S3 Sonic Vibes (86c617) soundcard under Windows 2000/XP

So, if you’ve got an S3 SonicVibes soundcard in an old machine, and you’re trying to get the sound working, how would you do it? Well, Googling for it gives you loads of links to driverguide.com (and loads of links to places which are links to driverguide.com). None of the drivers there work. They’re all (charitably) out-of-date Windows 95 drivers, or (uncharitably) a timewasting pile of shite that took up two hours this afternoon. Eventually, I came across a note that the 86C617 card is actually the same chipset as the Turtle Beach Daytona. So, off to the Turtle Beach site. They have the driver that works—grab the NT driver from there and install it. Marvellous. That’s two whole hours of downloading, testing, and rebooting that I won’t get back, but at least it’s fixed now.

Incidentally, Linux detected and worked with that soundcard with no extra effort required.

57 Responses to “S3 Sonic Vibes (86c617) soundcard under Windows 2000/XP”

  1. Funny. I remember reading on some big, mainstream tech site—probably ExtremeTech—an article with the headline “Undeniable Proof that Linux is worse than Windows 95.” The scientific reasoning: Windows 95 installed a SoundBlaster driver for his Intel motherboard, while no distribution of Linux he tried recognized it.

    So then he went and wrote his article. And the Microsoft lackeys of course said “hear hear“.

    As always, “better” is relative. Personally I usually have better luck with Linux. I’ve got a pile of hardware that won’t work with Windows but is great on Linux.

    Dave Farquhar
  2. hello

    cntest
  3. My Sinic Vibes works on linux but I’ve had a hell of a time getting it to work under 2000/XP. I just use the ALSA drivers and it works nicely.

    Mytharak
  4. Dave,

    Many thanks to your site. I too went through spending hours looking for the right driver. You site helped a lot. Note, when I installed the driver, I had to use the backwards compability setting to get the install program to work correctly.

    Darin Milligan
  5. hi

    i am trying to operatr this sound card with win xp with no luck.

    please help

    shimon
  6. When i begin installing the driver, it says i have not enough space, but i have 3GB? Jou can i fix it?

    digital
  7. Where to get ALSA drivers?

    AG
  8. i am having the same problems as “digital“..

    when i try to install the drivers i get a stoopy message that says that i have insuficiant hdd space….not to mention that i have like 140 gig free?????

    pawn
  9. hi

    kasem
  10. i want installation driver for windows xp

    navid
  11. sdczsd

    sd
  12. i have a s3 sonicvibes (86c617) and i kant find a driver i googled it and ended up here? please help me get a driver email me back soon!!!

    jonah
  13. i have a s3 sonicvibes (86c617) and i kant find a driver i googled it and ended up here? please help me get a driver email me back soon!!!

    Adebomi, Olugbenga
  14. People saying “help me get a driver”: read the article and it will tell you where to get one from.

    sil
  15. i want installation driver for windows xp and win2000 for S3 Sonic Vibes 86C617
    tanks for anyting,now

    murat
  16. pleas i need driver for s3 sonic vibes driver

    ahmed
  17. pleas i need driver for s3 sonic vibes driver

    Jerry
  18. pleas i need driver for s3 sonic vibes driver

    jooe
  19. I want sonicvible series soundcard driver

    Sok
  20. pleas i need driver for s3 sonic vibes (win XP),you can give me?

    Alex
  21. For the love of pete, dumbnuts! Read the article!

    SteevoLS
  22. Okay, I’m not an idiot, I read the article and downloaded the NT drivers from the Turtle Beach site…I also downloaded another supposed driver setup for this card from driverguide.com…I am using Windows 2000 Pro.

    With both versions of the setup app, it tells me I don’t have enough space to install, but I have 20GB+ free. I see above that others reported the same thing…can anyone help with this??

    Amy
  23. for drivers sound card

    hamid
  24. hi
    thank you for use this site, i want load some drivers for sound card,

    thank you..
    hamid

    hamid
  25. shora how how

    hamid
  26. my computer don’t hear sound why

    ilmansyah
  27. I sure am thankful that someone spent a couple or more of hours finding this S3 Sonic Vibes driver for my sound card on Turtle Beach. Thanks again.

    Harry Stanley
  28. Dear

    Kindly let me know that i perchase sonic vibes sound card, it is paly and plug,i install win2000, but it did not auto work, It need driver for installation.I try to download it, 86c617.

    Regards
    Imran
    imran_helpdesk@yahoo.com
    Unilever Paistan Ltd

    Imran Noor
  29. install s3 sonic vibes 86c617 sound card in winxp
    here is the method i fixed it:
    (sorry my winxp is chinese version, so there might be some wrong interpretations.)

    1. download the driver for nt4.0(http://ftp.isu.edu.tw/pub/Hardware/S3/617drv/wnt10007.zip)

    2. Do not excute the setup.exe, or you will meet the hd space mistake.

    3. open Hardware Tab( you can find it in control panel->system)-> right click on uninstalled sound card -> reinstall hardware driver -> the 2nd option(something like reinstall in specific way) -> Don’t search, i ‘ll chooce the driver -> install from the disk -> browse -> find oemsetup.inf in where you unzip the wnt10007.zip-> sonic vibes sound card -> reboot -> done

    Hope this really works for all of you ^^

    Henry
  30. driver sonic vibes

    Eduardotrinidad
  31. i’ve spend bunches of hours to find my sound card drivers. but i’m having problem to find correct drivers for my sound card.
    S3 Sound Vibes On board Q9C3FB 86C617 9732 B7555.
    if any one of you got…so mail me at saifmughal@gmail.com thx!

