Creative FAQs / Tips - Plug-and-Play

Plug and Play Installation Tips
DOS/Windows 3.1x & Windows 95 DOS Mode

Welcome to the world of Plug and Play (PnP).

If you are going to install your Creative PnP card in a PnP system like Windows 95, you only need to "plug" the card into your personal computer and the card will "play" shortly after the system reboots.

However, if you want to install this card in a non-PnP environment such as DOS/Windows 3.1x or Windows 95 MS-DOS Mode, you need to use Creative PnP Configuration Manager (CTCM) and Creative PnP Configuration Utility (CTCU).

The information in this document is organized as follows:

NOTE: Please read the README.TXT file in your PnP Configuration Manager diskette for the latest information on the software.

Installing CTCM & CTCU

 To install Creative PnP Configuration Manager (CTCM) and Creative PnP Configuration Utility (CTCU) in DOS/Windows 3.1x:
  1. Insert the PnP Configuration Manager installation diskette into your floppy drive.
  2. Exit to DOS if you are in Windows 3.1x.
  3. Type A:INSTALL (or B:INSTALL if your diskette is in drive B:) and press <ENTER>.
  4. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation.
The installation program will install CTCM as a DOS device driver by adding the following line to the CONFIG.SYS file:
DEVICE=<C:\CTCM>\CTCM.EXE
where <C:\CTCM> is the directory where you have installed CTCM.

This CTCM statement will be placed before all the statements that load other low-level device drivers (such as CTSB16.SYS and SBIDE.SYS) so that your Creative PnP cards will be configured before these device drivers try to use them.

NOTE: If you add this line to CONFIG.SYS manually, please make sure that this line is placed after the statement (if any) that loads the other PnP configuration manager in your system.
The installation program will also add the following line to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file:
SET CTCM=<C:\CTCM>

<C:\CTCM>\CTCU /S /W=<C:\WINDOWS>

where <C:\CTCM> and <C:\WINDOWS> are the directories where your CTCM/CTCU and Windows 3.1x files are installed respectively.

After the installation, CTCM and CTCU will be invoked each time you boot your system. CTCM will scan for and configure any unconfigured Creative PnP cards. CTCU will run in silent mode and update the parameters needed by your Creative and Windows drivers. It will also update the BLASTER environment variable if it detects a Creative audio card in the system.

For more details on how the CTCM and CTCU commands work, please read the sections "Using CTCM" and "Using CTCU".

NOTE: To configure Creative PnP cards in Windows 95 MS-DOS Mode, CTCM is required but CTCU is not necessary since CTCM can get both legacy (non-PnP) and PnP card settings from Windows 95. However, you do not need to install CTCM or CTCU in Windows 95 because the Creative Windows 95 software for your PnP card will install CTCM into your Windows 95 directory for you.

Using CTCM

 After booting your system, you may want to configure a Creative PnP card again. You can do so by running Creative PnP Configuration Manager (CTCM) from the DOS prompt:
  1. Exit to DOS if you are in Windows 3.1x or restart in MS-DOS Mode if you are in Windows 95.
  2. Type CTCM and press <ENTER>.
    CTCM will configure your Creative PnP card(s) and update the BLASTER environment variable if it detects a Creative audio card in your system.
NOTE: CTCM configures Creative PnP cards only. But it can work with or without another PnP configuration manager installed in the same system.

Using CTCU

 You should run Creative PnP Configuration Utility (CTCU) when one of the following situations happens:
NOTE: CTCU does not access the resource settings database used by ICM. So, do not use CTCU to change or disable your card settings if you already have ICM installed. Use ICU instead.
To run CTCU in DOS/Windows 3.1x:
  1. Exit to DOS if you are in Windows 3.1x.
  2. Change to the directory where your CTCM and CTCU programs are installed. The default directory is C:\CTCM.
  3. Type CTCU and press <ENTER>.
    The CTCU interface (see Figure 1) appears.
The CTCU command has two optional switches: /S and /W=C:\<WINDOWS>. You can type it in the following way:
CTCU /S /W=<C:\WINDOWS>
where <C:\WINDOWS> refer to the directory where your Windows 3.1x files are installed.

Parameter Description
/S Notifies CTCU to run in silent mode.
This means that CTCU will not display any messages or screens. It will simply update the parameters required by the Creative drivers. If you do not use the /S switch, CTCU will run in full-screen mode (see Figure 1).
/W Informs CTCU to update the PnP hardware information of your Windows drivers in the SYSTEM.INI file.
If you do not use this switch, CTCU will prompt you to enter the name of the directory where your Windows files can be found.

