Sound Blaster Live Value debacle SOLVED!!

Hey all!
Well, I shouldn't say solved, since many of you have different troubles. But some of it HAS been solved!!
Specifically, troubles getting sound correct sound/ DOS sound// out of the card!

It'll be a bit of a post, so bear with me.

First things everyone should know is that not all SB LIVE cards are made the same. ANd I don't mean that by there "are different flavors." I mean, even the same card can be different depending on where it was manufactured. Most notably the differencecs between SB LIVE retail in AMerica here and the Bulk OEM cards from Europe that are meant for prefab computers.

These OEM cards are being sold by the thousands here in AMerica and discount rates. The product number of this card, found in the upper right hand corner, is model CT4830 .(Retail versions of the LIVE VALUE card are 4670). I'm not sure of the sound quality differences between the two. I have limited use with a retail but they appear to sound the same .The big trouble comes in trying to get the blasted OEM card to work.

NOTE!! The OEM card WILL NOT work with CT4670 REATAIL DRIVERS!!! That is to say, pop the driver disk in and expect everything to work. (This has been confirmed by many across the web. But don't take it as written in stone. If you've gotten ot to work, drop me a line. I'd love to hear about it! In any event, the majority of time it doesn't seem to be the case.)

So obviously this raises the issue of what drivers to use??
Creative Labs as partial and full installations of LIVEWARE 3.0 as well as drivers for the card available for download from their site. Trouble strikes here as well, as most cards don't seem to like this either.

For those of you with the preceeding dillema, might I suggest a stop in at www.driversguide.com? Here I found a variety of assorted drivers, most from Gateway and a few ripped by the individuals themselves, to aid in the getting the card to work. Drivers specifically for the CT4830 can be found here. They appear to be older version of INF files for VALUE cards, and yet another group is one designed from Gateway. I can also send you a copy if you need it. For many, forcing windows to use one of these drivers seems to be doing the trick. (CONTROL PANEL, SYSTEM, SBlive!, UPDATE DRIVER. Then tell it to pick from devices listed. Choose HAVE DISK and browse to the directory where you downloaded the new INF files. .The first INF file in the CT4830.ZIP packet is what has done the trick for me, or at least got the ball rolling.) Again, different cards different success stories. There's about 6 different drivers. Give them a shot.

Another issue. No sound once everything is installed. This is interesting and very subtle. THe only reason I know of it is because I stumbled onto it. FOR THOSE OF YOU GETTING WHITE NOISE when the card is isntalled and "working," this seems to be either an issue with the 686B southbridge, for which there are now many patches all over the place, and the other reason I've found is that the software is defaulting to DOLBY DIGITAL SOUND OUT! The solution is easy. Goto the VOLUME CONTROL at the bottom of your task manager bar, DOUBLE CLICK it and select ADVANCED. There is a chck box here for digital sound. TURN IT OFF!! You can't pump out sound from a port tht doesn't exist on yout card!

NOw why does it default to this? I'm not certain, but rumors have been circulating that the 4830 OEM is nothing more than a Value LIVE with digital out but missing the digital out port. I'm trying to find specs and even attempting a soldering job to my card. I'll post with updates.

So, one mystery solved. Stimpee, perhaps this is the same trouble you're having.
Remember on ABIT boards you can avoid a lot of trouble if you keep the Sound Card and your Network Card from being in two PCI slots that share the same IRQ. That's rule number 1.

Thanks for listening everybody. Hope it helps some of you guys out there!

P.S. DOS sound. THAT'S right! Sound Blaster live Value works in PURE DOS! As in FAT16 and Wolfenstein 3d! (If it works in Wolf it works in just about anything.)

First thing you need are DOS drivers .These can be gotten off the retail CD, e-mailedto you by someone like me, or gotten off the full LIVEWARE 3.0 installation files.
Most of it is self automated. But, you will need the DEFAULT.ECW from your Windows Directory in the same directory, or at least let your AUTOEEC.BAT file where it is, and then create a CTSYN.INI file or modify the one is should have installed. If there is more interest I'll post about that, but most consider DOS dead so I won't take up any more of your time.

Thanks again all!

The Jolly Wizened Oaf!