Fortissimo III 7.1 driver issues

Ok folks here's my dilema. I recently purchased a nice new flashy Hercules Fortissimo III 7.1 sound card. Got it in the mail yesterday. Ok I get home, remove all my SB Audigy crud from my system, then install the Fortissimo. It's all good. Booter up, WinXP recognises the card as a Crystal SoundFusion card. Well I have sound. Once again it's all good.

Ok, so I go to the Hercules website and download the latest and greatest drivers for the Fortissimo III card. A nice 14.xMB download. Hey no problem, I'm happy it's working. Well the file is finished and I proceed to install the new drivers. It asks me to disconnect from the net, ok no problem. I do so, the installation continues. It puts everything in a nice folder on my system (c:\program files\hercules\audio\Crystal Sound Cards). Ok I'm thinking great it's installed, didn't ask me for a reboot... hmmm odd. Ok so I reboot on my own.

XP starts backup.. I hear my startup P51 fly by.. cool all is good. Now I look at my system tray and there is nothing in the system tray for the control panel for the sound card, no new program groups in the start menu, no app in the control panel itself. When I open up Sounds and Audio Devices Properties it shows:

(I'm trying to remember the correct entries, I'm at work)
Crystal Sound Card Game Port
Crystal Sound Audio
Crystal Sound Card WDM

In Device Manager: Sound, Video and Game Controllers I get the same thing. I've tried doing an Add Hardware then doing an add hardware manually and then show all. I can choose Hercules Fortissimo III 7.1 and install it. Everything installs but I have a problem with the WDM portion. I always have conflicts with the Hercules Fortissimo III 7.1 WDM.

My question is this .. has anyone had a problem like this with the Fortissimo III or with a Hercules card before? I've tried contacting their tech support but have yet to recieve a reply, tried joining their forum and haven't recieved my password yet. I'm so frustrated right now.. I have never had a problem like this with any other peripherial.

Here's my system spec:

AMD Athlon 1.3Ghz
Abit KT7 VIA Chipset
512MB Memory
ATI Radeon 8500
Netgear NIC
Sony 48x24x48 CDRW
Sony DVD-ROM
DirectX 9.0

Uninstall the new drivers. Then install the drivers that came with the card. See if they work okay. If they're okay then try the new drivers.

To start press any key. Where's the "any" key? --Homer Simpson.