Hello Keith, As I remember, ES1688 is a SB-PRO clone and as such won't play 16-bit sound unless the driver converts... Could be that "native" sounds are 8bit, and "non-native" are 16bit? Also check for freq. and stereo differences. My friend used ES1688 on IRQ7 because he has no printer, so he doesn't need a LPT port :) ,no problems like you describe, however. Not much of a solution, but the friend had so many problems with ES1688 that he trashed it and bought a SBLive-Value, and is happy ever since. How do you divide WIndows' sounds to "native" and "non-native"? +=-. | Max Timchenko [MaxVT] | [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask] | (ICQ) 238-6792 | | Freelance website and graphics designer | Max Webdesign at http://maxwd.hypermart.net +=-. Tuesday, July 27, 1999, 6:31:50 PM, you wrote: KM> Just a question about some inconsistencies I'm finding in a customer's KM> computer. The pc is a generic no name clone with WIN98 upgrade installed. KM> The symptoms are exhibited thusly: KM> 1. "Native" wav files such as "tada", "chimes", "ding" plays KM> at a normal volume. KM> 2. "Non-native" wav files such as "The Windows Sound" or KM> "The Welcome" play at a significantly reduced volume. So KM> quiet in fact, that about the only way to hear it is to KM> place the speaker in your ear. No sound settings have KM> been adjusted while playing the two different types of KM> files. KM> The sound card is an ESS-1688 and interestingly will only use IRQ 7. KM> Uninstalling and reinstalling the driver made no difference. I ended up KM> moving LPT1 to IRQ 5, I/0 278 in the bios. As a note, midi files seem to KM> have no problems being played. Visit our website regularly for FAQs, articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more http://nospin.com - http://nospin.org