DON5408 and Crystal Semiconductor Present Audio Drivers for Crystal sound cards
One annoyance reported by those with newer model Aptivas with the Crystal Semiconductor sound card is that upon every startup the following message is presented:
      Cannot load C:\WINDOWS\cwaudio.bin
      Using default firmware

While this does not indicate a problem (see IBM's explanation HERE) this "informational message in error message format" has bothered many users. Previously there was no way to eliminate this message, however a number of Aptiva owners have noted that after applying the updated audio drivers from Crystal this message no longer appears.

In addition to removing the "cannot load..." message on some older Aptivas the latest drivers from Crystal add the following functionality:
  • Use of the Windows95 volume control
  • 3D Sound with balance control
NOTE: While Cirrus Logic indicates that these drivers "should work with most implementations of our chips" and many Aptiva owners have been able to successfully use them, these are *not* IBM supplied nor supported. Should you have any difficulty reinstall your original preloaded drivers (the original Crystal drivers can be found in the C:\Windows\Options\Cabs folder and in most cases a driver setup is also included on the blue Aptiva CD ("Diagnostics and Utilities" or "Applications" depending on the model) in the Disk\Crystal folder.

These drivers should be usable on Aptiva models 2159-S80, 2159-S90, 2161, 2162, 2136, 2137, 2138, 2139 and 2153. While these drivers will work with the CS4237 chipset on 2140 and 2142 Aptiva systems as these models feature not one but TWO Crystal chips and the only source for drivers for the second CS4610 chipset is IBM the most current drivers suggested for 2140/2142 models are in IBM's 214X_DX5 update file.

ACF9D.ZIP (formerly b95us250.zip)

File Date: September 23, 1997
File Size: 606 Kb
Description: Microsoft DirectSound audio drivers certified for the CS4232/6B/7B/8B cards under Windows 9x

Note: The above file is in English, these drivers are also available
in the following languages:

French Spanish German Italian Chinese
Japanese Korean Thai Swedish Danish
Norwegian Finnish Dutch Brazilian Portuguese


W95US272.ZIP


File Date: April 28, 1998
File Size: 466 Kb
Description: Windows 95/98 audio drivers for the CS4236B/7B/8B cards. WHQL certified for DirectSound on CS4236B/37B and CS4235/39 cards
when used under Windows 9x.

Note: The above file is in English, these drivers are also available
in the following languages:

Spanish French German Italian
Japanese Korean Traditional Chinese

After downloading the appropriate file be sure to read the README
file contained therein.



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