Hi, all.

So I have a tri-boot system with Windows XP Home, Ubuntu Feisty and Windows 98 FE. 
 My SoundBlaster Live! Value works fine in XP and Ubuntu, but I'm getting nothing 
out of Windows 98.

Yet the Volume Control bar shows sound being registered.  Here's a picture of what 
I mean:

link

Control panel tells me the driver is working properly with no conflicts, and the 
device selection shows SB Live! E800, which seems to be the correct setting.

But no sound.

Can anyone help?   If so, thanks in advance!

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

If you happened to be playing an audio CD in Windows 98 when you're 'not hearing' sound, your picture of your Audio Properties shows that the "Mute" box under "CD Audio" is checked. You'd have to uncheck that to hear an Audio CD!

A few months ago, I replaced a SB Live! Value sound card in a customer's XP computer that got 'finicky'. It would play some sounds but not others, and which sounds it would play were different with every bootup (ie: the DVD sound wouldn't work after the first cold boot, but it would work after a warm reboot, which system sounds would play were 'variable', etc.).

As in your case, the driver and Device Manager entry were OK, which suggests that the sound card hardware itself is the issue. Since a new 6-channel PCI sound card was $10, the fix was all too easy!

----------------------------------------------------------

Athlon 1.1 - 768 MB RAM = 98SE & XP Home

Athlon 3000+ 64 - 1024 MB RAM = 98SE (@768 MB RAM) & XP Pro

IBM ThinkPad PIII 900 - 384 MB RAM = 98SE & XP Pro SP2

Windows 2000 Server in the basement

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I've seen many computers without the analog cable installed, so if the machine/software 
isn't using digital playback, but rather analog, such as older machines and operating 
systems used, there won't be any sound either.  Might be worth checking..  If it's 
running digital, the headphone jack on the ROM will either not work or it will be 
the loud digital "hash" noise.  If it is running analog, there will be sound coming 
from the jack.







On Saturday, August 25, 2007 at 8:55 am, DNA wrote:

>If you happened to be playing an audio CD in Windows 98 when you're 'not hearing' 

>sound, your picture of your Audio Properties shows that the "Mute" box under "CD 

>Audio" is checked. You'd have to uncheck that to hear an Audio CD!

>


>A few months ago, I replaced a SB Live! Value sound card in a customer's XP computer 

>that got 'finicky'. It would play some sounds but not others, and which sounds it 

>would play were different with every bootup (ie: the DVD sound wouldn't work after 

>the first cold boot, but it would work after a warm reboot, which system 
sounds 

>would play were 'variable', etc.). 

>


>As in your case, the driver and Device Manager entry were OK, which suggests that 

>the sound card hardware itself is the issue. Since a new 6-channel PCI sound card 

>was $10, the fix was all too easy!

>


>---------------------------------------------------------- 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Good point, C.K.; typically (for Audio CD's) XP and Ubuntu will use digital playback and 98 will use analog playback.

If you don't have the analog 4-pin audio cable going from the CD drive to the sound card, you won't hear analog audio from that drive.

To enable digital Audio CD playback in Windows 98 (almost all optical drives made after early 1998 or so should support digital audio, and all DVD-ROM drives, as well), Start> Settings> Control Panel> Multimedia> Audio CD tab> Checkmark in "Enable Digital Audio for this device".

This option may not work for 1997/older CD-ROM drives (if the drive doesn't support digital audio, the check box above will be greyed out), or provide good playback on 1997/older computers. Also, you won't be able to listen to audio CD's from the drive's headphone jack, if digital playback is enabled (since it won't be playing back the disc at "1x" speed, as it would in analog).

----------------------------------------------------------

Athlon 1.1 - 768 MB RAM = 98SE & XP Home

Athlon 3000+ 64 - 1024 MB RAM = 98SE (@768 MB RAM) & XP Pro

IBM ThinkPad PIII 900 - 384 MB RAM = 98SE & XP Pro SP2

Windows 2000 Server in the basement

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

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