Very low volume with SB Live and KT7-Raid with ME....Why?

[MaximumOverdrive]

I have the volume turned all the way up with Windows ME and can barely hear anything. When booting to 98 the volume works fine and only has to be at a mid level setting. Anyone have a similar problem or know how to correct this?

 

[Rakkis]

Um.. when you say volume, I'm assuming you mean the bar that pops up when you click on the speaker icon in your systray.
Double click it and a more extensive control panel should open. Maybe your Wave balance is low/muted?

 

[JohnnyGHz]

Most likely you have your card set to 4-speakers, with only speakers connected to the front channels and the fade balance control set twords the rear channels

On the Creative launcher task bar:
1) Click the AudioHQ Tab
2) Click the speaker item (Should be 1st item on the left)
3) Choose 2 speakers

If this doesn't work, then set your system back to it's defaults as follows:

On the Creative launcher task bar:
1) Click the Live!Task Tab
2) Click the Diagnostics item (Should be farthest item to the right)
3) On the vary bottom of the diagnostics dialog, click the restore button

This will restore all your settings to default.

 

[Zone]

Personally, I'd like to know how you got sound to work at all!!

I have:

KT7-Raid
Thunderbird 800Mhz
256MB PC133 CAS3
SB Live X-Gamer
ATI Radeon 32MB
IBM 45GB ATA/100
Plextor 12/10/32A CDRW
Windows 98

I've tried a couple of times now and I can't get it to work. All I get is static.

My process has been:
Install Video
Install NIC in slot 2
Install SB Live in slot 4
Install Win98
Install VIA drivers
Install ATI drivers
Install Directx 7.0a
Install updated ATI drivers
Install SB Live drivers

At this point, SB Emulation keeps getting installed
even though I tell it not to.

I then update the SB Live drivers, go into Device Manager
and disable SB Emulation.

When I try to play a sound, all I get are pops and crackles.

I've tried removing everything and starting from scratch but
no dice.

Any clues? Where is your SB Live card (in which slot)?
What drivers did you use? My KT7-Raid BIOS is the UL version.
Did you update the VIA drivers from VIA's web site?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[JohnnyGHz]

Make sure you have it connected correctly

The stereo jack closest to the Joystick connector (Left Most Jack) connects to the rear speakers. The next stereo jack connects to the front speakers (connect to this jack if you only have 2 speakers).

 

[MaximumOverdrive]

Everything is connected correctly, set to 2 speakers, wave and master volume are set to almost the maximum setting. I'm using the latest SBLive drivers for WME too. I think this has something to do with WME and SBLive, not a factor of the mainboard. When booting to W98, the volume level only has to be set to mid way for both wave and master controls. With ME I have to either set the volume of the speakers themselves way up or the system volume. Now that I think about it, I had the same problem with ME and SBLive using my old Tyan S1598 board. I've e-mailed SB and they haven't yet returned my message.

Zone,
To get the SBLive card to work in the first place I don't think I did anything special. I installed the card in PCI#6 and loaded the software. I did disable the SB16 emulation, but saw no difference between enabled and disabled.

Autoexec.bat also loads SB16 emulation drivers. To completely disable SB16 emulation you need to REM (remark) those out or delete them to be sure.

I'm using UL103 bios (available at www.abit.com.tw), and VIA's drivers from their website.

Later,
Max

 

[BigSmooth]

I have a somewhat similar setup (WindowsME, KT7, Duron 700, SBLive!Value) and I have also noticed that with my 2 Creative speakers, the sound level is quite low despite a high volume. Haven't found a fix yet, either.

 

[CaseTragedy]

The low volume problem is not m/b related. I share a similiar setup with a friend--speakers, soundcard (same properties settings), m/b. The only difference is that he's running win2k while I'm on winME. I have the same low volume problem and have not been able to fix it even when I tried different slots and new drivers. It seems that we'll need to wait for Creative to address this issue.

 

[MaximumOverdrive]

I have a problem report or whatever Creative calls it in their system for this but haven't been called back. I've used W98, W2K, and WME. WME is the only one that has this particular problem. I'm pretty sure it is an incompatibility thing between SBL and WME.

 

[Ronzon]

Basically it looks to be a driver problem with low SBLIVE volume attributed to WDM drivers (WinME and Win2K). Found this to be the case with my SBLIVE and the same situation with the CL Ensoniq AudioPCI in another computer. Loading the Win98 driver (in WinME only of course!) brought volume back up to nominal levels.

We need to pressure Creative Labs to release improved drivers...