Sound Blaster Live not responding in WinME with Duke3D

Howdy. I've got a SBLive! value edition card, and I'm running Windows ME. Whenever I try to set up my soundcard, I get either a "FM chip not detected" or a "Sound card not responding on selected port" message, depending if I'm trying to set up midi music, or my sound fx. Anywho.. I've recently added a SET BLASTER environment variable... and I think I've set it right:

BLASTER = A220 I5 D1 T1 P330 H5

Adding this variable doesn't seem to do anything though. Any help would be greatly appreciated [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
oh.. hmm I'm running a ASUS A7V133 (VIA KT133A chipset) motherboard, if that helps any.

[Joe Siegler]

The following information is an unofficial guide to getting Duke Nukem 3D to work on your
Sound Blaster Live card, This was written by [email protected]

Since PCI sound cards tend not to get along with DOS very well, the SB Live doesn't have
good support for DOS. However, Creative provides the programs for you to get it running
nicely, here's what to do:

The SB16 emulation of the Sound Blaster Live! requires your motherboard
to support NMI (Non-Maskable Interrupt) in order to work. Check with your
manufacturer or look at your motherboard documentation to determine
whether your motherboard supports it.

If you are using a ASUS mother board P5A, you will
need to down load the updated BIOS program as this has Creative labs fixes
and other things.

First, be sure to INSTALL the DOS drivers when installing the programs from the CD that
came with your Sound Blaster Live. They should be located in
C:\Program Files\Creative\SBLive\DOSDRV\ by default.

To enable SB 16 emulation in DOS, you have to use the programs SBINIT.COM to initialize
the emulation, and SBSET.EXE to set the emulated addresses of the card. One limitation
of this file is that it must be run in FULL DOS, you cannot get this to work in
Windows, you have to quit to DOS.

The usage of the program is documented in a text file that comes with it, but here are the
basics. Use it with the following parameters:

-A### is the address of the sound card, you should use 240 by default.
-I# is the card Interrupt, you don't have to use the actual interrupt of your Sound
Blaster Live, rather an emulated one. I suggest either 5 or 7, which are common.
Remember this number for when you setup your Duke Nukem 3D sound.
-D# is the Low (8 bit) DMA setting. Set this at either 1 or 3, and remember it.
-H# is the High (16 bit) DMA setting. I recommend you set it at 7, which is common.
Once again, remember it for when you set up your Duke Nukem 3D.

So, your command should look like this: SBSET.EXE -A240 -I5 -D3 -H7

What I recommend is that you create a batch (.bat) file that you can run every time
you quit to dos, like "SBINIT.BAT" which should look something like this:

C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\SBLIVE\DOSDRV\SBEINIT.COM
C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\SBLIVE\DOSDRV\sbeset -A240 -I5 -D3 -H7

Make your batch file, quit to DOS, and run it. You should have SB 16 emulation now.

Now, once you have your SB 16 emulation working in DOS, all you have to do is set
up your Duke Nukem 3D properly:

Run Setup.exe and go into Sound Setup.

Select "Choose Sound FX Card" - Select "Sound Blaster".

On the next screen, you have to set up all the addresses that you gave your card.
For "Change Address", make sure you have it set to the address you have the card
(the -A###) - You would want it on 0x220 most likely.

For "Change Sound Card Type" Choose "Sound Blaster 16 or AWE32".
For "Change Interrupt", set it to the Interrupt (-I#) value you gave the card.
For "Change 8-Bit DMA Channel", set it to the Low DMA (-D#) value you gave the card.
For "Change 16-Bit DMA Channel", set it to the High DMA (-H#) value you gave the card.
Once you have all of this set, choose "Use these settings and continue" and choose 8 voices, 16 bit,
stereo, 44khz (whatever you want to, those are the highest quality).

Now, go to "Test Sound FX card" and see if it works, it should if you have follow all of the
instructions and you are in FULL DOS mode.

Now your sound is set up, go to "Choose Music Card" to set up your music.
You can either choose "Sound Blaster" (which most people would probably do) or "General Midi".
You should choose "General Midi" because it sounds much much better than the music emulated if you choose "Sound Blaster".

For "MIDI Port" you should select 0x330 (the default).

Now, go to "Test Music Card" and you should be ready to play.