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Troubleshooting: Sound Blaster Live! Value Sound Card User's Guide

Most Common Problems • Uninstalling and Reinstalling the Audio Drivers • Problems Installing Software • Problems With Sound • Insufficient SoundFont Cache • Problems With Joystick • Resolving I/O Conflicts • Problems in Windows NT 4.0

Most Common Problems

Table 1. Most common problems encountered by users

Uninstalling and Reinstalling the Audio Drivers

Microsoft Windows 95/98 Operating System

Reinstalling the Audio Drivers From the Installation Disc

You may want to reinstall the audio drivers if you think they have been corrupted. To do so:

1. Insert the installation disc into your CD-ROM drive.
2. Run the UPDDRV95.EXE program from the AUDIO\Language\WIN95DRV folder of your CD- ROM drive, where Language is the language of the software that you want to install.The updating process may take a while. When the progress indicator box disappears, the update is complete.

Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Operating System

Reinstalling the Audio Drivers From the Installation Disc

You may want to reinstall the audio drivers if you think they are corrupted. To do so:

1. Insert the installation disc into your CD-ROM drive.
2. Run the UPDPCINT.EXE program from the AUDIO\Language\NT4DRV folder of your CD- ROM drive, where Language is the language of the software that you want to install.
3. Restart your computer when prompted. You may be prompted to restart more than once.
4. If a Windows NT 4.0 Service Control Manager error message appears, see "Resolving I/O Conflicts" in the section "Troubleshooting".

Removing Unused Sound Blaster Drivers

You may want to remove unused Sound Blaster ISA and PCI audio drivers after you have removed the cards from your computer. To remove the drivers, use the procedure in the previous section, "Reinstalling the Audio Drivers From the Installation Disc".

Problems Installing Software

In Windows 95/98, the installation does not start automatically after the CD-ROM is inserted.

The AutoPlay feature in your Windows 95/98 system may not be enabled.

To start the installation program through the My Computer shortcut menu:

1. Double-click the My Computer icon on your Windows desktop.
2. In the My Computer window, right-click the CD-ROM drive icon.
3. On the shortcut menu, click AutoPlay and follow the instructions on the screen.

To enable AutoPlay through Auto Insert Notification:

1. Click the Start button, select Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel window, double-click the System icon.
3. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Device Manager tab and select your CD- ROM drive.
4. Click the Properties button.
5. In the Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab and select Auto Insert Notification.
6. Click the OK button to exit from the dialog box.

Problems With Sound

There is unexpected excessive environmental sound or effects when an audio file is being played.

The last selected preset is an inappropriate environment for the current audio file.

To switch to an appropriate environment:

1. Open Environmental Audio Control applet.
   OR
   Display Creative Launcher at the top or bottom of your screen (bring your mouse pointer to the top edge of the screen to display Launcher). Then, click the Environments tab.
2. In the Environment list, select "No effects" or an appropriate environment.

No sound from the headphones.

Check the following:

• The headphones are connected to the Line Out jack.
• In the Speaker applet (click the AudioHQ icon on the taskbar, and then click the Speaker icon), make sure the Output field is set to Headphones.

In a 4-speaker configuration, there is no sound from the rear speakers.

Check the following:

• The rear speakers are connected to the audio card’s Rear Out jack.
• If you are playing sound from one of these sources.
  • CD Audio
  • Line In
  • TAD
  • Auxiliary (AUX)
  • Microphone

To solve the problem:

1. In Creative Mixer’s Play Control view, make sure the check box of the source being played is unmuted, that is, enabled.
2. In the Record Control view, make sure the corresponding check box is also selected.

NOTE: If, instead, you decide to select the "What U Hear" device icon in the Record Control view, then of these five sources in the Play Control view, you can unmute only one at a time. Therefore, you can get sound from the rear speakers only from the unmuted source.

For example, if you are playing DVD games or movies, make sure in Creative Mixer you unmute the Auxiliary device in the Play Control view and select the Auxiliary device in the Record Control view. For more details, see "Connecting Creative PC-DVD" in the section "Setup".

• If you have changed environments, go to the Record Control view of Creative Mixer and make sure that the check boxes of your active sources are selected.

No audio output when playing digital files such as.WAV, MIDI files or AVI clips.

