Excellent guide, thanks for putting it together.

SmokeMonster wrote on 2023-06-21, 02:23:

Excellent guide, thanks for putting it together.

Cheers!

BTW, are you by chance Smoke Monster from RetroRGB? If so, thanks for all the great content that you and Bob make! That stuff was extremely helpful to me when I got back into retro console gaming.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-06-21, 04:34:

SmokeMonster wrote on 2023-06-21, 02:23:

Excellent guide, thanks for putting it together.

Cheers!

BTW, are you by chance Smoke Monster from RetroRGB? If so, thanks for all the great content that you and Bob make! That stuff was extremely helpful to me when I got back into retro console gaming.

The SmokeMonster is the best!!!

Vanessaira wrote on 2023-06-21, 08:20:

The SmokeMonster is the best!!!

Heh, I just realized that you're from RetroRGB as well. 😀

Cheers, you guys are the awesome! It's because of you and the folks at MyLifeInGaming that I got RGB SCART cables for all of my retro consoles, as well as a 29" Sony Trinitron CRT TV for proper 240p and 480i goodness. 😁

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-06-21, 08:29:

Vanessaira wrote on 2023-06-21, 08:20:

The SmokeMonster is the best!!!

Heh, I just realized that you're from RetroRGB as well. 😀

Cheers, you guys are the awesome! It's because of you and the folks at MyLifeInGaming that I got RGB SCART cables for all of my retro consoles, as well as a 29" Sony Trinitron CRT TV for proper 240p and 480i goodness. 😁

🤣, Yeah. MLiG, Bob, and Phonedork got me into BVMs and all that madness too. 🤣

Bob and MLIG got me into the fun too 😁

Vanessa has been guiding me through the world of Win98 gaming lately, and especially the audio side of things. She pointed me here when I mentioned getting an Audigy 2 ZS recently after watching a Phil video late one night.

SmokeMonster wrote on 2023-06-21, 08:44:

Vanessa has been guiding me through the world of Win98 gaming lately, and especially the audio side of things. She pointed me here when I mentioned getting an Audigy 2 ZS recently after watching a Phil video late one night.

It's a great card indeed.

My only caveat is that digital CD audio (via SPDIF cable) doesn't work with VxD drivers on the ZS. The relevant volume slider simply isn't there. The earlier Audigy 1 and Audigy 2 cards don't have that problem, even when using the exact same drivers as the ZS, so it's not a software bug.

I believe that the digital CD audio feature within Windows requires the use of WDM drivers. Maybe this is independent from the physical "digital" SPDIF connection?

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-06-21, 13:15:

I believe that the digital CD audio feature within Windows requires the use of WDM drivers. Maybe this is independent from the physical "digital" SPDIF connection?

Different thing entirely. As I've explained elsewhere, there are two ways to get digital CD audio under Win9x.

The first one is by using a SPDIF cable which connects to the digital out pins of the CD-ROM drive. This works regardless of which driver type (VxD or WDM) is used.

The second method is to enable digital CD audio from Control Panel > Multimedia > CD Music. This can only be done when WDM drivers are used. It doesn't require a CD audio cable (neither analog nor SPDIF) since it pulls the data through the internal bus of the PC.

What happens on the Audigy 2 ZS is that the first method doesn't work with VxD drivers, or rather there is no "CD Digital" volume slider in that case. As stated above, this works fine on SBLive, Audigy 1 and Audigy 2 (non-ZS) cards, even when using the exact same drivers as the ZS. This particular problem is unique to the Audigy 2 ZS. You can search the forum for past discussions on this which include screenshots and such.

Greetings, retrocomputer fellas! This is my first post (freshly registered) in the forum since I'm reading it for years.

These days I've got an Audigy 2 ZS sound card for about €2.50. It was in pathetic water damaged condition, but after some effort I've managed to "resurrect it from the dead". Thanks to this thread and this post

moog wrote on 2022-03-07, 23:13:

Yare yare daze jiji, that's a really huge tutorial. Here's the gist of it in Linux commands, so someone like me who prepares stu […]
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Yare yare daze jiji, that's a really huge tutorial. Here's the gist of it in Linux commands, so someone like me who prepares stuff for FreeDOS can make do without Windows.

