**** Sblive! card... help please.

[zskillz]

Ok, I posted earlier about having some IRQ issues b/t my new sblive! value card and my old PCI V550 card. For whatever reason, I couldn't get both of them to work. I found a kind of tricky way around it, but to be honest, it sucks. After installing the software (and drivers) for teh sblive! card, I removed all of the software. Then I reinstalled the nvidia drivers for my v550. Then when I rebooted I went into the BIOS and disabled com2. When windows98 started the sound card was detected and the drivers that weren't removed when the software was were used (that's a bit confusing). sblive! was now on IRQ 10 and it's sb16 emulator is on IRQ 9, and the V550 was on irq3.
Now everything worked fine and dandy, but I was just pissed off because I couldn't use any of the software that came with the sblive! I tried to reinstall the Sblive! from the CD since I figured the irq issue was resolved. Upon reboot, the system puked and I eventually worked my way into safe mode. Here's the annoying part. For some reason, reinstalling the sblive card had moved the used irq from 10 back to irq3 (the same one as the video card). I tried to manually change it back to irq10, but then I get a blue screen saying that there is a memory error when I try to reboot win98 normally. I'm at a bit of a loss on what to do here, so I would REALLY, REALLY appreciate absolutely ANY suggestions that you all have.
Thanks,
-Z

[Nick66]

Sounds like 98 is trying to allocate resources, If you have the option in your bios for "plug n' pray" OS then turn off/on (depending on currnent setting). Then turn on reset config. I had same problem, (very frustating). I just kept playing around and changing these settings until 98 gave in. Hope this helps.

[This message has been edited by Nick66 (edited 08-12-99).]

[zskillz]

I know what the pnp OS option is, and I think it's currently set to off, so I'll try that, but I don't know exactly what you're talking about with the config thingy. Could you explain that a bit more.
-Z
btw, I would assume (now that I think about it) that win98 IS a PnP OS isn't it??

[zskillz]

I have the abit BP6 mobo, with an award BIOS as well, so I assume the option is there for me. Out of question, what do you have the PnP OS set to?? on or off... and what is your config setting?
Lastly, my big question is this: I plan on installing NT server on my maching on the partitioned D: drive. If I enable the PnP OS thing, is this gonna f_*k up NT once I get around to installing it?
thx
-Z

[Nick66]

I can't really check my settings till later tonite, (am at work now) but will be happy to post my settings when i get home.I haven't used NT for awhile, (wating for 2000)but i would bet money it wouldn't care if PNP OS were on or off.

[tcwg]

In regards to the PnP Bios option. Running an SB Live Value, Voodoo3 2000 VidCard, and Win98 I have the PnP OS option off. Never had any setup trouble. Did you call Creative Tech support? What did they say?

As far as the NT having problems I don't know about Server but Workstation (4.0) had no complaints when I installed it.

[jeffgordon24]

I have the same problem. The card still causes problems. I've tried creative labs, the motherboard manufactuer, and microsoft and none of them know what the problem is. I enabled pnp os, reset configuration, formatted drive and everything else you can think of. One guy told me my motherboard was bad, which I don't see how since it boots up and all. My problem though is my mouse and modem stop working after about 5 minutes. I can recommend two things to you since my friend had the same problem.

1. In your bios see if you have a option to enable pci 2.1 compliance.

2. Boot into safe mode and check all your devices. If you find any that list two of the same, delete both of them. Whenever windows boots up it'll reinstall it.

If that don't work I don't know what to tell you. I've had this card over a month and still can't use it.

[zskillz]

Nick- That'd be nice if'd you check that and post it so I can compare.

tcwg- What Irq's do each of those 3 things you listed using??

jeffgorden- I'm not sure if you read my first post through, but I can get the card to work with all of the appropriate drivers, it's just that I can't install the sblive! software... and that pisses me off!

thanks all,
-Z

[krusty]

I had a similar problem. Turning IRQ sharing off(in device manager) seemed to fix it all.

Krusty.

[Nick66]

Win98 is a PNP OS but man, is it stupid! In my bios (Award) below PNP OS i have a reset (hardware,config) option. I believe ya gotta resolve these type of resource issues from within the bios, (Just tell 98 to bend over and take it).

[Nick66]

I just rememberd. The problem I had was after my bios resource issues were resolved, and only when installed sblive software config was changed. When i alterd the resources for the sblive in 98 after sb software was installed it had loaded dos drivers and int/io statements from the intial install in autoexec/config, thats when i was getting BCOD. Try removing these statements (if you already haven't).


By the way: My reset Config Data Option is under PNP/PCI Config.

[zskillz]

BCOD?? blue screen of death??
I noticed upon bootup that once I installed the software, stuff was added to config.sys and autoexec.bat, but I didn't know what it was, so I didn't want to screw it up to bad to uninstall it.
So what you're saying is that you just removed those things and it worked?... During boot-up, it says something like...
"SBLive!, blah blah, IRQ 10"
"initializing setup (i think)"...
Now the thing is, i'm not even sure what the point of the DOS commands are. What exactly do they do, and what is the consequence of removing them?
thx nick,
-Z

btw, I think something is still not quite right because it seems that win98 is trying to resolve the way that i have it setup with only the sb drivers and none of the software because my computer won't shut down.. it get's to the win98 computer is shutting down screen (or whatever) and then it just kinda freezes and I manually turn it off. something's not quite right, but it may not have anything to do with the **** sb card... sheesh

[This message has been edited by zskillz (edited 08-13-99).]

[This message has been edited by zskillz (edited 08-13-99).]

[Nick66]

As i understand it the statements in autoexec/config are purely for true DOS games, and shouldn't effect windows. I can't remember what the exact syntax was, it has been awhile since i removed those references from my system. Try the "step by step confirmation" at startup to isolate them.
As for your shutdown, yea sumthin's definitly up there. Bios! ;'>

[zskillz]

well, finally, I got stuff to work as far as the software is concerned.. mostly... I had to disable the SB16 emulator in the device menu. If I don't, I get a blue screen on startup. It does take quite sometime to actually boot into windows though, and that is a bit distressing, but I'm happy tat I got the rest of it working
thx for the help,
-Z
and win98 still doesn't shut down correctly, but... alas.. that's another problem for another day.