Real head scratcher of a sound problem

If you like solving challenging problems, then this thread is for you.

I recently purchased parts for a new system and built it over the weekend. Most things went well and I got the system up and running saturday evening.
By Sunday evening I loaded in my sound drivers and tested out my new soundcard. A Creative X-Fi platinum.
I tested it with headphones only since my speakers were in the other room. Late sunday night I decided to move the new system from the kitchen (where I do all my PC building) to my computer room.
I got it where I wanted it and first thing I did was hook up my speakers. That went well and I tested out all the speakers and everything worked. I listened to a few sample clips and then decided to listen to a cd while I did more optimization.
I turned the unit around since I was done hooking things up. As I was tweaking and loading software I had to restart.
Once I did so and came back I tried to listed to my cd again. Media player told me that no sound device was present.
I tried opening Creatives 'Console launcher' that comes in there cd software package.
Told me no supported audio device was present and did not open.
I went into device manager and found that my soundcard was being detected and had no problems.
I thought perhaps my soundcard was defective and I would have to RMA it. I went into my BIOS and switced on the sound device that came with my Asus MOBO.
I went back into Windows and loaded its drives and tried media player.
No joy
I went into device manager and was told that the AC97 sound card was being detected and had no problems.
Hmm...
So I figured that the Creative card is fine (which is good) and that it must be some sort of Windows problem (which is bad)

I tried a restore point to basicly right after I loaded the Creative cards drivers. Did not work.
I tried it right before and then loaded them again. Same problem

I have tried basicly everything I know to try and get these cards to work. Nothing I do is seeming to work.

So I turn to you for help. I am willing to try anything and no suggestion is too trivial or too 'stupid'
I may be overlooking something small.

Thanks in advance for any help

I suggest a clean reinstall of Windows XP, or barring that, a motherboard replacement should that fail.

Firstly, are you getting the problem only with media player, or are you getting no sound at all in windows ? Also, is this problem only with the speakers, or with the headphones too ?

If the device is being reported in Device Manager, then you could try running the sound tests in dxdiag.

You didn't mention the motherboard model, but it may be worth checking the ASUS site for any known hardware conflicts/incompatabilities. You could also check for BIOS updates whilst you're there.

Also check the System Information to see if there are any conflicts there.

I'd certainly deactivate the onboard sound, remove the drivers and try moving the card to a different slot as previously suggested (reinstalling the latest drivers of course).

Which driver versions are you using for the sound card ? Are these the latest available from the Creative site ?

Personally, I never use the drivers that come on CD with the product, and always go and download the latest drivers from the manufacturer.

If you could provide more detail on your system and OS (we're assuming winxp here I think), then that would help.

Hmm
DXdiag tells me I have no soundcards installed

I have two :?
I have no idea why Windows is not picking up either, I think that is where my problem lies. If I can somehow get windows to pick up my sound devices everthing would be good.

Thanks for the thread

From reading the first page, that is not my problem but I will keep reading it.
The card installed fine and worked for a brief period of time then quit.
What is really confusing me is that Windows also refuses to play anything through my AC97 soundcard either.
It would be extremly unlikely that im having problems with two different devices.
That is why I am pretty convinced it is some sort of windows problem.

Ughh
I tried to update my BIOS through ASUS update. That did not work so I uninstalled the program and tried to reinstall it. It will not install and the error it gives is that it cannot find a motherboard...
Not quite sure what to make of that. This new system is turning into quite a headache

Well, I did not think updating the BIOS would solve the problem.
And sure enough, it did not.

I have the latest SDK installed and its not working either

I will try that, but I doubt it will work.
I am almost convinced this has to be some sort of Windows problem. The onboard sound not working in the exact same fashion as the X-Fi makes me think Windows is to blame.
I tried moving the X-Fi to another PCI slot and the problem still remains.

I will try removing the battery and seeing if that does the trick.
As a last resort I will format and reinstall Windows

I was suggesting that you try and reinstall DirectX. It may be that on of the dx files or registry entries was corrupted.

If you have already tried this, then please ignore this post.

here are somethings you can try.

reinstall directx
try a different media player like winamp
try a linux live cd
try restoring to before you loaded the drivers for the creative card
if you have anouther computer kicking around try plopping the card into that machine and see if you have any problems

although you may have to reload windows from fresh.

i hope these help, although i have been out of the creative loop for a while (since sb live 5.1 era) But that fact that the mobo audio isn't working either and it's the same error sounds like a buggered windows installation.