    Saif
  32. Many thanks to your site. I too went through spending hours looking for the right driver. You site helped a lot. Note, when I installed the driver, I had to use the backwards compability setting to get the install program to work correctly.

    sahil
  33. good

    pape
  34. good as me

    pape
  35. sağolun arkadaşlar hepinize teşekkür başarılar dilerim

    aziz
  36. thank you very much,
    this driver it works very well in win2000

    yo
  37. thank you very much,
    this driver it works very well in win2000

    abdo
  38. anybody can help me ? i`ve got a sound card s3 sonic vibes 86c617 chipe but i can`nt correctly drive the card under windows xp operating system ! if anyone do it success plesae tell me how to do it ,and email me the driver file !

    Thank a lot,
    A new computer player from china!

    seal
  39. without driver we stay blocked

    ELIE HAMMOUD
  40. i want drivers for x p windows and windows 98

    Anonymous
  41. Thanks for the link! I wish the various manufacturers and their successor companies would take some responsibility for their “legacy” products, after all today’s hot board is tomorrows forgotten driverless rubbish, but it’s still got their name on it…

    tom donald
  42. When i begin installing the driver, it says Inter the correct “start.exe” but i have a correct start.exe file ?

    Hameed
  43. i have a s3 sonicvibes (86c617) and i kant find a driver i googled it and ended up here? please help me get a driver email me back soon!!!

    Hameed
  44. I need for “s3 86c617 sound driver” I found it but it couldn’t download .and I need it for free to download to my pc.

    Neil Joseph
  45. I really need for “s3 86c617″ sound driver.

    Neil Joseph
  46. Anonymous
  47. i search a driver for the souncard “s3 sonicvibes 86c617 audio accerelator”, but i don´t find it!
    Can any help me?

    Simon Ahlmann

  48. HEY THATS IT


    I LIKED IT

    BAN
  49. i am using sonic digital media home to download dvd’s and getto the point where you open the downloaded film to burn ad a message appears “could not make a thumbnail. make sure you have the appropriate decoder installed -470.10″ i have been using this system for months and it suddenly comes up with this message. can u help? my pc runs windows xp.

    john mcken
  50. Thank you !Thank you ! i thank you

    ed
  51. I am having the same problem as John Mcken. After several months of using Sonic DigitalMedia LE v7, recently it began giving me an error message everytime I wanted to add a video file saying, “Could not make thumbnail. Make sure you have the appropriate decoder installed”. I am not sure what this means or how to solve it, if anyone can help me please send me an e-mail at: blazing_throughlife@hotmail.com
    Your help would be greatly appreciated so please send me an e-mail if you have any suggestions. Thank you.

    Adam Williams
  52. hello i am useing sonic digital plus v7 and i i have the same John Mcken and Adam Williams what decoder do i need to get if any 1 can please help send me an e mail on dado1653@hotmail.com i would really be a great help .

    thank you

    ayad
  53. whatever

    kraven
  54. http://www.tbeach.com (go to FTP Files Download Area > Daytona

    > day_nt4.zip).

    Although you have functionality of the soundcard, the Device Manager will

    report “No drivers are installed for this device”. You may ignore this.

    1. At the Found New Hardware window. Select “Install from a list or specific

    location”. Click Next.

    2. Select “Don’t Search, I will choose the driver to install”. Click Next.

    3. Choose “Sound, video and game controllers”. Click Next.

    4. Click Have Disk…

    5. Browse to the \NT folder on Daytona CD or location of the NT drivers you

    downloaded and choose OEMSETUP.INF.

    6. Click Open, then OK.

    7. Click “Continue Anyway”.

    8. Choose the TBS Daytona PCI Sound Driver, then click Next.

    9. Click “Continue Anyway”.

    10. Windows then installs the drivers, click Finish and restart.

    11. Open “Add Hardware” from “Printers and Other Hardware” in the Control

    Panel. Click Next.

    12. Choose “Yes, I have already connected the hardware”. Click Next.

    13. Select “Add New Hardware Device” from the list. Click Next.

    14. Select “Install the hardware that I manually select from a list”.

    Click Next.

    15. Select “Sound, Video and Game Controllers”. Click Next.

    16. Click “Have Disk” and browse to the \NT folder on Daytona CD or location

    of the NT drivers you downloaded and choose OEMSETUP.INF. Click Open,

    then click OK.

    17. Choose the TBS Daytona FM Synthesis driver, then click Next. Click Next

    again.

    18. Click “Continue Anyway”.

    19. File Needed - Browse to the \NT folder on Daytona CD or location of the

    NT drivers you downloaded. Click Open, then click OK.

    20. Click “Finish” and then restart.

    21. Repeat steps 11 - 20 and choose the TBS Daytona Joystick driver

    in step 17.

    and ready to play!!! :D

    kraven
  55. Need Help with Sonic DigitalMedia LEv7 same as Adam Willliams Pls Help if you can.

    Thank Much

    Chris
  56. I’m having the same problem as John Mcken and Adam Williams. If anyone can help, please send an e-mail to tpuni104@uottawa.ca. Thanks a lot.

    Trisha

    Trisha
  57. fuck you all

    Anonymous

Leave a Reply

OpenID is a decentralised authentication system. If you use LiveJournal or Vox you already have an OpenID; just use the URL of your homepage there. See also how to get yourself an OpenID.