VGA compatible SB Live! Is there a hope for my card?

keenblade · Sep 23, 2004, 06:41 PM

I have a creative SBLive ct4830 card that thinks it is a vga device. After I installed kx3538a computer does not start up. Before kX there was no sound already. After I disabled kX with msconfig from startup, computer starts up as usual with no sound. Creative drivers even can't find card itself.
Under linux it is the same story(no sound but start up successfully).Card was listed like this:
VGA compatible unclassified device: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10000 (rev 8) CT 4832Live Value.
Do I need a new card? If so, for sblive 5.1 ones which model must I choose? It seems not all sblive cards are the same.
Is it something with the EEPROM 93c46 which is a small 8-pin chip on the card?
Any suggestions?

mkk · Sep 23, 2004, 07:00 PM

Try removing the card from the system, and then start it up in safe mode running Driver Cleaner here from this website. Clean out all Creative and kX files by using those options in Driver Cleaner. Then try getting the card to work again normally, preferably with the kX drivers if the card is then identified correctly by the system. In the end it might be something that have gone wrong with the card, but a windows/driver borkup is more likely.

keenblade · Sep 23, 2004, 07:44 PM

Thanks mkk. I did not use Driver Cleaner, but formatted hd and reinstalled winXP. I only installed kX drivers, not creative ones. So there is no need to clean I guess. Also this is not a windows specific problem, since linux is effected either. This makes me think there is something wrong with the card itself. (Especially with the EEPROM 93c46 which keeps cards identification data.)

Lex Nahumury · Sep 23, 2004, 09:33 PM

>>This makes me think there is something wrong with the card itself. (Especially
>>with the EEPROM 93c46 which keeps cards identification data.)

[color=yellow]Looks that way. It seems that the cards PCI ID is wrong (or read wrong by pci bios).[/color]
[color=yellow]I have read similair horror stories on CL support sites.[/color]
[color=yellow]Some people claim it got "restored" by putting the card in another type of [/color]
[color=yellow]PC..hmmm???[/color]
[color=yellow]Anyway;[/color]
[color=yellow]There might be a tool to re-program the EEPROM. Don't know for sure though.[/color]

[color=yellow]/LeMury[/color]

mkk · Sep 23, 2004, 10:05 PM

Yeah if the cards ID is programmable through that eeprom then that's at least a technical possibility. Or just maybe it could be possible to modify a driver to accept off-standard ID's by an .inf modification. I have little or no on-hands experience with either though.

It wouldn't happen to be a card that came from a brand name manufacturer system like Dell or Compaq? Sometimes they seem to almost knowingly screw up card ID's and then "solve" it through their official support packages or proprietery system CD. Though I haven't encountered anything like that with a SoundBlaster soundcard before.

keenblade · Sep 24, 2004, 12:43 AM

There is an interesting article titled "Live! to Live! 5.1 Hardware Upgrade". In the article it is told how to reprogram this eeprom. Unfortunately, to program the chip the utility needs this chip removed and soldered in a RTL8029x based network card which I could not find. There must be a way to program epprom on the soundcard without removing it.
Here is the article:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles/livetolive51/
Also in the article there is another 15kb utility to program the chip with an LPT port of the computer. But this program comes with a russian readme I can not read.

**dj_stick** · Sep 24, 2004, 01:21 AM

there was a site once that you could simply connect the eeprom programmer to chip while it was still on the card… can't remember the link though

Sep 23, 2004, 06:41 PM	#1
keenblade DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0	VGA compatible SB Live! Is there a hope for my card? I have a creative SBLive ct4830 card that thinks it is a vga device. After I installed kx3538a computer does not start up. Before kX there was no sound already. After I disabled kX with msconfig from startup, computer starts up as usual with no sound. Creative drivers even can't find card itself. Under linux it is the same story(no sound but start up successfully).Card was listed like this: VGA compatible unclassified device: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10000 (rev 8) CT 4832Live Value. Do I need a new card? If so, for sblive 5.1 ones which model must I choose? It seems not all sblive cards are the same. Is it something with the EEPROM 93c46 which is a small 8-pin chip on the card? Any suggestions?

Sep 23, 2004, 07:00 PM	#2
mkk Cthulhu/Dagon 2012 Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Gefle, Sweden Posts: 4,490 Rep Power: 132 System Specs	Try removing the card from the system, and then start it up in safe mode running Driver Cleaner here from this website. Clean out all Creative and kX files by using those options in Driver Cleaner. Then try getting the card to work again normally, preferably with the kX drivers if the card is then identified correctly by the system. In the end it might be something that have gone wrong with the card, but a windows/driver borkup is more likely.

Sep 23, 2004, 07:44 PM	Thread Starter #3
keenblade DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0	Thanks mkk. I did not use Driver Cleaner, but formatted hd and reinstalled winXP. I only installed kX drivers, not creative ones. So there is no need to clean I guess. Also this is not a windows specific problem, since linux is effected either. This makes me think there is something wrong with the card itself. (Especially with the EEPROM 93c46 which keeps cards identification data.)

Sep 23, 2004, 09:33 PM	#4
Lex Nahumury DH Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 1,932 Rep Power: 64	>>This makes me think there is something wrong with the card itself. (Especially >>with the EEPROM 93c46 which keeps cards identification data.) [color=yellow]Looks that way. It seems that the cards PCI ID is wrong (or read wrong by pci bios).[/color] [color=yellow]I have read similair horror stories on CL support sites.[/color] [color=yellow]Some people claim it got "restored" by putting the card in another type of [/color] [color=yellow]PC..hmmm???[/color] [color=yellow]Anyway;[/color] [color=yellow]There might be a tool to re-program the EEPROM. Don't know for sure though.[/color] [color=yellow]/LeMury[/color]

Sep 23, 2004, 10:05 PM	#5
mkk Cthulhu/Dagon 2012 Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Gefle, Sweden Posts: 4,490 Rep Power: 132 System Specs	Yeah if the cards ID is programmable through that eeprom then that's at least a technical possibility. Or just maybe it could be possible to modify a driver to accept off-standard ID's by an .inf modification. I have little or no on-hands experience with either though. It wouldn't happen to be a card that came from a brand name manufacturer system like Dell or Compaq? Sometimes they seem to almost knowingly screw up card ID's and then "solve" it through their official support packages or proprietery system CD. Though I haven't encountered anything like that with a SoundBlaster soundcard before.

Sep 24, 2004, 12:43 AM	Thread Starter #6
keenblade DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0	There is an interesting article titled "Live! to Live! 5.1 Hardware Upgrade". In the article it is told how to reprogram this eeprom. Unfortunately, to program the chip the utility needs this chip removed and soldered in a RTL8029x based network card which I could not find. There must be a way to program epprom on the soundcard without removing it. Here is the article: http://www.digit-life.com/articles/livetolive51/ Also in the article there is another 15kb utility to program the chip with an LPT port of the computer. But this program comes with a russian readme I can not read.