COMMON QUESTIONS & ANSWERS ========================== This file contains answers to some commonly-asked questions. Please go through all the sections below when you encounter a problem before calling Technical Support. This file contains the following sections: 1. Installing Windows 3.1 drivers for the audio card 1.1 Setup Windows 3.1 drivers again 1.2 Using DRIVER applet in Control Panel (OEMSETUP.INF) 1.3 General 2. "Block Type 9 Not Recognized" error with Voice Editor II 3. Changing Hardware configuration 3.1 DMA conflict with Adaptec 1542 card 4. DOS drivers (CTSB16.SYS and CTMMSYS.SYS) 4.1 Bypass loading the DOS drivers 4.2 Loading the DOS drivers 5. CD-ROM drive 5.1 Installing [MCI] CDAudio driver 5.2 MSCDEX settings for additional CD-ROM drives using different device drivers 6. General 6.1 Eliminating unwanted noises 6.2 Audio sources setting 6.3 Playback digitized sound smoothly 6.4 Configuring the base I/O address setting for Plug and Play audio card 1. INSTALLING WINDOWS 3.1 DRIVERS FOR THE AUDIO CARD 1.1 SETUP WINDOWS 3.1 DRIVERS AGAIN Q1. How can I setup my Windows 3.1 drivers again. A1. You may setup Windows 3.1 drivers again by running INSTALL from your audio directory at the DOS prompt. Select "Setup Windows" and follow the instructions on the screen to complete the setup. 1.2 USING DRIVER APPLET IN CONTROL PANEL (OEMSETUP.INF) Q1. My drivers are not installed when I use the driver applet in Control Panel to add the drivers. What do I do? A1. Before you choose to add any audio drivers, you should first remove all the existing audio drivers shown in the "Installed Drivers List" and then restart Windows. Chances are existing versions of audio drivers are installed when you start-up Windows and cannot be over-written. You must also restart Windows after adding all the drivers for these new drivers to take effect. Refer to your Windows User Reference Manual for more detail on the Driver applet. 1.3 GENERAL Q1. No matter what I try, I can't get sound in Windows. What should I do to fix it? A1. Here are some points you can check: a. If you installed Windows 3.1 using the "Express Installation", Windows scanned your hard disk for programs to be installed. As a result, older versions of the audio applications may have been installed if they were on your hard disk at the time of installation. Please remove these icons. To do this, click on the icon once to select it, then press the delete key. Windows will ask you for confirmation. Repeat the above procedure for each icon. b. Open the Driver applet in Control panel. You should at least have the following driver names in the Installed Drivers list: Creative MIDI Instrument Mapper Driver Creative Stereo Music Synthesizer Driver Creative WaveSynth/WG MIDI Driver SB AWE64G MIDI Synthesizer Driver SB AWE64G Wave/Aux/Mixer/MidiPort Drivers MIDI Mapper Timer [MCI] CD Audio ;this is only for owners of CD-ROM drives [MCI] MIDI Sequencer [MCI] Sound If one or more of the drivers do not exist, you must install the driver(s) using the Driver applet in Control Panel (See your Windows manual for more details). c. Check your SYSTEM.INI by choosing RUN from the File menu of the Program Manager and typing NOTEPAD SYSTEM.INI in the command line box. Examine the [boot], [386Enh], [drivers] and [sndblst.drv] sections. They should look something like this: [boot] drivers=mmsystem.dll msmixmgr.dll [386Enh] device=vsbpd.386 device=vsbawe.386 device=vwavsyn.386 [drivers] Timer=timer.drv Midimapper=midimap.drv Midi=sbawe32.drv Midi1=sb16fm.drv Midi2=sb16snd.drv Midi3=wavsynwg.drv Midi4=ctvmd.drv Wave=sb16snd.drv Aux=sb16snd.drv Mixer=sb16snd.drv [sndblst.drv] Port=220 Int=5 DmaChannel=1 HDmaChannel=5 MidiPort=330 AWEPort=620 d. If Windows refuses to install a device driver or if you get the error message "Device not found" when playing a Wave or MIDI file, or a CD, be sure that you have the following settings in the [mci] section of SYSTEM.INI. [mci] WaveAudio=mciwave.drv Sequencer=mciseq.drv CDAudio=mcicda.drv; this is only for owners of CD-ROM drives If one or more of the drivers do not exist, you must install the driver(s) using the Driver applet in Control Panel (See your Windows manual for instructions). Do not type in the entries into the SYSTEM.INI because the files have to be expanded and installed into your SYSTEM directory by Windows. 2. "BLOCK TYPE 9 NOT RECOGNIZED" ERROR WITH VOICE EDITOR II Q1. "Block Type 9 Not Recognized" error is encountered when using the program VEDIT2.EXE in Sound Blaster Pro package with the audio card. DO I have a corrupted file? A1. VEDIT2.EXE Version 2.10 or earlier does not support 16 bit ("block type 9") data when using the audio card. You can still perform recording provided you select "Record to Disk" option instead of "Record to Memory". 3. CHANGING HARDWARE CONFIGURATION 3.1 DMA CONFLICT WITH ADAPTEC 1542 CARD Q1. How can I reconfigure my audio card if I have an Adaptec 1542 card using DMA 5? A1. To avoid DMA conflicts between your audio card and the Adaptec 1542 card which is using DMA 5, you may change the audio card's DMA from 5 to either 6 or 7. Run DIAGNOSE.EXE and follow the program's instruction to complete the setup. 