From: dcaldwel@bilbo.tnis (Doug Caldwell CT90)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
Subject: Re: FM Music Editors/Composers
Date: 6 Jan 93 15:14:19 GMT
Reply-To: dcaldwel@bilbo.tnis
Organization: Sun Microsystems

Recently I purchased a Gateway 486-33DX and put in a SBPro Basic Kit (sound card and 
CD reader).  While most things work fine I've run into a few problems with the sound
card and/or computer.  The following is the letter I just sent to Gateway and Creative
Labs after a few unsuccessful attempts at fixes they suggested.  I'm hoping someone
here has a better solution.  Thanks in advance.

To: Gateway 2000 Technical Service
                &
    Creative Labs Technical Support


HELP !!!  I recently purchased (invoice date 12/12/92) a Gateway 486-33DX
computer.  I also purchased a Sound Blaster Pro Basic with CD-ROM kit which
I installed in the Gateway.  For the most part all of these work wonderfully
together and I've been a very happy customer.

The installation of the sound card and CD went well although the TEST-SBP
diagnostic program detected a conflict with the interrupt setting of the card
so I changed the setting on the card to 10.  Then everything checked out OK
and the card passed all the diagnostics.  After installing the Sound Blaster
Pro Software I then went into Windows to install the drivers for Windows 3.1.
I added the Auxiliary Audio driver and the Pro Wave and MIDI driver without
any problems.  When I tried to add the MIDI Synthesizer driver the second I
clicked on the Add a very loud humming started on both speakers.  The only way
to stop the humming was to stay in Windows, remove the driver, and then power
off the PC.

Since the Install Manual for the sound card had recommended not changing any
of the cards default settings I thought this might be the problem.  I called
Gateway Tech Support and was informed that there was a conflict with the
interrupt setting at 7 (the printer port used this) and was directed to change
the printer setting to 5 (the Gateway rep also told me how to do this, but
since I was at work and not at my computer I couldn't try this right away).
Once I got home I changed the interrupt setting for the printer to 5 and
set the jumper on the card back to its default setting of 7.  Once again
the card passed all diagnostics in the TEST-SBP program and once again I got
that same loud humming when I tried to add the MIDI Synthesizer driver.

Next I called Creative Labs Tech Support.  This support person didn't have
any real good guesses, but recommended that I delete/change some lines in my
system.ini and win.ini files.  He said to delete three lines in system.ini
and the whole soundblaster section in win.ini.  Only two of the lines were in
system.ini (DEVICE=vsbd.386 & DEVICE=vadlibd.386) and I deleted both of them.
There was no Sound Blaster section in win.ini.  He also said to change two
lines in system.ini removing the 386 extensions, but neither line was there.
He also said to add dmabuffersize=64 to the system.ini which I did.  These
changes had no effect on the humming problem.

I then called Gateway again.  I was directed to check the I/O addresses and
interrupt settings of COM ports 1 through 3 in Windows (Prog. Mgr.-->Control
Panel-->Ports) to verify that they agree with the settings found in Setup
(<Ctl><Alt>s).  They all agreed.

So, where am I at now.  I can bring up Microsoft Bookshelf and the narrated
animations in the encyclopedia work fine, but none of the musical examples
work.  The SBPRO software (cdplayer) works fine.  Sierra's The Incredible
Machine and King's Quest V (CD version) work great.  Sierra's Castle of Dr.
Brain gives an error message, "Can't initialize sound device", but then
continues on and works fine.  Sierra's Leisure Suit Larry V gets the same
error message, but the PC hangs on this and has to be rebooted.
 
My next store neighbor has exactly the same hardware and is experiencing the
same problem.  My brother has the Sound Blaster Pro (not Basic) kit with a
Tandy 386SX and isn't experiencing any of these problems.  Surely with two
industry leaders such as Gateway and Creative Labs someone has been able to
get this hardware to work together properly.  Please help!!!


"Decks is Us"
     Caldwell Home Improvement (Sponsored by Weight Watchers)

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard