you either use spdif OR cd-analog. Try moving the TEAC's cable to AUX.