In Windows 98, with each startup, an annoying Windows dialog box pops up with this message:

“The Sound Blaster AudioPCI 128D driver cannot load MIDI waveset. MIDI playback has been disabled.”

Sound familiar? Well fret no more. You probably have found the fix you’re looking for.

After researching this online for quite sometime and trying many different solutions (including downloading the eapci2m.ecw driver and installing it in the C:/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/DRIVERS directory), nothing seemed to work.

Then one day, fiddling around on my own, I finally discovered a quick solution that will at first seem too good to be true. But trust me, it worked for me, and it might very well work for you.

Do this:

1. Go to Start/Setting/Control Panel.
2. Double-click on System.
3. Go to the Device Manager tab.
4. Click on the plus sign (+) to the left of “Sound, video and game controllers.”
5. Highlight (select) “Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI 128D.”
6. Click on the Properties button.
7. Go to the Driver tab.
8. Click on the Update Driver button.
9. When prompted, choose to search for updates on the floppy drives.
10. It automatically searches for and updates the drivers.
11. When it’s finished, click OK to finish.
12. Restart your computer. The annoying box should be gone!

If this approach doesn’t work, then try downloading eapci2m.ecw from http://www.driverguide.com (you have to register first, but it’s free). Save the file to the directory specified above, then try Steps 1 through 12 again.

If that doesn’t work, then I would suggest going to the following Creative web page below, where you can download all applicable drivers and wavesets for Sound Blaster:

http://dmzweb4.europe.creative.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=760,E=0000000000061330557,K=4138,Sxi=0,Case=ob j(1930),Kb=ww_english,VARSET=ws:http://us.creative.com/

If, for some reason, the link above doesn’t work, simply go to http://www.creative.com, click on Support, click on Knowledge Base, and search for “load midi wavesets” (you don’t need the quotes). The title of the article is “Error – Can not load MIDI Wavesets, MIDI Playback has been disabled.”

Good luck!

Tom