Herbert,

  Few points for you to check and consider:

  The SB AWE 32 [at least in Israel] comes with drivers
and applications CD-ROM, and if you got this disk, I strongly
recommend you to try drivers from it. If you don't have it,
either use the creative website [www.soundblaster.com] or I can
mail them to you.

  The IRQs 7 and 5 [you say 7 is used in your system] are
standard IRQs for SoundBlaster. As far as i remember, the AWE32 is
an ISA card,
so there's probably a conflict at IRQ 7. The port 320, I think,
is not used by SB, but ports 330 and/or 388 and/or 620 are used by
MIDI subsystems; ports 220 or 240 or 260 are used by SB for other stuff.

  One more note. The AWE32 was the first soundblaster to introduce
an EMU8000, a new generation chip providing much better music quality
than standard SB FM/OPL3 chip [frequency modulation; that's what kids'
synthesizers sound like]; and you would definitely want to hear _much_
better sound provided by EMU8K chip.
  What I'm leading to, in Windows drivers there should be two devices:
    the SoundBlaster FM/OPL3 device
     and the Soundblaster AWE32 EMU8000 effects chip.
  You should set the latter for the primary MIDI device.
  Most games also support [I mean DOS games] the AWE32 sound, for example
the Transport Tycoon.

  And the last remark. The games described above sometimes try to detect
sound card by prodding standard IRQs and ports. If you are a heavy gamer,
you should reconsider using these for other equipment as this could lead
to unexpected and unpleasant results. If you aren't, or play only in
Windows, this should be of no concern.

  And, computers are fun. :)

<> Max Timchenko [MaxVT]
<>
<> [log in to unmask]

         The PCBUILD web site always needs good submissions.  If
          you would like to contribute to the website, send any
               hardware tech tips or hardware reviews to:
                           [log in to unmask]