Sound cards and intstalling their drivers on early computers was generally not an easy task. There were many different hardware configurations and software incompatibilities. Sound cards didn't become common until the late 80's and became more user friendly as time passed. Once the sound cards supported Windows Plug and Play, they became easier to install.
My Gateway 2000 came with an installed Sound Blaster ViBRA 16.
The Sound Blaster ViBRA 16 was released as a cost-reduced, more integrated Sound Blaster 16 that supported Plug and Play for Microsoft Windows operating systems. It lacked separate bass and treble control, an ASP/CSP socket and Wave Blaster connector. Several different revisions of the VIBRA chipset exist.
This one is the earliest model, which featured an external Yamaha YMF262 OPL-3 synthesis chip.
This Yamaha chip was replaced on later ViBRA-equipped sound cards with a cost-reduced replacement termed CQM synthesis, which largely emulated the features of the Yamaha OPL-3 chip. However, its emulation of OPL-3 was far from perfect, causing considerable distortion in FM-generated music and sound effects.
I was able to find a two disk install for this driver at Vogons Vintage Drivers Library. A compressed folder contains two disk images that require 720K formatted disks.
To make the install disks, I first had to format two disks using the following DOS command:
FORMAT A: /N:9 /T:80
This command will format a 720k disk in a 1.44mb floppy drive. /N:xx specifies the number of sectors per track. /T:xx specifies the number of tracks.
Once I had the 720k floppy disks at hand, I used WinImage to make the install disks.
Installing the software was simple. I accepted all of the software's recommended settings. In the following two screenshots, the settings can be reviewed:
Included with the install is a diagnostic utility which searches for any conflicts in the install.
The utility also allows for audible testing of both wave and midi sound. Everything sounds great with this install and I have to admit, I'm amazed at how easy this install progressed. I was actually expecting complications due to my memory of headaches when installing sound cards in the early 90's.
My Gateway 2000 came with an installed Sound Blaster ViBRA 16.
The Sound Blaster ViBRA 16 was released as a cost-reduced, more integrated Sound Blaster 16 that supported Plug and Play for Microsoft Windows operating systems. It lacked separate bass and treble control, an ASP/CSP socket and Wave Blaster connector. Several different revisions of the VIBRA chipset exist.
This one is the earliest model, which featured an external Yamaha YMF262 OPL-3 synthesis chip.
This Yamaha chip was replaced on later ViBRA-equipped sound cards with a cost-reduced replacement termed CQM synthesis, which largely emulated the features of the Yamaha OPL-3 chip. However, its emulation of OPL-3 was far from perfect, causing considerable distortion in FM-generated music and sound effects.
Installing the driver
I was able to find a two disk install for this driver at Vogons Vintage Drivers Library. A compressed folder contains two disk images that require 720K formatted disks.
To make the install disks, I first had to format two disks using the following DOS command:
FORMAT A: /N:9 /T:80
This command will format a 720k disk in a 1.44mb floppy drive. /N:xx specifies the number of sectors per track. /T:xx specifies the number of tracks.
Once I had the 720k floppy disks at hand, I used WinImage to make the install disks.
Installing the software was simple. I accepted all of the software's recommended settings. In the following two screenshots, the settings can be reviewed:
Included with the install is a diagnostic utility which searches for any conflicts in the install.
The utility also allows for audible testing of both wave and midi sound. Everything sounds great with this install and I have to admit, I'm amazed at how easy this install progressed. I was actually expecting complications due to my memory of headaches when installing sound cards in the early 90's.
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