Possible causes:

• The speaker volume knob (if any) is not set properly.
• The external amplifier or speakers are connected to the wrong jack.
• There is a hardware conflict.
• The output selection in the Configuration tabbed page of the Speaker applet is incorrectly selected.
• The Original Sound sliders in either the Master and Source tabbed pages of the Environmental Audio applet are set at or near 0%.

Check the following:

• The speakers’ volume control knob, if any, is set at mid-range. Use Creative Mixer to adjust the volume, if necessary.
• The powered speakers or external amplifier are connected to the card’s Line Out or Rear Out jack.
• No hardware conflict between the card and a peripheral device. See "Resolving I/O Conflicts" in the section "Troubleshooting".
• The output selection in the Speaker applet corresponds to your speaker or headphone configuration.
• The Original Sound sliders in either or both the Master and Source tabbed pages of the Speaker applet are set to 100%.

No audio output when playing CD-Audio.
OR
No audio output when playing DOS games that require a CD-ROM.

To solve this problem:

• Make sure the CD audio cable between the CD-ROM drive and the audio card is connected.

Insufficient SoundFont Cache

There is insufficient memory to load SoundFonts.

This may occur when a SoundFont-compatible MIDI file is loaded or played.

Cause: There is insufficient memory allocated to SoundFonts.

To allocate more SoundFont cache:

• On the Options tabbed page of the SoundFont Control applet, move the SoundFont Cache slider to the right.

The amount of SoundFont cache you can allocate depends on the system RAM available.

If there is still insufficient system RAM available:

• On the Configure Banks tabbed page of the SoundFont Control applet, select a smaller SoundFont bank from the Select Bank box.
  The smallest SoundFont bank available is 2 MB (2GMGSMT.SF2).

NOTE: The trade-off of a smaller SoundFont bank is its lower sound quality.

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Problems With Joystick

The joystick port is not working.

The audio card’s joystick port conflicts with the system’s joystick port.

To solve this problem:

• Disable the audio card’s joystick port and use the system port instead. For details, see "Enabling/Disabling Gameport Joystick Interface" in the section "Changing Audio Card Settings".

NOTE: Do not attempt to make changes to the BIOS unless you have experience with system software.

The joystick is not working properly in some programs.

The program may use the system processor timing to calculate the joystick position. When the processor is fast, the program may determine the position of the joystick incorrectly, assuming that the position is out of range.

To solve this problem:

• Increase your system's 8 bit I/O recovery time of the BIOS setting, usually under the Chipset Feature Settings section. Or, if available, you may adjust the AT Bus speed to a slower clock. If the problem persists, try a different joystick.

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Resolving I/O Conflicts

Conflicts between your audio card and another peripheral device may occur if your card and the other device are set to use the same I/O address.

To resolve I/O conflicts, change the resource settings of your audio card or the conflicting peripheral device in your system using Device Manager in Windows 95/98.

If you still do not know which card is causing the conflict, remove all cards except the audio card and other essential cards (for example, disk controller and graphics cards). Add each card back until Device Manager indicates that a conflict has occurred.

To resolve hardware conflicts in Windows 95/98:

1. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel window, double-click the System icon.
3. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Device Manager tab.
4. Under the Sound, Video And Game Controllers entry, select the conflicting audio card driver—indicated by an exclamation mark (!)—and click the Properties button.
5. In the Properties dialog box, click the Resources tab.
6. Make sure that the Use Automatic Settings check box is selected, and click the OK button.
7. Restart your system to allow Windows 95/98 to reassign resources to your audio card and/ or the conflicting device.

NOTE: You can also refer to the Troubleshooting section in the Help file of Windows 95/98.

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Problems in Windows NT 4.0

A Service Control Manager error message appears with one or more other error messages at system restart.

This occurs after you remove an audio card from your computer after you have successfully installed the Sound Blaster Live! Value card. Windows is trying to match the drivers to the removed audio card.

To solve this problem:

1. Log on to your computer as Administrator.
2. Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
3. Double-click the Multimedia icon, and then click the Devices tab.
4. In the list, remove from under these entries
• Audio Devices
• MIDI Devices And Instruments
• the items other than
• Audio for Creative SB Live!
• MIDI for Creative SB Live!
• MIDI for Creative S/W Synth

5. Click the OK button to close the dialog box. The drivers are removed.

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