The CTCU Interface

 When you run CTCU in full-screen mode, you can pull down the menu to select one of the following sections:
(figure 1)
Figure 1: The CTCU interface.

You can use your mouse or keyboard to move around and select an item or action in CTCU.

Mouse Action

Keyboard Action
NOTE: The instructions in the following sections are written with the assumption that you will use your mouse in CTCU.

PnP Cards Section

NOTE: You can use this section to view the resource settings of the PnP cards in your system and change the settings of Creative PnP cards only.
When you select the PnP Cards section from the CTCU menu, the Plug and Play window (see Figure 2) will appear, listing the PnP cards in the system. Choosing a card here will, in turn, display a list of logical devices on that particular card.

(figure 2)
Figure 2: The Plug and Play window.

To view the resources for a PnP device, select the device from the list and click the Resources button. The Resources window (see Figure 3) will appear.

Resources Window

The Resources window (see Figure 3) displays the current resource settings of a particular logical device. The settings shown may include input/output (I/O) ranges, interrupts, Direct Memory Access (DMA) channels and 32-bit memory ranges, depending on the PnP card you have and the configuration chosen.

(figure 3)
Figure 3: The Resources window.

To change the resource configuration, click the down arrow next to the Configuration box and then select a suitable configuration which has all the settings that your card needs.

To disable a logical device, click the Disable checkbox. A mark will appear in the box, informing CTCM not to configure this device the next time it runs.

Reconfigure Button

To view or change a resource setting, select the setting and click the Reconfigure button in the Resources window.

Depending on the setting that you have chosen, one of the following windows will appear:

The I/O Range window (see Figure 4) displays the current I/O resource setting and a list of possible settings. To change this setting, select one from the list and click the OK button. Make sure that the new setting does not conflict with the other cards' settings.

(figure 4)
Figure 4: The I/O Range window.

The Interrupt window (see Figure 5) displays the current interrupt resource setting and a list of possible settings. To change this setting, select one from the list and click the OK button. Make sure that the new setting does not conflict with the other cards' settings.

(figure 5)
Figure 5: The Interrupt window.

The Direct Memory Access window (see Figure 6) displays the current DMA resource setting and a list of possible settings. To change this setting, select one from the list and click the OK button. Make sure that the new setting does not conflict with the other cards' settings.

(figure 6)
Figure 6: The Direct Memory Access window.

The Memory Range window (see Figure 7) displays the current 32-bit memory resource setting and a list of possible settings. To change this setting, select one from the list and click the OK button. Make sure that the new setting does not conflict with the other cards' settings.

(figure 7)
Figure 7: The Memory Range window.

NOTE: Each of these windows has a Conflicting Devices message box which will inform you of any hardware conflicts that may result from the settings you have just selected for your card.

To see the list of settings available in each window, click the down arrow on the right-hand side of the Choices box.

Test Button

Once you have reconfigured the resource settings of your card, select the setting and click the Test button in the Resources window. CTCU will test the setting allocated to your device and inform you of the outcome (see Figure 8).

(figure 8)
Figure 8: The Test window.

NOTE: If the testing is not successful, you should reconfigure and test the setting again.

CTCU supports the testing of Creative's audio and wavetable devices only.

Legacy Cards Section

NOTE: You can use this section to enter, view or change the resource settings of all the legacy (non-PnP) cards in your system.
When you select the Legacy Cards section from the CTCU menu, the Legacy window (see Figure 9) appears.

(figure 9)
Figure 9: The Legacy window.

The Legacy window allows you to view and alter your existing card's resource settings by clicking one of the following buttons:

View All Button

Clicking this button in the Legacy window opens the View All window (see Figure 10), which lists all the resources you have reserved in your system.

These resources are grouped by type and displayed in four boxes Input/Output range (I/O), Interrupt Request line (IRQ), Direct Memory Access channel (DMA), and 32-bit memory range (Mem).

(figure 10)
Figure 10: The View All window.

View Button

Clicking this button in the Legacy window opens the View window (see Figure 11) which lists the resources reserved for a selected legacy card in your system.

(figure 11)
Figure 11: The View window.

Add Button

Clicking this button in the Legacy window opens the Add window (see Figure 12) where you can enter details for a new or existing legacy card in your system.

