FAQ's

Main

Support

Drivers

Contact Us

About Us

Q: Windows 9x locks up just before the login prompt, startup sound, or before displaying the icons on the Windows desktop, and a thin green line appears across the top of the screen. How can I fix it?

A: This seems to be caused by the Backup Utility supplied with Windows 9x attempting to detect new tape devices on boot. You can fix it by renaming the files drvwppqt.vxd and drvwq117.vxd in the windows\system\iosubsys directory (e.g. change the .vxd file extension to .xxx). If you find this causes your tape drive to stop working, you will have to rename the files back or find another solution. You can safely delete the files if you do not have a tape drive or do not get problems after renaming the files.

It has also been suggested that disabling the startup sound, so that windows does not play a sound effect when first starting up, may fix the problem. In our experience, however, it crashes before any sound effects are played; before the login prompt.

Q: I installed my sound card drivers off the driver CD, and now Windows crashes, locks up, or reboots when starting Windows. What's up?

A (most likely): This may be due to some glitches with the drivers included on the SoundBlaster drivers CD. Remove all of the sound drivers/Live!Ware (possibly by booting into Safe Mode, by pressing F8 at or just before the point where the computer begins loading 98), download and install the latest Live!Ware (which includes drivers) from the SoundBlaster.com website. This should fix your problem.

A (alternative): On computers with large numbers of installed devices, such as a SCSI controller, IDE RAID hard drive controller, video card, sound card, and PCMCIA card reader, so many IRQs may be in use that the SB16 emulation installed with the SoundBlaster Live!Ware (installed from the driver CD) will conflict with some other device and cause the computer to crash. Boot Windows into safe mode by pressing F8 at the point where Windows starts booting (just after the Power On Self-Test; POST, where it tests the memory and detects the hard drives). Go to the control panel, system settings, device manager, Creative Miscellaneous Devices, SB16 emulation, and enable (check) the "disable in this hardware profile" check box. Ok, exit, reboot. Your computer should be operational now. It may also be necessary (or desirable, if it beeps while starting Windows 98) to rename your autoexec.bat file (e.g. autoexec.xxx) on your C: drive to disable any DOS sound drivers. DOS programs (if you use any) may still run in a DOS shell, with sound, under Windows.

Q: After I've been using a program or playing a game that accesses the CD a lot, the CD-ROM/DVD drive seems to have trouble reading the CD, causing the game to lockup, crash, or stop responding. OR: CDs feel very warm when I eject them from the CD-ROM/DVD drive.

A: Some high-performance CD-ROM/DVD drives heat up when accessing a CD a lot for an extended period of time. Make sure that there is some room for airflow in the drive bay above/below the CD-ROM/DVD drive (e.g. if there's another CD-ROM or CD-RW installed in a bay right next to it, there would be hardly any room for airflow), and, if necessary, move the drives (but make sure the IDE/SCSI cables remain plugged in to the same plugs to avoid drive letter changes and performance issues) to improve airflow around the drive experiencing the heat difficulties (for example, a ZIP drive in an adjacent bay leaves more room for airflow than a CD-RW, and an empty adjacent bay allows the most airflow of all). Also, if using the Addtronics 7896A full-tower case, you may be able to install additional fans in the drive bay fan positions. For best performance, arrange the fans to blow air through the drive bays, one blowing in one side, the other blowing out the other side, from one side to the other; not both blowing in, nor both blowing out. This will slightly increase the fan noise level, of course. Or just use a larger install option when installing the program or game, so that it does not access the CD-ROM/DVD drive as much.

Q: After installing the Creative SoundBlaster Live! drivers and/or Live!Ware, my hard drives and optical drives (DVD, etc.) will not work in DMA mode. How can I fix this?

A: Disable Creative SB16 emulation, in the device manager, under Creative miscellaneous devices, by double-clicking on SB16 emulation and checking the box that says "disable in this hardware profile". Ok, restart computer. You should now be able to get your drives to work in DMA mode (which may require checking the DMA checkboxes for the device properties under the device manager).