System Specs:

AMD 800 mhz Atholon
512 ram
Nvida geforce 2 video card
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Plat.
Windows XP Professional

I have contacted creative many times on this problem. These are the steps I have taken over the past few months to try and fix this problem. I don’t know what else to do or try, and I am about to give up. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Card blew out from what creative thinks was a static charge. This was caused by plugging in a mixer to the card located in the back of the pc and not the bay in the front.

Card has been sent back into Creative 3 times. Each time they send me back a card that is "new" or "like new/refurbished" Every Time I try to reinstall the card since the original problem the computer freezes during the install at 97% when windows is updating the drivers.

Creative has told me to do the following. Everything below has been tried, and none has worked.

* Upgrade Bios on motherboard: Done
* Get latest OS patches and updates: Done
* Get Latest Video card updates and drivers: Done
* Get Latest Sound card Drivers: Done

* Perform Clean Sweep Routine: Done
Click Start, Run and then Browse. Browse to D:\Audio\Drivers\CTZAPXX.EXE, where D represents the CD Rom Drive.
Select Driver Uninstallation for WDM drivers and click OK.
When prompted to restart, say No.
Browse to Program Files, Creative and then to a Sound Blaster folder (depending on your particular card), and delete the Sound Blaster Folder - if you get a file that won't delete, right click on the file, click Properties and clear all the attributes. The file should then be able to be deleted.
Click Start, Run, type MSCONFIG and press Enter.
Check the box next to Selective Startup and deselect Load Startup Items.
Select the SERVICES tab and select Hide All Microsoft Services.
Uncheck all results and click OK.
Browse to the C:\Temp folder and C:\Windows\TEMP (if it exists) - all files and folders in the temp folder need to be either deleted or moved to a new folder.
Empty the Recycle Bin
Restart the computer, and reinstall the Sound Blaster drivers and applications if desired. Be sure to disable all virus scanners (such as Norton Antivirus or MacAfee) and firewall applications before reinstalling.

[Computer locks before I can proceed to the end]

Click Start, Run, type MSCONFIG and press Enter.
Insert a check to the left of Selective Startup and select Load Startup Items.
Select the SERVICES tab, and check back in the items that were unchecked previously in step 10.

* Try Steps above with card in different PCI slots: Done
* Format hard drive: Done
* Try card in a different Computer (after the card came back 3rd time, It did work): Done
* Try Loading a fresh copy of xp on a different Hardrive, install 44.03 Nvidia drivers, and install card drivers after Os was booted for the first time: Done

I have done all of this and the only thing I can think of is maybe I need a new motherboard. Creative is stumped, as am I. They wont refund my money so I guess I am just out of luck and down 200 bucks unless someone out there has an idea. I am willing to try just about anything at this point. Sorry for the length of this. Thanks ahead time!

Keith

Have you reinstalled your OS? There could be some corruption evident there. If you were to completely reformat your hard drive, reinstall a fresh copy of Windows, and you were still having the problem, test the card in another system. If it works in the other box, then it probably is the motherboard. Did you try clearing your CMOS and resetting BIOS defaults?

You could try Knoppix as a test (see link in my sig). Since it's a CD-bootable Linux (and doesn't muck about with your Windows install), it should be a good hardware test. This should help separate hardware issues from software issues.