(figure 12)
Figure 12: The Add window.

NOTE: You must enter the card's name in the Card Name field. The other fields can be left blank.

Remove Button

Clicking this button in the Legacy window removes a selected card's settings from your system. Once the settings are removed, you can proceed to remove the card from your system.
NOTE: To re-install the same card, you have to enter the card's original settings again.
Alternatively, you can retain a card's resource settings by simply marking the settings for retrieval in the Change window (refer to the next section).

Change Button

Clicking this button in the Legacy window opens the Change window (see Figure 13) which displays the current resources that have been reserved for a selected legacy card. You can also change any of the resources as well as the card's name here.

(figure 13)
Figure 13: The Change window.

NOTE: To store a card's system settings, mark the Card Removed checkbox in the Change window and click OK.
To re-install the card in future, simply unmark the checkbox to retrieve its original settings.

WARNING: Be very careful when you add or change resource information for a legacy card. Verify all the hardware settings of the legacy cards in your system. Filling in incorrect data may reserve resources which will not be used by any device!

System Devices Section

NOTE: You can use this section to view but not change the resource settings of the system devices in your computer.
When you select the System Devices section from the CTCU menu, the System Device Resources window (see Figure 14) appears, listing all the resources used by your system devices.

(figure 14)
Figure 14: The System Device Resources window.

These resources are grouped by type and displayed in four boxes input/output range (I/O), interrupt (IRQ), Direct Memory Access channel (DMA) and 32-bit memory range (Mem).

PCI Devices Section

NOTE: You can use this section to view but not change the resource settings of the PCI devices in your computer.
When you select the PCI Devices section from the CTCU menu, the PCI Devices window (see Figure 15) appears.

(figure 15)
Figure 15: The PCI Device window.

This window allows you to view your existing PCI card's resource settings by clicking one of the following buttons:

NOTE: Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) local bus is a newly developed bus system that utilizes a 32-bit data path running at a 33 MHz clock speed. This bus architecture yields a huge data transfer rate as compared to the standard ISA bus.

View All Button

Clicking this button in the PCI Devices window opens the View All window (refer to Figure 10), which lists all the resources used by the PCI cards in your system.

View Button

Clicking this button in the PCI Devices window opens the View window (refer to Figure 11) which lists the resources reserved for a selected PCI card in your system.

PnP Concepts

 When you add a hardware card to your personal computer (PC), you must reserve some system resources -- such as input/output address spaces, interrupts, Direct Memory Access channels or memory spaces for the card. You must also make sure that there is no hardware conflict, that is, the resources reserved by one card are not used by another card in the same system.

Before Plug and Play (PnP) was introduced, you can reserve system resources only by manually changing the settings of some dip switches or jumpers on a legacy (non-PnP) card. This can be quite difficult since you have to understand how the hardware settings correspond to the system resources that your card requires. It can also be very tedious since you may need to change the dip switch or jumper settings several times before your card can be configured without any hardware conflict.

With the emergence of Plug and Play (PnP), a revolutionary design philosophy and a new PC architecture specification, the PC, hardware cards, drivers and the operating system can now work together without such "user intervention".

You no longer need to change any hardware settings on your card before it can work properly in a PC. Instead, a PnP BIOS or software would find out the types of resources each card needs and allocate the resources accordingly.

Generally, a PnP card requires one of the following to work:

NOTE: The PnP BIOS specification went through several revisions. The version 1.0a specification was finalized in May 1994, with further clarifications documented in October 1994. As a result, older PnP systems shipped are not fully compliant with this specification. So, there are some compatibility problems. For more details, please read the section "PnP in DOS/Windows 3.1x".

PnP System BIOS

The PnP system BIOS is the lowest level of your PnP system. Its main functions are to provide information on the resource settings of your system devices and to configure PnP cards.

Some PnP system BIOS configure PnP cards automatically. Other BIOS give you an option in their setup utilities to disable their PnP configuration capability. Please refer to your system manual for more details.

PnP Operating System

A PnP operating system provides a fully PnP user environment. It can support PnP cards on its own, with or without a PnP system BIOS. Its main functions are to determine which resources have been reserved by the legacy and PnP cards in your system, and then dynamically allocate free resources to newly added PnP cards.

Windows 95 is an example of a PnP operating system. When you install or upgrade to Windows 95 for the first time, it will automatically determine the resource settings of the existing cards in your system and allocate other resources to new PnP cards.

