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sb16cqa.txt
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1993-05-04
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SOUND BLASTER 16 COMMON QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
===========================================
This file contains some common questions that are asked and the
answers to them. Please go through all the sections below when you
encounter a problem before calling Technical Support.
This file contains the following sections:
1. Installing Windows 3.1 Drivers for Sound Blaster 16
1.1 Using WINSETUP.EXE
1.2 Using DRIVER applet in Control Panel (OEMSETUP.INF)
1.3 General
2. Sound Blaster 16 Windows Applications
3. Voice Editor II
4. General
4.1 Eliminating Unwanted Noises
4.2 Audio Sources Setting
4.3 Performance Of Software CODEC Drivers For Sound Blaster 16
Without Advanced Signal Processor
1. INSTALLING WINDOWS 3.1 DRIVERS FOR SOUND BLASTER 16
1.1 USING WINSETUP.EXE
Q1. The BLASTER environment is not set OR Sound Blaster 16 drivers
are not loaded when starting Windows.
A1. The BLASTER environment is not set or is incorrectly set.
This program reads the BLASTER environment setting of your
hardware configuration to set up your Windows system files.
Check that your BLASTER environment is set correctly and
tallies with your Sound Blaster 16 card. Otherwise, wrong
values may be set up in your Windows system files. You can
enter "SET" at DOS prompt to check the environment settings.
For more details on the BLASTER environment, refer to your
Sound Blaster 16 User Reference Manual.
Q2. Duplicate icon items in the "Sound Blaster 16" program group.
A2. If you run the WINSETUP program a second time, it will create
another set of Sound Blaster 16 applications icons in the
"Sound Blaster 16" program group. Delete any unneccessary
items in this program group. Refer to your Windows manual for
instructions.
1.2 USING DRIVER APPLET IN CONTROL PANEL (OEMSETUP.INF)
Q1. Sound Blaster 16 drivers are not installed when starting
Windows.
A1. Before you choose to add any Sound Blaster 16 drivers, you
should first remove all existing Sound Blaster drivers shown
in the "Installed Drivers List", and then restart Windows.
Chances are existing versions of Sound Blaster drivers are
installed when you startup Windows and cannot be over-written.
You must also restart Windows after adding all the drivers for
these new drivers to take effect. Refer to your Windows User
Reference Manual for more detail on the Driver applet.
1.3 GENERAL
Q1. Somehow the Sound Blaster 16 drivers cannot be installed or
problems are still encountered when installing the drivers.
A1. Here are some points you can check before calling Technical
Support.
a. If you installed Windows 3.1 using the "Express Installation",
Windows scanned your hard disk for programs to be installed.
As a result, older versions of the Sound Blaster applications
may have been installed if they were on your hard disk at the
time of installation. Please remove these icons. To do this,
click on the icon once to select it, then press the delete key.
Windows
will ask you for confirmation. Repeat for each icon.
b. Open the Driver applet in Control panel. You should at least
have the following driver names in the Installed Drivers list:
Voyetra / Sound Blaster SuperSAPI FM Driver
Creative Sound Blaster *** Auxiliary Audio
Creative Sound Blaster *** Wave and MIDI
MIDI Mapper
Timer
[MCI] CD Audio ;this is only for owners of CD-ROM drives
[MCI] MIDI Sequencer
[MCI] Sound
where *** correspond to the type of card you are haveing.
If one or more of these drivers do not exist, you must install
the driver(s) using the Driver applet in Control Panel (See
your Windows manual for more details).
c. Check your SYSTEM.INI by choosing RUN from the File menu of the
Program Manager, and typing SYSEDIT in the command line box.
Examine the [drivers] and [sndblst.drv] sections. They should
look something like this:
[drivers]
Timer=timer.drv
Midimapper=midimap.drv
Aux=sb16aux.drv
MIDI=sb16fm.drv
Wave=sb16snd.drv
MIDI1=sb16snd.drv
[sndblst.drv]
port=220
int=5
dmachannel=1
hdmachannel = 5
MIDIport = 330
d. If Windows refuses to install a device driver or if you get the
error message "Device not found" when playing a Wave or MIDI
file or a CD, be sure that you have the following settings in
the [mci] section of SYSTEM.INI.
