Sound Card Problems

[Fairport]

Thanks to everyone for their help on my motherboard question a few weeks back. Here's a new one:

I added a Creative Labs Soundblaster Live Value Sound Card a week ago. It worked fine until yesterday. When I booted up, it froze on the Windows 95 screen, and then wouldn't even let me turn it off with the power button. It did this five times in a row. I thought it was related to the sound card, so I went in and removed the drivers, and SB software, and tried reinstalling the card.

Well, the computer loads up and recognizes the card, and then asks for a disk that is not the one for the new sound card. I believe it is the original sound card disk that I had. Does this mean I have remnant drivers or something from my prior sound card, which was just an OEM 16-bit thing? How can I get in and clear out all this old sound driver info so that I can cleanly install my new sound card?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Phil

[philipg]

Hey Phil or Fairport,

Here's a possiblilty, Your computer sees the sound device and thinks its the old sound card when it askes for the drivers install the new disk a tell it you want to use them not the old or say you will pick them from a list and click "have disk".

If you are still getting conflicts or hardware failure check your DMA settings on all devices and see if the sound card is trying to share one with another and change it to something else. I believe SB use DMA's 1 and 3 try 0 and 1.

[This message has been edited by philipg (edited 06-11-99).]

[Fairport]

When I boot up, it recognizes the card and then says it is installing the software. It gives me no opportunity interfere and use my own disk. Then it asks me to insert the Creative CD and click OK. The new SB CD is not accepted. I am not near my computer, so I will look at the DMA's later. Thanks for the advice.

[reboot]

It is possible you have another Creative device in your computer. Maybe the modem? Try putting any other drivers disks you have in when asked, sometimes the question asked has no bearing on the answer.
Jim

[philipg]

aAnother thing you may try is to go into the Device Manager and tell the sound card you want to update drivers and see if it will take the new ones.
Another one is check the autoexec.bat and config.sys files for a program that is ascoiated to the old card its possible the old cards dos loaded program is telling windows the settings for the old card and the drivers it will accept are also for the old card. once these lines are removed the new card should be seen as just that.

[Fairport]

reboot and philipg;

Thanks. My modem is Wisecom. Can I update drivers in safe mode, since that's the only way I can get in. The config and sys trick might be it. I think I recall there being something in there for the old card. For future reference, do I need to remove anything in config and sys that refers to the item I'm upgrading, if I am upgrading anything? It won't automatically be removed?
I will try these tricks tonight. I hope they are it. Thanks for having patience on a poor chap new to the world of computers.
Thanks again.

[philipg]

When you are in safe mode type sysedit under the run command this will let you make the changes. If you find something then you will have to remove the old card in device Manager reboot and see what happens.

[This message has been edited by philipg (edited 06-11-99).]

[Fairport]

Here is the update. I tried the sysedit, and it is still happening. SO...I went back and reinstalled the original card. I am now working OK with it. Can you walk me through the process I should take to clear my computer of this current card, so that I can add my new one properly. I must be missing something.
Thanks.

[cpt puget]

first bag the install cd and go to www.sblive.com (http://www.sblive.com) and d/l the new livewire 2.0 drivers. then go to control panel>add/remove programs and remove all the creative sblive related entries. go to device manager and do the same. then go to C:>program files>creative folder and do the same. shut down, install sblive if you havent already. reboot, go to where you d/l the new drivers, double click and follow instructions. if you are not going to play dos games then uninstall sblive emulation at: device manager>click creative misc. dev.>sblive emulation then properties at the bottom. under the general tab at the bottom and check the box that says "disable in this hardware profile" and you can save yourself an IRQ.

[Fairport]

Update. I installed the sblive, and it will boot. The speakers are very very noisy with static. Also, when I was downloading the updated drivers, it locked up like before, and I couldn't use the power button. Any thoughts?

[Fairport]

Is there an easy way to see which IRQ and DMA settings I have and what devices are using which, or do I have to look at each device in device manager. I do think the problem might be in these settings. Or maybe it's the fact that it is a PCI sound card replacing an ISA? I don't know. If I remove devices in device manager that are in conflict with others, will they reinstall in a non-conflicting setting? If so, what items can I NOT remove in device manager? Any advice?
Thanks again.

[toms111]

1. Right click on "MY Computer" Icon on desktop and select properties.
2. With "Computer" highlighted (as it opens), select properties. You can then see wat irqs are being used by what device.

[This message has been edited by toms111 (edited 06-15-99).]