When you add a legacy card later, however, you will need to run the "Add New Hardware" wizard in Control Panel so that Windows 95 can detect this card. To avoid any conflicts that may be introduced by the hardware settings of this new legacy card, Windows 95 may also re-assign different resources to existing PnP cards.

PnP Configuration Drivers and Utilities

If you do not have a PnP operating system, you need to install a PnP configuration driver and utility to perform the allocation and configuration functions of a PnP operating system.

A PnP configuration driver determines the resource settings of all your system devices and legacy cards, configures PnP cards, and provides relevant configuration information to other drivers or applications that access your PnP cards.

A PnP configuration utility allows you to view, enter or change the resource settings of the PnP and legacy cards in your system. The new or changed settings are then used by the PnP configuration driver to configure new PnP cards.

Intel Configuration Manager (ICM) and ISA Configuration Utility (ICU) are examples of a PnP configuration driver and a PnP configuration utility. For more details, please read the section "PnP in DOS/Windows 3.1x".

PnP in Windows 95 MS-DOS Mode

 Although Windows 95 configures PnP cards in its Windows and DOS box environments, it does not configure them in an MS-DOS Mode session. Therefore, you need to run a PnP configuration driver to configure these cards in this session. Otherwise, when you run a DOS program in MS-DOS Mode, the program would not be able to detect any of your PnP cards.
NOTE: For more details on how you can start an MS-DOS Mode session in Windows 95, please refer to the documentation that comes with Windows 95.

PnP in DOS/Windows 3.1x

 DOS/Windows 3.1x is not a PnP operating system. So, to configure PnP cards, you need to install a PnP configuration driver and a PnP configuration utility.

Currently, a generic set of PnP configuration driver and utility that you can find in the market for the DOS/Windows 3.1x environment is ICM. Consisting of Intel Configuration Manager (ICM) and ISA Configuration Utility (ICU), this driver and utility set was developed by Intel Corporation as an interim solution to facilitate PnP configuration when a PnP operating system is not available. It may come pre-installed in your PC or bundled with your PnP cards.

However, due to the compatibility problem mentioned earlier (please refer to the note in the section "PnP Concepts"), you may encounter one of the following error message or problems when you use ICM version 1.43 to configure your PnP card:

And ICM may not be able to configure your PnP card properly.

Creative's Approach to PnP

 To solve problems similar to those mentioned in the previous section, we have developed a set of DOS-based PnP configuration driver and utility for the DOS/Windows 3.1x and Windows 95 MS-DOS Mode environments. They are called Creative PnP Configuration Manager (CTCM) and Creative PnP Configuration Utility (CTCU).

CTCM can be loaded as a device driver through a statement in the CONFIG.SYS file. It can also be run from the DOS prompt. It configures Creative PnP cards only and provides configuration information to other drivers or DOS applications.

CTCU is used when your DOS/Windows 3.1x system does not have ICM and ICU. It allows you to perform the following functions on the devices in your system:

Why Use CTCM and CTCU?

There are several reasons why we offer CTCM and CTCU:
  1. CTCM provides a consistent method for configuring all Creative PnP cards. It works with or without PnP BIOS or ICM. If your PnP BIOS or ICM has already configured your PnP card(s), CTCM will simply retain those settings.
  2. If the PnP BIOS or ICM did not configure your Creative PnP cards properly, due to incompatibility problems similar to those mentioned in the section "PnP in DOS/Windows 3.1x", CTCM may be able to allocate resources to these cards.
  3. If you use ICM to solve the Windows 95 MS-DOS Mode problem, you need to enter legacy card settings through ICU although Windows 95 already has this information. ICM also stays resident and competes with your DOS programs for memory space.

    CTCM, on the other hand, configures Creative PnP cards with the same settings used by Windows 95. You need not run CTCU at all. CTCM also does not stay resident and thus, does not waste any memory space.

  4. You need not reboot your system after using CTCU to change Creative PnP card settings, if you do not have any DOS device drivers (e.g., SBIDE.SYS or CTSB16.SYS) loaded. You only need to run CTCM to reconfigure the card. This is possible because CTCM can be activated from the DOS prompt, unlike ICM.

Limitations of CTCM and CTCU

If you use a non-PnP operating system like DOS/Windows 3.1x and do not have a PnP BIOS or ICM, your PnP card works like a software-configurable card.