[mci]
WaveAudio=mciwave.drv
Sequencer=mciseq.drv
CDAudio=mcicda.drv ;this is only for owners of CD-ROM drives
If one or more of these do not exist, you must install the
driver(s) using the Driver applet in Control Panel (See your
Windows manual for instructions). Do not type in the entries
into the SYSTEM.INI because the files have to be installed into
your SYSTEM directory by Windows.
2. SOUND BLASTER 16 WINDOWS APPLICATIONS
Q1. The playback sounds jerky.
A1. This may be due to fragmentation of your Windows swap file.
A temporary swap file tends to be fragmented. If possible,
use a permanent swap file for Windows. Make sure that your
permanent swap file is not fragmented. Refer to your Windows
manual for instructions on creating a permanent swap file.
3. VOICE EDITOR II
Q1. "Block Type Not Recognized" error is encountered when using
the program VEDIT2.EXE in Sound Blaster Pro package with the
Sound Blaster 16 card.
A1. VEDIT2.EXE Version 2.10 or earlier does not support 16 bit
("block type 9") data when using the Sound Blaster 16 card.
You can still perform recording provided you select "Record
to Disk" option instead of "Record to Memory".
4. GENERAL
4.1 ELIMINATING UNWANTED NOISES
Q1. Your recording has unwanted noises during playback.
A1. Using the mixer, adjust the recording volume for your input
source to the optimal level. Bringing the record level close
to maximum will help to produce noise-free recordings. Also,
set the record level for other input sources to zero. This
ensures that the only recording is from sources that you want
to record.
Q2. Unwanted "hissing sound" is heard when 8-bit digitized sound
is played in some games or application software.
A2. The high quality 16-bit CODEC plays back every detail of the
8-bit sample including the coarse resolution of the staircase
waveform. Hearing the "hissing sound" is like seeing all the
sharp edges of a 320x240 picture on a very sharp 1200x1024
monitor. SB16 has a Treble control to suit your needs on
different sound quality. To eliminate the unwanted "hissing
sound", you can set the Treble level to zero.
4.2 AUDIO SOURCES SETTINGS
Q1. Settings for various audio sources (MIC, Line-in, etc.) is not
audible.
A1. Check the mixer settings for the various sources. Use the
programs SB16SET.EXE or SB16MIX.EXE in DOS or SB16WMIX.EXE in
Windows to adjust the settings to a higher level.
4.3 PERFORMANCE OF SOFTWARE CODEC DRIVERS FOR SOUND BLASTER 16
WITHOUT ADVANCED SIGNAL PROCESSOR.
Q1. During recording of compressed wave files , system
is sluggish.
A1. Software compression/decompression takes up a lot of CPU
time. As a result, the system does not have time to respond
to other events like mouse move, execution of other programs
etc.
Q2. When playing high speed compressed wave files, there are
jumps or missing sound.
A2. When CPU intensive compression/decompression (especially
ADPCM) is being carried out, it is important to avoid doing
any other thing on the system. This is because the generated
events will "steal" away CPU time from the CODEC drivers and
prevent it from doing a continuous recording or playback.
This is especially true on slow machines.
Q3. What are the system requirements for a particular compression
scheme.
A3. Basically, both the A-Law and mu-Law CODEC modules are
equally fast and they are both much faster than the CT ADPCM
CODEC modules. In addition, decompression are generally
faster than compression.
Compression Schemes Minimum System
------------------- --------------
Stereo ADPCM 44kHz 386DX, 33MHz
Stereo ADPCM 22kHz 386DX, 25MHz
Stereo ADPCM 11kHz 286, 16MHz
Stereo A-Law/mu-Law 44kHz 386SX, 25MHz
Stereo A-Law/mu-Law 22kHz 286, 16MHz
********* End of SB16CQA.TXT *********