Copy code to clipboard

1# We only need 1 thing from the original driver ISO - ECW file. If you have a better one, skip this.
2curl -L 'http://vogonsdrivers.com/files/downloader.php?fileid=510' -o sba2zs.7z
37z e sba2zs.7z
4rm sba2zs.7z
5# Why mount when you can extract?
6isoinfo -i Audigy\ 2\ ZS\ Install\ CD.iso -x '/AUDIO/DRIVERS/VXD/VXD.CAB;1' > vxd.cab
7rm Audigy\ 2\ ZS\ Install\ CD.iso
8cabextract vxd.cab
9rm vxd.cab
10mv VxD/98SE_ME/DEFAULT.ECW .
11rm -rf VxD
12# Get DOS support package.
13curl -L 'http://vogonsdrivers.com/files/downloader.php?fileid=1383' -o sba2zs_dos.rar
14unrar x sba2zs_dos.rar
15rm sba2zs_dos.rar
16# Prepare SBA2ZS directory, all of this goes into your FreeDOS root directory.
17unshield x AUDIGY\ DOS\ DRIVER/data1.cab
18mv DOS_Drivers SBA2ZS
19mv AUDIGY12\ PATCH/AUDIGY12.EXE SBA2ZS
20rm -rf AUDIGY12\ PATCH AUDIGY\ DOS\ DRIVER
21# This step is for the file from ISO, or you can just supply your favorite ECW file.
22mv DEFAULT.ECW SBA2ZS
23# For whatever reason, CTSYN.INI is missing and it's hard to get a copy of it online. You're welcome.
24# Nevermind it refers to CTSYN.DRV. Tested, you don't need it.
25# Post scriptum - SBEINIT.COM seems to require that PCIPort and PCIIRQ are declared, but it will ignore their values which is the smart thing to do with unpredictable values like those. This is tested, it keeps saying I have the Audigy on IRQ 11 and port c800.
26cat <<EOF > SBA2ZS/CTSYN.INI
27[CTSYN.DRV]
28SBEnable=true
29JoyEnable=true
30Waveset=C:\SBA2ZS\DEFAULT.ECW
31PCIPort=e400
32PCIIRQ=12
33OPLPort=388
34MPUPort=330
35SBPort=220
36SBIRQ=5
37SBDMALO=1
38SBDMAHI=5
39JoyPort=200
40EOF

How to get things going in FreeDOS:
1. Put SBA2ZS directory into FreeDOS' root filesystem.
2. Start FreeDOS
3. Load JEMM386
4.

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1SET CTSYN=C:\SBA2ZS
2SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
3CD C:\SBA2ZS
4SBEINIT.COM
5AUDIGY12.EXE
6REM Assuming your current directory is C:\
7CD C:\

5. Have fun with your Audigy 2 ZS in FreeDOS!

I've made pure DOS (mode) "driver pack" that fits in one 1.44MB floppy disk (changed default/2mg4.ecw with dostest.ecw). Thanks for directions @moog!

I read the rules, but I barely understand the policy of the forum towards "abandonware" (it's forbidden in attachments, but not forbidden in vogonsdrivers site) I wander if it will be of interest to share the files just for just for the convenience of other users of the same sound card under pure DOS (without any windows 9x installation)? If anyone is interested and it's OK to share the package with an external reference link, please give me a suggestion how and where to share it.

I'd also like to show you in a few pictures the difference between a drowned in swamps soundcard and almost fully restored to factory condition card. Please give me a pointer to a suitable thread for showing repaired old hardware.

PS: Some weeks ago I dug up my basement box with ancient hardware relics - 386SX, ISA OAK video, S3 Virge, Rendition V2200, ISA Trident TVGA9000, K6 233, Celeron 333, PII, PIII, Tualeron... and suitable mobos and hardware. Some of these are in fully working conditions, some are dead and needs repair, so I'll post some other questions related to hardware repairs in suitable threads.

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-06-22, 19:20:

I've made pure DOS (mode) "driver pack" that fits in one 1.44MB floppy disk (changed default/2mg4.ecw with dostest.ecw).

Hello and welcome to the forum!

If you do want to release your pack, please create a new thread for that. You can also ask the moderators about any potential issues there, before posting the actual attachment.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-06-22, 19:38:

analog_programmer wrote on 2023-06-22, 19:20:

I've made pure DOS (mode) "driver pack" that fits in one 1.44MB floppy disk (changed default/2mg4.ecw with dostest.ecw).

Hello and welcome to the forum!

If you do want to release your pack, please create a new thread for that. You can also ask the moderators about any potential issues there, before posting the actual attachment.

Thanks for your detailed win9x/DOS driver install guide and comment, man! As a "newbie" I still do not have "privileges" to use PMs - "We are sorry, but you are not authorised to use this feature. You may have just registered here and may need to participate more in discussions to be able to use this feature.", which seems to be not the most "42st" idea in the galaxy, but this is the situation here, so I have to write (spam) comments instead of PMs.

I do not know how to contact the moderators in this situation and particulary which one of them, who can clarify the situation with links to "abbandonware" here. I'm kindly aksing for some directions (if you can, send me a PM).

Sorry for this "spam", just wanted to thank you for this useful thread! I still do not have a properly setup old system with win98 (95 is useless for me), but in near future surely I'll use your tutorial for my resurrected Audigy 2 ZS on some old rig.

Just found this thread and bookmarked it with a quickness, so thanks for this guide! I have a Dell version of the card on the way, that I intend to use in a machine alongside an Orpheus 2 LT if I can manage it.

