Upgraded my system but kept my sound card...not getting sound now

Take it out. You don't need a sound card. Modern integrated sound is excellent; you won't be able to tell the difference. Sell it if you can, unless you have some giant headphones that need extra amplification.

If I take it out and use onboard, doesn't that take valuable resources? The card has Xram also.

I think DD/DTS is not working cause I see, " The creative audio service is not started. Please reinstall the application. (this is in encoder on Auzentech Forte.

the difference is negligible. maybe 1-2% of the cpu cycles will be set aside for audio. if your system has a decent gap between the gfx card and cpu then 1-2% will hardly be noticeable if at all.
thing is all you say is its a pci-e x1 card.. without the make and model we cant really tell exactly if your card supports off cpu, hardware audio processing anyway. most cards under 60 pounds dont. anything less than a xfi-Xtreme gamer wont support off cpu encoding so you will be using cpu cycles to run the card and run audio, resulting in a 3-5% hit.

i also had this issue when i installed win7 on my old system... i had to remove the card entirley. install windows. reboot and allow it to update then refit the card and basically fresh install it. my model is the xfi Xtreme gamer.

I did, look at my response to Kajabla. Auzentech Forte. I think I caught it. nbelievable, 3:53am and I finally catch the problem.
1- Took it off the SSD
2- Went to Auzentech's website and got the latest driver and made sure it said Windows 7.
3- Hooked up my Velociraptor and formated it.
4- Saved the driver on the Velociraptor.
5- restarted
6- Went into Forte's audio program, this time was able to turn on DTS Decoding/DD and sure enough....BAMMMMM; sound is back!

Now that's a learning expierence  

There you go. There'll be more, don't worry  

Glad you figured it out and downloaded the latest driver version.
I haven't had a problem with that card in 2+ yrs.
The difference in audio quality is night and day over onboard.

That's a viewpoint I've never heard before. What's the difference?

Kaj, from what I heard, the Forte's 64 XRAM is different than the XRAM on the SB's. It's more efficient. I'd have to dig to find it. I love the Forte. Best investment in a sound card and yes, I bought this card 2 1/2 years ago. Im surprised it's already "deactivated" on Newegg. I wonder what took it's place in Auzentech. No bloated software also. DD/DTS sounds incredible. When Im playing Civ 5....the sound quality is fantastic.

Davcon, funny how the lightbulb went on over my head   Not to be gross but I figured out what I did wrong while I was taking care of nature calling lol. I totally forgot in the newegg feedback that many were reporting issues with the card with Windows 7 and I wasn't sure if the driver on the disc had Windows 7 because I previously had VIsta. I went on Auzentech;s website, found the latest driver (9/9/11) and downloaded it. For some reason Windows kept on loading HD audio speakers and I thought that was the conflict but then I thought maybe it's reading the digital speakers (Logitech 5500 5.1 speakers) as HD audio because I shut off onboard sound already. Then I think I forgot to delete EVERything on the SSD. I only deleted the drivers and not DD/DTS etc. I did that, downloaded and installed the newest driver (after restart) and thought; eh, I can leave it on the velociraptor. Sure enough, after that; I was able to go into the Forte's main sound program and this time I was able to click DTS and BAMM, sound was back! LOL, that was probably the most difficult issue I ever had next to the underclocking of RAM by my previous system and BSODs that issue was causing.

I'm loving my new system  I must say, where was Asus all my life. What a difference between EVGA and Gigabyte! I love Asus!

I think you should try with the card and with integrated sound, with someone else randomly switching it on and off, and see if you can actually call whether the card's on. If you can call it pretty reliably, a long-held belief of mine will be shattered, but I'd be surprised.

cool. glad you fixed it... learning is part of owning a pc and every day if your lucky or unlucky depending on how you look at it, it will teach you something new... 31 years and im still learning