wstanley

Help, please. I need to install three sound cards in my P4 system running Windows XP Pro. I have a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 which shows up as SB00060, and a Sound Blaster Value which shows up as CT4832. kx drivers installed and working fine, I'm pleased to report. But, when I install an additional SB Value, the card is not recognized, drivers are not installed, and the system goes very unstable with frequent lockups. I have not seen any data about running multiple cards except the FAQ answer that says it is supported. Has anyone had success running multiple identical sound cards (e.g. a couple of SB Value cards)? Or, do the cards have to be distinct versions. Would an Audigy work in a three card configuration? I'll be grateful for any suggestions.

Walt Stanley

Daniel Drummond

You're probably having an IRQ conflict between the last live you install and other pci cards in your system. Try moving it to another PCI slot.

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wstanley

Your suggestion was right on--My computer now sees the third card. Unfortunately, installing the drivers to the new card has proven less than successful. But that probably requires just a little more time to get right. I had to reinstall drivers when I added the second card, and eventually got it.

Walt

Sture

Hi Walt,

not sure if it will help you, but when I installed a 2nd card
it was easier to do it in Safe Mode. Perhaps this also helps for
a third one?

Sture

wstanley

Thanks. I found that out too with the second card. Were you able to install the third card (in Safe mode) without uninstalling the prior one and then installing both?

wstanley

Thanks. I found that out too with the second card. Were you able to install the third card (in Safe mode) without uninstalling the prior one and then installing both?

wstanley

well, after a weekend of trying to install drivers for my third SB Live ! card, I'm still have no luck. In Sfe mode, the system recognizes and installs all three cards, and I can verify that each of the cards uses a different interrupt. Also in safe mode I can apparently install the kx drivers for all three cards. But then, on reboot, a normal mode startup hangs--sometimes by halting on the initial windows XP startup screen, and sometimes by taking me to the screen offering to start up in Safe mode. Two cards work just fine

wstanley

I've tried just about every combination of drivers and installation methods, and I still can't get three SB Live! cards to work with the kx drivers. In fact, with three cards in the system (one SB0060 and two CT4832's) I can't get Windows XP to boot up at all except in Safe mode. My motherboard is a Soyo Fire Dragon, with a 1.9 GHz P4 and 256MB DDRam. All three sound cards are on different interrupts, although one interrupt is shared with an Adaptec SCSI controller card, and one is shared with an IEEE 1394 (Firewire) controller. But this "conflict" exists when I'm using only two sound cards. APIC is enabled in my BIOS. with this physical configuration, and the kx drivers uninstalled from all cards, my system will boot with three sound cards, but of course only one can be active with the Creative drivers.

I keep coming back to question whether the kx drivers can support multiple identical SB Live cards ie, CT4832's). Hope someone out there can come up with some more ideas for me to try??

Walt Stanley

Hanz Petrov

Hello Walt,

Can you boot with the two ct4832s in the machine, or does it have to be one ct4832 and one sb0060?

If kX can handle the 2 ct4832s together, then there should be no reason for it not to work with the sb0060 in there too (well, no obvious reason ;-).

I personally have run various combinations of 3 cards under win2k without problems - choosing from among 2 ct4832s, an Audigy OEM and an orginal APS (don't recall if I ever tried all four at once though).

Might be worth noting that in my case the two ct4832s were one revision apart (one rev.7 and one rev.8) - are yours actually identical?

/Hanz

wstanley

I can boot with three sound cards in the machine provided one of them is without driver installed. But I haven't tried using two CT4832's. You gave me another avenue to explore, and I thank you. Walt

wstanley

Hanz:

I have now tried using the two CT4832 cards, and they play very well together! I can't seem to find a revision number onthe cards--unless kx Mixer lists the rev number in the card selector box (one is identified as [a000]; the other as [9800]???) But the serial numbers are very close--one ends in 80, the other in 89. I guess next I'll try to add the third card--perhaps installation order makes a difference. I'll post results when I have them. In the meantime, I'm eager to hear all suggestions.

Walt

RIV@NVX

This is card I/O adress (cc00, e000, d000, fec0, 9800, etc.). Revision is written on EMU10k1 chip itself, you need to check there.

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wstanley

Many thanks for the helpful replies. I don't find anything on the EMU10k1 chip that is obviously a revision numbger--if it is the -NEF following the EMU10k1, then all three cards are the same revision number. If it is the next line of numbers and letters below the part identifier, then al three cards have different revision numbers--the 4832's ard 0010E3047 and 0010E3037, and the 0060 is 3300301.1.
I've now tried every combination of cards, and any two cards will play together with the kx drivers. I can load XP in Safe mode with all three cards in place. When I install kx drivers in all three cards, and reboot to normal mode, the first Windows XP splash screen appears, then the system freezes necessitating a hard reset. If I install the Creative drivers to one card (any one of the three) Windows XP comes up in normal mode; I get the opening sound, then the kx mixer loads, and some short time later, the system freezes, again necessitating a hard reset.
Each card is using a different interrupt, however in one case an interrupt is shared with an Adaptec SCSI adapter.
So, I'm once again seeking ideas as to how to make all three cards work together. By the way, the kx driver installation process is perfectly happy to install either to all cards in the same operation (using kxsetup) or one at a time using Update Driver.

Walt Stanley

RIV@NVX

Hanz, come here, revision master How to read them exactly (I personally have no idea).

__________________
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Hanz Petrov

The way I do it is the following:

Open the Device Manager;

Start/Settings/Control_Panel/System (or right-click My Computer, select Properties) - on the Hardware Tab, select Device Manager.

Select the desired Audio device under "Sound, video and game controllers"; right-click, select Properties.

