Sound card in a strange state

[hitdog47us]

Hi,

I recently reinstalled Win98 on a freshly formatted hard disk and have run into a problem with my sound card. The card is a Ensoniq Soundscape Vivo with Sound Blaster Emulation. The problem is that when I boot the system, there's a slight "pulsing" sound. When I open the volume controls, the Wave Balance shows a constant low level (i.e. a couple of green lines). If I go into Sounds on the Control Panel, I can play a sound, but it repeats over and over until I hit the stop button. The card always appears to be busy to applications. Games using DirectX work just fine.

I have checked the device manager and there are no reported conflicts. I have disabled and removed the modem and NIC cards and reinstalled the sound card drivers with no difference. I disabled DOS wave/SB emulation and still get the same result. I've tried all the supported configurations and I've set the IRQ from 9 to 10 (no conflicts) and still have the same result. My system uses an Award Bios.

Any ideas on what I could do next?

Thanks,
hitdog

[Xayd]

Is this a Via chipset motherboard?

If so you need the Win9x IRQ driver. My sound card did the exact same thing in Win9x before that driver was installed.

Xayd

[hitdog47us]

Yes, it is a VIA chipset motherboard. Where do I get the Win9x IRQ driver?

Thanks,
hitdog

[glc]

its part of the Via "4 in 1" drivers on your motherboard CD or from www.viatech.com .

[hitdog47us]

Thanks for the pointer. Unfortunately, my system is pretty old (1996) and VIA doesn't support the Cyrix processor in my system, so I can't find the patch for the chipset that I have. I've emailed support at both VIA and National Semiconductor (who supposedly now supports my processor).

Thanks,
hitdog

[glc]

Which VIA chipset does the board have? The Cyrix processor has nothing to do with that. The chart shows the MVP3 and MVP4 under socket 7 boards. If it's not one of those two, you will probably have to do your research at the motherboard manufacturer's website.

The best IRQ for a sound card is IRQ 5, especially an ISA sound card. If your modem is using IRQ 5, disable Com 2 in the BIOS and make the modem Com 2 (IRQ 3) - that's the best place for it too. Let the PCI cards use IRQ 9 through 11 (12 if you don't have a PS/2 mouse).

[hitdog47us]

The board has the VIA VP1 chipset, which the driver table doesn't list. I've tried to identify the motherboard manufacturer, but there's no identification in the Award ID (11/08/96-VT82C580VP-2A5LA008C-00). For the sound board the IRQ is at 5 for the wave/Soundblaster emulation and 9 for midi. The DMA is 1. The modem is at COM2 using IRQ3.

If you can help me ID my motherboard, that would be great.

Thanks,
hitdog

[glc]

Well.......the VP1 was relabled the "VX Pro" by PC Chips. With your bios string, I would lay odds that's what you have. Look on the motherboard for a M followed by 3 or 4 numbers - like M598. If you find that, it's PC Chips. Not a particularly stable board - and the Cyrix processor isn't particularly stable either. I don't think the motherboard drivers (or lack thereof) is the issue here.

Have you tried a different sound card?