r/windows98 • u/THEM_FRITZ • 6d ago

Issues with Soundblaster

Hi everyone, I have recently installed a Soundblaster Live! CT 4870 (value) in my windows 98se machine and now it refuses to boot. It booted for the first time no problems, I installed the SBL CT 4670 drivers as that is the model name given to me by the seller, but it turns out it was a 4870. I installed the drivers for the 4670, and it has since refused to boot when I have the card in the PC.

At first every time it 'detected new hardware' it bluescreened, but now it seems to freeze when it detects the midi device. I have uninstalled the card and the machine boots fine, I tried deleting the software installed by the disc on the C drive but upon reinsertion it freezes again.

I really hope there is a way to circumvent this, I really do not want to boot 98 again, and have to install all the other drivers from scratch. The specs are a:

Geforce FX 5200,

512 mb Ram

Pentium 4

(Previously) Creative Soundblaster PCI128

Thanks!

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

2

u/LopsidedLegs 6d ago

Move it to a different PCI slot, I had a similar issue with a PCI64V, simply moving slot solved the problem.

2

u/THEM_FRITZ 6d ago

Hi there, thanks for the reply. I have just done this and it did get further but bluescreened. Unfortunately upon restarting (had to power off manually) it is once again freezing ]:

1

u/LopsidedLegs 6d ago

Keep trying different PCI slots. The problem was both motherboard and addon manufacturers could be cheap and not connect all the IRQ lines in the slots or on the cards causing issues. Also try halving the RAM, 512MB is an awful lot of memory for Windows 98, to much ram can also cause problems.

1

u/SaturnFive KB42069 6d ago

Another idea is to boot without the card, disable all the devices in Device Manager, then boot with the card to see if you can get to the desktop. Then you could try enabling the devices one by one in case only one of them is having an issue. Or perhaps you can find another driver version and try that.

Would also be good to use scanreg.exe to take a Registry backup, and backup anything else important in case removing the card stops working to fix the bluescreens.

1

u/DeadSkullz627 6d ago

I’d uninstall the sound card and ensure that everything works fine without it still. If so then jump back in with the card. You want to rule out any issues that may be unrelated to the card else you’re chasing issues that have nothing to do with the sound card. You could try a different sound card as an option to see if you still have issues.

1

u/TrainerAny6327 6d ago

try swapping it to the next pci slot down, mine did the same thing at first til i moved it

1

u/kalnaren 6d ago

What kind of motherboard? The SB Live had issues with certain chipsets.

1

u/kalnaren 1d ago

It sounds like you're getting a driver conflict. That can happen when you install the wrong drivers for a similar device. Sounds cards especially are super finicky because the drivers interact directly with the hardware and can cause all kinds of havoc. Hunt down all the drivers you installed for the 4670 and nuke them (if there's an uninstaller, run that in safe mode, then manually find any remnants).

Then install Total Uninstall and use that to install drivers and the like, that way you can more easily remove then later if you need to.

See this thread on Vogons, there might be some useful information in there.

Alternatively if you're having trouble finding all the 4670 drivers you installed, boot Windows in safe mode, install the proper drivers, and use the Device Manager to update the driver information for the 4870 to use the proper drivers.