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 Sound Blaster AWE32
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 Uses of the DOS drivers
4.2 Bypass loading the DOS drivers
4.3 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 Error message appears when winsetup.exe runs
1. INSTALLING WINDOWS 3.1 DRIVERS FOR SOUND BLASTER AWE32
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 Sound Blaster 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 Sound Blaster AWE32 drivers, you
should first remove all the existing Sound Blaster drivers
shown in the "Installed Drivers List" and then restart Windows.
Chances are existing versions of Sound Blaster 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 Sound Blaster 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 Sound Blaster AWE32 MIDI Driver
Voyetra / Sound Blaster SuperSAPI FM Driver
Creative Sound Blaster 16 Auxiliary Audio
Creative Sound Blaster 16 Wave and MIDI
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], [drivers] and [sndblst.drv]
sections. They should look something like this:
[boot]
drivers=mmsystem.dll msmixmgr.dll
[drivers]
Timer=timer.drv
Midimapper=midimap.drv
Aux=sb16aux.drv
MIDI=sbawe32.drv
MIDI1=sb16fm.drv
Wave=sb16snd.drv
MIDI2=sb16snd.drv
mixer=sb16aux.drv
[sndblst.drv]
port=220
int=5
dmachannel=1
hdmachannel=5
MIDIport=330
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
Sound Blaster AWE32 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 Sound Blaster AWE32 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 SB AWE32 if I have an Adaptec 1542
card using DMA 5?
A1. To avoid DMA conflicts between your SB AWE32 and the Adaptec
1542 card which is using DMA 5, you may change the SB AWE32'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 USES OF THE DOS DRIVERS
Q1. Which Sound Blaster applications require the DOS drivers
CTSB16.SYS and CTMMSYS.SYS to be loaded?
A1. These apllications require the DOS drivers to be loaded:
PLAY.EXE
RECORD.EXE
QSDEMO.EXE (for SB AWE32 with Advanced Signal Processor)
QSALIGN.EXE (for SB AWE32 with Advanced Signal Processor)
4.2 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 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
4.3 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 SB AWE32 directory with a /A
parameter. To do that:
1) Change to your Sound Blaster AWE32 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 device
names in the CONFIG.SYS file.
An example is:
DEVICE=C:\SB16\DRV\SBCD.SYS /D:MSCD001 /P:220
DEVICE=C:\SB16\DRV\SLCD.SYS /B:250 /D:MSCD002 /M:P /V /C
Where: SBCD.SYS is the driver for the Creative CD-ROM drive
connected to a SB AWE32 audio card at address 220H and
SLCD.SYS is the driver for 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 SB AWE32 and now some of my
games sound hissy. Do I need to return the SB AWE32 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. SB AWE32 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 SB16SET.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 ERROR MESSAGE APPEARS WHEN WINSETUP.EXE RUNS
Q1. When I start Windows and WINSETUP runs, it gives me a dialog
box saying it can't find the environment.
A1. The BLASTER environment is not set or is incorrectly set. This
program requires that your BLASTER environment is set correctly
and tallies with your Sound Blaster audio card. You can type
"SET" at DOS prompt to check the environment settings. To
ensure that it tallies with your Sound Blaster audio card, run
the program DIAGNOSE.EXE from your Sound Blaster directory.
********* End of CQA.TXT *********
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.