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Soundblaster corrupt after every reboot

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6 replies

by tommugg

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Recently, I built a system for a client:
I am using a Sound Blaster 16 PCI card in a AMD900 system, ASUS Motherboard, running Win98 SE.
I've built a hundred of these same systems, but have never run into a problem like this.
After the system reboots, the computer will not play a MIDI file, and only MIDI files, WAVs, MP3s, CDs, anything else works fine but MIDIs come out as pure static.
If removed from the Device Manager and then Refreshed (or reboot), a fresh driver loaded, it plays MIDIs just fine. But immediately after reboot, back to square 1.
I have already tried:
Using a different SB 16 PCI, in the same slot and different slot, didn't work.
Using a SB 128 card, with new drivers same slot different slot.
Uninstalling plug ins and different sound programs.
Got latest drivers from creative.com.
Updated Virus Definitions from Norton and did a full scan.
Edited the startup programs with MSCONFIG and Custom Startup.
Remd out SB lines in autoexec.bat.
I have not reinstalled Win98SE... yet... as
It worked fine for the first few weeks she had the system.
I feel whatever corrupted the drivers in the first place, will do so again.
250 points for this, so I can have a happy customer!!
Thanks for any help - Tom

6 replies

by stillatit

It sounds like something which loads later in the boot sequence is walking on some resource the driver needs. When you reinstall or refresh the driver, the SB driver walks on whatever walked on it, and therefore works.

List all of the resources the SB card uses (in all modes) including i/o addresses and dma. Then step through the Device Manager and look for conflicts. It may be another feature of the same card that is the problem.

Check that the resources that autoexec.bat assigns to thecard match what the card is actually using. If the autoexec.bat is somehow assigning a wrong number (like i/o port), that would do it. Check for multiple lines that might be assigning for the same card. If there are any config.sys lines for this card, check for duplicates and conflicts there as well.

Good luck.

by tommugg

Yup, that was pretty much true, but did not solve the problem all together... the Wave Device for the modem was botching it, disabling it worked kinda, hard to explain. Weird though, Creative Modem and a Creative Sound card, I've never had this problem! Thanks for the tip though, it got me on the right track.

by aronya1

I think the first answer is on the right track. I'd suggest two other things:

1. Try booting to Safe Mode. Does it work correctly there? If so, that would suggest something in your startup files as suggested by the first answer. I'll make a confession here. I'm not sure if sound SHOULD work in Safe Mode and I'm not willing to restart my system right now to check, then redial my ISP, etc.

2. If it works in Safe Mode, reboot & use the System Configuration utility in System Informationto single out individual components during startup. It can be tedious doing all the rebooting, but this should find the problem.

Good luck

by tommugg

Ooops, the first answer was supposed to get some points and a few for the second answer!!! Sorry about that!!!!!

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