Help! Messed up! drivers installed but arent! WTF!

[crualtortus]

hello all. I built a new computer a while back (month or so) and had various problems that have ranged from just being an annoyance to as extreme as putting my comp out of commision (hardrive failure). anyway. I bought the X-FI platinum edition. I tried installing the drivers. and when I would attempt it, my comp would completly freeze when it said it was updating windows drivers. people recomended trying to install in safe mode. i tried it and it worked.... kinda. when i rebooted in normal mode, my comp would freeze on the windows xp loading screen (a past problem btw). so i powered down, and booted using the last known good config. it worked. and i didnt have the x-fi drivers installed, however, when I try to install them again, it says that I have previously installed drivers without rebooting, it wants me to reboot and try again. i have done that many times. its not working. I would love to actually use my x-fi. someone please help.

 

[crualtortus]

help now.

 

[sruane]

deinstall the driver, go into hardware manager and deinstall the card. Then install the driver and reboot.

 

[crualtortus]

it isnt showing the drivers are installed. im not even sure if is detecting the sound card at all.

 

[sruane]

Ok, deinstall the card, then reinstall the driver.

 

[crualtortus]

how do i deinstall the card? just take it out and put it back in the slot?

 

[sruane]

how do i deinstall the card? just take it out and put it back in the slot?

Go to Device Manager, right-click on the card and select "uninstall"

Then, install the drivers,

Then, in Device manager, right click on the list of devices and select "Scan for hardware changes"

 

[crualtortus]

i cant find it in the device manager. maybe something is wrong?

 

[crualtortus]

yeah i cant find the card in the device manager, should i try a different pci slot? can i do it while the computer is on? or isnt a sound card a plug and play type thing where it willl detect as soon as its in

 

[Alyarbank]

Check for spyware. I had a similar problem with my SBLive Platinum. It turned out that threre was spyware sucking up resources in the background and the driver could not use the generic host process. I used AVG Anti-spyware to clean it in safe-mode then the drivers installed properly in normal-mode after rebooting.

AVG Free AntiSpyware

 

[crualtortus]

came up empty. nothing to report with the virus scanner. anyone have anything else?

 

[crualtortus]

anyone?

 

[sruane]

anyone?

Something else is wrong. I don't think the drivers are completely deinstalled. You need to get back to square one. If there's nothing from "Creative" in "Add/Remove Programs", then you will have to do a manual registry edit to remove it - and I don't want to be responsible for walking you through that.

The safest thing would be to remove the card, then do a repair install of Windows.

 

[crualtortus]

repair install of windows? does that require some files to be lost? sounds hard.

 

[sruane]

repair install of windows? does that require some files to be lost? sounds hard.

Is is hard if you've never installed windows. And no, you won't loose your stuff. Excuse me for pointing out that you seem to be a little out of your depth here. The questions you're asking really can't be answered this way - there's some fundamental background stuff you need.

I suggest you start with this:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_home_install_-_graphic.htm

 

[crualtortus]

actually i have installed win xp many times before. i just always reformated each time, so i was just wondering if i needed to again. by hard i ment alot of work, like having to reformat and put all my files back on again.

 

[sruane]

actually i have installed win xp many times before. i just always reformated each time, so i was just wondering if i needed to again. by hard i ment alot of work, like having to reformat and put all my files back on again.

Ok, sorry. When you run the install, it checks to see if you already have a copy of windows. It will ask if you want to repair the existing copy, or install a new copy. You want to repair the existing copy. You won't loose any of your stuif.

 

[crualtortus]

and I should take the whole card out? and will my profile still be there, like everything will be the same as right now?

 

[sruane]

Take the whole card out. Send it to me if you want. My X-Fi extreme music works perfectly.

I don't know what you mean by "profile".

 

[crualtortus]

my profile... like my background, my bookmarks on mozilla... just everything lol.

 

[sruane]

my profile... like my background, my bookmarks on mozilla... just everything lol.

Yeah. It'll save all that stuff.

 

[crualtortus]

alright.... wish me luck lol :lol: :lol: :lol: I have a feeling im gonna need it. I have had so many problems with this thing left and right Im scared to do it! oh well. i will get back to you on how it went... and if i dont... :lol: well then things will have gone wrong for the thousand time.

 

[crualtortus]

alright man. I did that. I did the repair thing, i took out the card before hand and everything. then I tried installing the drivers again. and it said the same crap. It said I had previously installed drivers with out rebooting. I dont know what to do. Will I have to reformat my harddrive just to have my damn sound card working? this is really angering me now. if you have anymore advice. now would be a good time.

 

[sruane]

Download and install the most recent driver:
http://us.creative.com/support/downloads/download.asp?MainCategory=1&nRegionFK=&nCountryFK=&nLanguageFK=&sOSName=Windows+XP&region=1&Product_Name=X-Fi+XtremeMusic&Product_ID=14066&modelnumber=&driverlang=1033&OS=10&drivertype=0&x=25&y=13
And take all the other PCI devices off out of your PC
Reboot and let windows find the X-Fi card card.
Use hardware manager to determine which IRQ the soundcard took.
Go into the BIOS and reserve that IRQ for the soundcard.
Restall the other PCI devices and reboot.

 

[Preecher]

I had a similar issue a year or so ago when I upgraded my vid card. I had to uninstall the card, then update my chipset drivers (get the latest drivers for your MOBO), then install the new hardware again.

Hope that works.....