In such an environment, CTCM needs to know which resources have been reserved by all the legacy and PnP cards, and system devices in your system before it can allocate conflict-free resources to your new Creative PnP card.

CTCM can get the resource settings of PnP cards and system devices from the PnP cards and BIOS. But you need to use CTCU to enter the resource settings of all the legacy cards in your PC, and then run CTCM to configure your Creative PnP card.

You may still encounter hardware conflicts if the resource settings specified through CTCU are incomplete or wrong. If this happens, use CTCU to select a different group of resources for the Creative PnP card that caused the conflict. You may need to try a few combinations until you find one that works. This can be tedious, but it is easier than the legacy way of changing dip switches or jumpers.

Common Questions and Answers

 This section gives the answers to some common questions that you may have while installing a Creative PnP card in the DOS/Windows 3.1x and Windows 95 MS-DOS Mode environments.

General Questions

Question I have a PnP BIOS as well as a PnP operating system or a PnP configuration driver and utility. Which one should I use to configure my PnP card?
Answer If you have a PnP operating system or a PnP configuration driver and utility, it is better to let your PnP operating system or configuration driver configure your PnP card. Try to set your BIOS so that it will not configure PnP cards since it may not have access to the hardware setting information of your legacy (non-PnP) cards and thus may give your PnP card some settings that would conflict with those of existing legacy cards.

Question I have just upgraded my operating system from DOS/Windows 3.1x to Windows 95. But I do not have any Windows 95 software for my Creative PnP cards. What must I do to configure these cards properly?
Answer Look for a CTCM.INF file in your CTCM directory. Right-click on the file and select Install from the shortcut menu that appears. This program will copy some drivers into your system to configure your PnP cards in MS-DOS Mode. It will also convert into remarks all CTCM/CTCU statements in your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files as Windows 95 will take care of all PnP configurations in its Windows and DOS box environments.

ICM Questions

Question Must I remove ICM in order to use CTCM?
Answer No, you do not have to remove ICM to use CTCM. If both CTCM and ICM are installed in your system, just make sure the CTCM statement in your CONFIG.SYS file is placed after the ICM statement.

Question What should I do if I cannot configure my Creative PnP card using ICM?
Answer If you cannot configure your PnP card using ICM, try removing ICM. Then use CTCU and CTCM to change and reconfigure your card settings.
For more details on using CTCU or CTCM, please refer to the sections "Using CTCM" and "Using CTCU".

CTCU Questions

Question Can I run CTCU to change or disable my card settings if I have ICM in my system?
Answer No, do not use CTCU to change or disable your card settings since CTCU does not access or update the resource settings database used by ICM.
You should use ICU instead to change or disable your card settings if ICM is already loaded into your system.

CTCM Questions

Question How do I use CTCM to configure both legacy and PnP cards in DOS/Windows 3.1x?
Answer First, run CTCU to add the information on the hardware resource used by your legacy cards. Next, run CTCM to configure your PnP card.

Alternatively, if you do not know your legacy cards' settings, use CTCU to change the settings of your PnP card. Then run CTCM and test whether your card works properly. This is a trial-and-error method since CTCM will not be "informed" about the resources that have been reserved by your legacy cards. You may need to try different combinations of settings before you can configure your PnP cards successfully, without any hardware conflicts with existing cards.

For more details on using CTCU or CTCM, please refer to the sections "Using CTCM" and "Using CTCU".

Question My system hangs or reboots whenever I load CTCM. What should I do?
Answer The memory area of your PnP BIOS machine is probably mapped by EMM386 using the HIGHSCAN option and thus, can get corrupted easily. When it does, CTCM will not work properly. Your system may then hang or reboot whenever you load CTCM.

To solve this problem, remove the HIGHSCAN option in the EMM386 statement in the CONFIG.SYS file.

For example, change the statement

DEVICE=<C:\dir>\EMM386.EXE HIGHSCAN <other parameters>

to

DEVICE=<C:\dir>\EMM386.EXE <other parameters>

where <C:\dir> is the directory in which your EMM386 program is installed and <other parameters> are the other parameters in the EMM386 statement.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of Creative Technology Ltd.
Copyright #169; 1996 Creative Technology Ltd. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows 3.1x, and Windows 95 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
All other products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Creative Zone FAQs / Tips Copyright ©1995, 1996 Creative Labs, Inc.