The device info with revision number should appear there (but I'm not home atm - so I can't double-check ;-)).

Regards,

/Hanz

RIV@NVX

Well, this doesn't show anything. At least in XP. It must be somewhere else.

__________________
-- Vedran

wstanley

Yeah, that's where I first looked. There is no revision number on any of the four tabs of the properties box, for any of the three cards. Of course, they could all be Rev 0! Walt

RIV@NVX

I found it in registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\De viceClasses

Try seaching for VEN_1102 and copy what it brings - revision will be there.

__________________
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Hanz Petrov

Okay, well, I only have win2k and win98SE partitions, so maybe it's not the same under XP...

I'll have at look at home again tonight, just to be sure my memory isn't faulty. ;-)

/Hanz

p.s. So is winXP worth installing? Hehe - joke only - I don't wanna know..

wstanley

I have a dual boot machine, so tried to install the kx drivers in Windows Me. Lo and behold, in the properties sheets for the sound cards are listed the hardware version numbers! So, I can now report that my SB 0060 is hardware version 007, and BOTH my CT4832's are hardware version 007. Three cards also didn't work in Windows Me, although the system got all the way to a ready-to-go Windows screen before it froze. Something new--when it froze there was a constant, soft, high pitched tone coming from my speakers.

Does any of this provide any clues? Also, under Windows Me, I noticedthat I had three choices of kx drivers--one for the SB0060, one for the CT 4832's and one called "general".

Still seeking help

Walt

Kelsenellenelvian

I have a small question what is the advantage to having multiple sound cards?

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Daniel Drummond

The advantages are:
- more simultaneous inputs
- more flexibility
- more hardware based effects possibilities
- more simultaneous soundfonts

Wstanley, have you tried using KX drivers for 2 sblives and Creative's drivers for the third one? Maybe it'll work that way... I've used 2 sblive's running different drivers and it worked fine (after some install headaches).

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wstanley

I have two OS's on my machine, and so decided to try installing the cards and their drivers under Windows Me. I still can't get three cards to work, but when in Safe mode (with all three cards installed, the Windows Me property page for the sound cards show a hardware version number. This is NOT on the Windows XP property sheet. Anyway, I now know that my SGB0060 is hardware version 007, and both CT4832 cards are hardware version 008.
Also different in Windows Me is that it will boot to the standard screen before the system freezes, and on completion of the boot, there is a high pitched, low volume steady tone from my speakers.
As to the question raised about whether Windows XP is really worth using, I've been using it for more than a year, and it's a major improvement. Of course, the jury is still out for supporting three SB Live! cards, but at least on my machine, Windows Me doesn't do that either.
Anyway, I'm still trying to get everything installed, and am still looking for fresh ideas. Thanks much.

Walt

wstanley

Sorry for the double post--My original one about the dual OS's didn't show up (along with several replies) until after I rewrote it. Anyway, in my case, I need three sound cards because I need more than 60 channels for synth voices. I have tried using the Creative drivers once, without luck, but have not seriously tried to troubleshoot that option. I will do thatthis weekend.

wstanley

I'm pleased to say that I now have three SB Live! cards functioning under Windows XP Pro. Two of them (a SB0060 and a CT4832) are running the kx drivers, and the other CT 4832 card is running the Creative driver. Some combination of the following seemed to work: I removed all cards from the computer except for the sound cards, I used the 5.10.0.3528 version (beta) of the kx drivers, I move cqrds around among slots until I found a combo that seemed to work, I did most of the driver installation in safe mode. All I've tested up to this time is the wave sound. Many, many thanks for all of the help you gave me.
There remains one problem--With the current driver installation, the kx Mixer sees only the CT4832, but not the SB0060. I know the SB0060 driver is working. Can someone tell me how to uninstall and then reinstall the kx driver, preferably without uninstalling all of the kx drivers?

Thanks much

Walt

RIV@NVX

You can uninstall them manually if you don't want to fully remove it... nice to hear that you got it working

__________________
-- Vedran

wstanley

I menat "mixer", not "driver". Sorry

RIV@NVX

I don't know... try just running installation again.

__________________
-- Vedran

wstanley

I now have THREE sound cards, all being supported by kx drivers (release version 3526, not beta) and a fully functioning mixer! I still am not sure just how I did this, but I ended up running "kxsetup --clean" a few times, and reinstalling everything in Safe mode. The only cards in my system right now are the three sound cards. I'll reinstall the SCSI controller and the modem later. The system is quite stable, so far.

It was probably not appropriate to start this thread in "Bug Reports" because there was probably a lot of operator error involved. Besides, trying to put three sound cards in a computer can't be simple, and would be impossible without you good folks at the kx Project, and those of you who took the time to help me out.

But now that everything is working, I think I have discovered a bug, and so would like to report it. In the Windows XP Pro "Sounds and Audio Devices Properties" property box, "Audio" tab, I see by the drop down lists for "Sound Playback" and "Sound recording" identical list entries for my two CT4832 cards. They both read "kx Wave CT 4832 10k1 [9800] 0/1". So apparently a single instance of the drivers (at address 9800) can support two separate cards. Clever! But there is no way to tell one card from the other in the list, although I can switch the default between the two and get the expected behavior. By contrast, in the "MIDI Music Playback" drop down lists, the entries are distinct e.g. "kx Uart CT 4832 10k1 [9800]" and "kx Uart CT4832 10k1 [9800] (2)". Or maybe this isn't a bug, but a suggested enhancement for the next release.

Many thanks!

Walt

Daniel Drummond

Great to know it's working out! Maybe it was a conflit with the SCSI controller... You will or won't confirm it when you plug it back in...

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