I have two SDCards with OS installs that I use with this machine, one with DOS 6.22 and one with Win98SE. I've started to swap to DOS to play DOS games rather than use Win98x DOS mode, simply because it's faster to swap the SDcard and boot directly into DOS rather than boot into Win98SE and then reboot into DOS mode.

In any event, the Audigy is going to be ignored when in DOS, so the Audigy would be used with Win98SE games only, so I don't think I need to install the SB16 emulation at all unless that would break something? Can that be safely ignored? It would probably help with port, IRQ conflicts with the Orpheus under Win98SE if I can just leave that out.

I'm debating whether to install the Orpheus Windows drivers at all in this setup or just disable the hardware in Win98SE. I guess I'll see if I run into any issues. I think I'm going to brave trying to do this first without doing a clean Win98SE install just to see how it goes (if it goes at atll)! It's a relatively barebones install anyway so it won't be hard to wipe and redo if that becomes necessary.

teiresias wrote on 2023-07-20, 14:09:

In any event, the Audigy is going to be ignored when in DOS, so the Audigy would be used with Win98SE games only, so I don't think I need to install the SB16 emulation at all unless that would break something? Can that be safely ignored? It would probably help with port, IRQ conflicts with the Orpheus under Win98SE if I can just leave that out.

It won't break anything to leave out the SB16 emulation. The Audigy will still be fully functional for Win9x games.

So I'm happy to say following your guide my Dell version of the card was successfully installed into a non-clean Win98SE install (it has one of the unofficial service packs, not sure whether it's 2.1a or 3 I've got on there since I set up this install a while back), and with an Orpheus 2 LT already installed under Win98SE, I also left my DirectX version at 7. Oddly, even though it detected the card at bootup and I told it to cancel trying to install drivers at that point nothing about the card showed up as "unknown" in Device Manager, it's like it wasn't there at all until I installed the drivers. So far the Orpheus and the Audigy are living happily alongside one another. I just ignore the Orpheus in Windows so I probably won't bother uninstalling and disabling it under Win98se.

About the only weirdness I have is that the Creative System Information Utility throws an invalid page fault error every time I open it. I can still click around the tabs, but nothing is populated. All of the other Creative utilities I've installed so far seem to work fine and the card is working fine and I'm able to enable EAX in the few games I've tried. I wonder if this has something to do with it being a Dell version of the card maybe.

Thanks for the great guide!

After installing the dos drivers,when I try to boot back into windows after it has updated the files,windows will not boot normally(will into safe mode)and I get the error message:
EMM386: Unable to start Enhanced Mode Windows due to invalid path specification for EMM386.
error: Could not execute SBECFG.EXE.
My dos skills are well rusty,so any help would be greatly appreciated

duanimal wrote on 2023-08-09, 02:57:

After installing the dos drivers,when I try to boot back into windows after it has updated the files,windows will not boot norma […]
Show full quote

After installing the dos drivers,when I try to boot back into windows after it has updated the files,windows will not boot normally(will into safe mode)and I get the error message:
EMM386: Unable to start Enhanced Mode Windows due to invalid path specification for EMM386.
error: Could not execute SBECFG.EXE.
My dos skills are well rusty,so any help would be greatly appreciated

Without knowing more about your hardware and OS, it's hard to say what could be the problem. I assume that you have done a clean install of Win98SE prior to installing the Audigy drivers, as suggested by this guide? If so, then EMM386.EXE should reside in its default location which is C:\WINDOWS.

I've never seen that exact errors message, but similar issues can occur with motherboards that have many integrated devices such as network cards, sound cards, RAID controllers and so on. These can take up memory resources making it difficult for EMM386.EXE to run correctly. Try disabling as many of these on-board devices in the BIOS as possible and see if that helps.

Additionally, motherboards based on any nForce chipset have extremely poor DOS compatibility. This makes it nearly impossible to install any kind of DOS sound card, including the Audigy's SB16 emulation device.

Thanks, this guide has helped me just build an Audigy 2 system 😀

SteveC wrote on 2023-08-21, 10:57:

Thanks, this guide has helped me just build an Audigy 2 system 😀

You're welcome! Have fun with your retro rig!

Question for the forum: has anyone had success with installing the Audigy 2ZS on Core i platform using this procedure?

I'm trying to use a Dell OEM Audigy 2 ZS with a Ivy Bridge / B75 motherboard for Windows 9x. The WDM driver from the CD does not work at all on this system (the driver installs, but the card produces no sound). The VXD drivers appear to work with the card (i.e. the card produces sound), but none of the Creative apps recognize the card. EAX also does not seem to work with the VXD drivers.

Windows 2000 has no issues with the card using the same installation procedure as the first page of the guide (minus the DOS drivers and swapping WDM for VXD drivers).

Any pointers on getting this working properly on my system? Thanks.