Windows XP crash, system blames Crystal SF (WDM) Audio Driver
 

I have recently installed Windows XP Professional on my Thinkpad 600x. Everything in the installation went fine, I've installed a small amount of software (Firefox, Photoshop, a couple of audio players, Avast antivirus), and I have dutifully installed all of the updates, including Service Pack 2. Unfortunately, the machine has a tendency to crash during shutdown, which always results in it coming back up and telling me it has "recovered from a serious error". After submitting the reports, it suggests that the problem is due to a missing driver - Crystal SF (WDM) Audio Driver. However, it always fails when I try to install this, resulting in the whole sad story starting all over again. I have followed the instructions on the Windows driver help page, most of which involved renaming the catroot2 file, but this did me no good. It's also worth noting that, in addition to failing to install, the driver often gives me an error that says the software "has not passed Windows logo testing".

Can anyone help me out here? Is this audio driver really what is causing my machine to crash every time I try to shut it down?

Thanks a lot,
Alex

Re: Windows XP crash, system blames Crystal SF (WDM) Audio Driver
 

My first thought would be to open up the device manager (right click on "my computer" and choose properties... then click on the hardware tab. next click the device manager button.) Find the listing for the audio device, highlight it and right click it, then uninstall. It will most likely have a yellow exclamation point next to it when you find it.

Then shut the computer down. Open the case and physically remove the audio card. Put the case back on and fire it up. After doing that, look on the audio card itself and see if it has any identifying marks... Company name, card name, version, model number, etc. If you find something and know the company that made the card, then go to their website and download a current driver. If you don't know the company that makes it head to http://www.driverguide.com and register for a free account. After you to that, you can type any info you found on the card into the search and it will come up with a bunch of drivers. Try to find the one that matches your model number exactly. Find the driver and download it. unzip it onto a floppy disk if it will fit, if not, put it in a directory on your C: drive in it's own folder. You can name it "audio driver" or whatever.

Next, shut down the PC and take off the cover (unplugging the computer of course) put the audio card back in, put the cover back on.

Now when you start up the computer again, it will most like find the card you just put back in and want to install a driver for it. Browse to the directory you created or the floppy drive... whichever you did, and install that driver.

If windows installs the driver on it's own, and sometimes it will without giving you and option... Just get back to the device manager, right click the audio card entry and choose "update driver". You can browse to the right folder, reinstall it and then restart the computer.

It just might work. If not, let me know.

Geff

Re: Windows XP crash, system blames Crystal SF (WDM) Audio Driver
 

Its a laptop ,im assuming for space saving thatit would have onboard sound !!

Re: Windows XP crash, system blames Crystal SF (WDM) Audio Driver
 

You are right. It will have onboard sound. I didn't realize we were talking about a laptop. Actually, the fix might be easier then.

Go to the laptop manufacturer's website and look for an updated driver for the sound. Make sure you get the driver for your particular model of laptop.

The rest of the advise is the same as for a desktop PC. Update the driver for the sound. see if that helps any.

What make/model is your laptop?

Re: Windows XP crash, system blames Crystal SF (WDM) Audio Driver
 

I googled logo testing and found this

http://www.ewall.org/displayarticle93.html

not sure if it is a complete answer, but it does seem related

Re: Windows XP crash, system blames Crystal SF (WDM) Audio Driver
 

I have the similar problem on my PC - it hangs during the startup, and after I restore the system in Safe Mode to the earlier point, it also blames Crystal SF (WDM) Audio driver. The most interesting fact is that I haven't changed ANYTHING in my PC for many months (absolutely nothing, even software, which I usually use). The only thing I installed - was a pack of patches for my Windows XP SP2 (AutoPatcher) from www.neowin.net. So, now I'm really surprised - I can't beleive, that this problem is caused by official Microsoft patches.

If somebody will be interested in this problem, these are details about my PC:

System: Windows XP SP2 with all updates
MB: Asus P4P800E-Deluxe, CPU: P4 2.8 Ghz,
Sound card: Terratec SixPack 5.1, Driver Version: 5.12.01.3057 (The last one from terratec.com)
Onboard sound card (AC97) disabled in BIOS

I'll try to make a clean installation of Windows today, maybe it can help. But still, I would appreciate if someone has any ideas about this problem.

Thanks in advance!

Re: Windows XP crash, system blames Crystal SF (WDM) Audio Driver
 

Well, I have a thinkpad t22 and my laptop was having this issue when returning from standby or hibernation.

I found it had nothing to do with the sound card at all, but that when hibernating my USB thumbdrive was inserted and when I resumed it was unplugged.

Just another thing to check: had any device changes?

Re: Windows XP crash, system blames Crystal SF (WDM) Audio Driver
 

hello all,
I searched for the crystal sf (wdm) audio driver by cirrus logic. and it led me here. I have a hp pavilion that I was using to burn lp to cd and worked fine for a while until xp did some updates now it gets in a loop wanting to report the error. About the only way to make it stop is to manual power down. Found a update for it on microsoft's web update site.Did that but it still does the afore mentioned. Just wondering if anyone has been able to solve this. Dont know if getting a new sound card would fix it or not. It worked fine while loaded with windows ME.

thanks for any info

Re: Windows XP crash, system blames Crystal SF (WDM) Audio Driver
 

Hello everyone,
i just bought a computer from someone recently and i keep getting messages that the crystal sf audio driver needs to be updated and that is what the problem is. i cannot find a download to install and update. can anyone please help!!!