4. DOS DRIVERS (CTSB16.SYS AND CTMMSYS.SYS) 4.1 BYPASS LOADING THE DOS DRIVERS Q1. I do not wish to load the DOS drivers CTSB16.SYS and CTMMSYS.SYS at system startup. What should I do? A1. To bypass the loading of the DOS drivers CTSB16.SYS and CTMMSYS.SYS, press and hold the ALT key during system starts up. Or, you can use a text editor to REM the following lines in your CONFIG.SYS file. These lines load the DOS drivers at system startup. DEVICE=C:\SB16\DRV\CTSB16.SYS /UNIT=0 /BLASTER=A:220 I:5 D:1 H:5 DEVICE=C:\SB16\DRV\CTMMSYS.SYS 4.2 LOADING THE DOS DRIVERS Q1. I would like load the DOS drivers CTSB16.SYS and CTMMSYS.SYS everytime at system startup, What should I do to put the entries in my CONFIG.SYS file? A1. Run the program DIAGNOSE in your audio's directory with a /A parameter. To do that: 1) Change to your audio's directory. 2) Type "DIAGNOSE /A" and press Enter. 5. CD-ROM DRIVE 5.1 INSTALLING [MCI] CD AUDIO DRIVER Q1. How do I install the [MCI] CD Audio driver? A1. To install the [MCI] CD Audio driver: 1. Double-click the Control Panel in the Main group window. 2. Double-click Drivers in the Control Panel. 3. Choose "Add..." from the Drivers dialog box. 4. Select [MCI] CD Audio from the Add dialog box. 5. Choose "OK". 6. Restart Windows for the changes to take effect. 5.2 MSCDEX SETTINGS FOR ADDITIONAL CD-ROM DRIVES USING DIFFERENT DEVICE DRIVERS Q1. How should I specify the settings for the MSCDEX driver when I have more than one CD-ROM drive (each one using different device drivers) in my system? A1. An example of the MSCDEX settings for two CD-ROM drives using different device drivers is as follows: C:\SB16\DRV\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001 /D:MSCD002 /V /M:15 "MSCD001" and "MSCD002" are the CD-ROM device names. These names must be the same as the CD-ROM device driver's names in the CONFIG.SYS file for example: DEVICE=C:\SB16\DRV\SBCD.SYS /D:MSCD001 /P:220 DEVICE=C:\SB16\DRV\SLCD.SYS /D:MSCD002 /B:250 /M:P /V /C Where: SBCD.SYS is the driver for a Creative CD-ROM drive connected to an audio card at address 220H and SLCD.SYS is the driver for a SONY CD-ROM drive connected to another CD-ROM interface card at address 250H. 6. GENERAL 6.1 ELIMINATING UNWANTED NOISES Q1. When I record in either Windows or DOS, it hisses a lot. What can I do? A1. Using the mixer, adjust the recording volume for your input source to the optimal level. Bringing the record level close to maximum will help to produce noise-free recordings. Also, set the record level for other input sources to zero. This ensures that the only recording is from sources that you want to record. Q2. I just upgraded from SBPro to the audio card and now some of my games sound hissy. Do I need to return the audio card for replacement? A2. The high quality 16-bit CODEC plays back every detail of the 8-bit sample including the coarse resolution of the staircase waveform. Hearing the "hissing sound" is like seeing all the sharp edges of a 320x240 picture on a very sharp 1280x1024 monitor. The audio card has a Treble control to suit your needs on different sound quality. To eliminate the unwanted "hissing sound", you can set the Treble level to zero. 6.2 AUDIO SOURCE SETTINGS Q1. I can't hear anything from the speakers, but when I run the diagnostic program, it sounds okay. What do I do? A1. Check the mixer settings for the various sources. Use the programs MIXERSET.EXE in DOS or CTMIXER.EXE in Windows to adjust the settings to a higher level. 6.3 ELIMINATING JERKY DIGITIZED SOUND PLAYBACK Q1. The playback sounds jerky. Is my card defective ? A1. If you are in Windows, this may be due to your choice of Windows swap file. Temporary swap file tends to be fragmented causing jerky playback. If possible, use a permanent swap file to eliminate this problem. Refer to your Windows manual for instructions on creating a permanent swap file. Loading a disk cache program such as SMARTDRV will also eliminate this problem. To load SMARTDRV, refer to your DOS or Windows manual for instructions. 6.4 CONFIGURING THE BASE I/O ADDRESS SETTING FOR PLUG AND PLAY AUDIO CARD Q1. The base I/O port address of my audio card's wave table synthesizer that appears when I run the Intel Plug and Play Configuration Utility (ICU.EXE) is different to the one shown by DIAGNOSE.EXE. Why is this so? Some of my games have problems obtaining MIDI audio output even though there are no problems with the MIDI playback test in DIAGNOSE.EXE. Why is this so? A1. For PnP audio cards, the wave table synthesizer's base I/O address is independent of the audio card's base I/O port address. However, some older games in the market derive the wave table base I/O address from the audio card's base I/O address. To maintain compatibility with such games, DIAGNOSE.EXE will overwrite the wave table synthesizer's base I/O address assigned by the PnP Configuration Manager. To have this done automatically every time the computer starts, you need to have the following entry in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file: C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S /W=C:\WINDOWS You need to change the path of DIAGNOSE.EXE and the WINDOWS directory accordingly if they differ from the above entry. Note that the above entry will also configure other necessary settings of your audio card, and thus it should not be removed. The installation program should have already added the entry into your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. ********* End of CQA.TXT *********