On Tue, 18 Mar 2008 03:43:49 -0400, E
<eddie180@xlxoxcxaxlxnxextx.com> wrote:


>>> No, the SoundBlaster is still using the 2001 dated driver that that comes
>>> with a Windows XP install. Windows Update has a newer one dated 2003. This
>>> might fix the problem, but I'm afraid to chance it now. I've read about
>>> Creative drivers being buggy.
>>
>> 1) MS does not write your CL sound card driver. When
>> Windows was first installed, unfortunately MS thrust that
>> old driver upon you, it would have been better if MS never
>> bundled any driver and you (or whoever installed the OS) had
>> instead gotten the then-current driver from Creative.
>
>Yes, I didn't think MS wrote it. But I read somewhere in the past that
>the CL sound card driver bundled with XP install disk was stable.

I'm sure they made a best effort to make it so, but if it
was ok would they release newer versions?


>If the
> old CL was indeed the culprit I am glad to have finally identified it,
>and have learned a lesson on that as well.

Nothing is identified yet, just don't be afraid to try a
newer driver. In general you should not use any drivers
that came with windows if you have a newer alternative.
That extends past the sound card to all other parts of the
system.


>
>I have the same card in my old system, and it hasn't causes any obvious
>problems running Windows XP. Works fine in Linux too it seems. But the
>Linux Sound Blaster driver is part of ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound
>Architecture) written by open source contributors.

It may not be the sound card, but if it were obvious at
first then there'd not be a problem, right? Trying a few
things is the remaining course.


>I also had 'Plug and Play aware OS' set to NO in the BIOS. I changed it
>to YES. I don't know if that makes any difference now, or would have, in
>the past.
>
>>
>> 2) Letting Windows Update take control of this would be
>> doubly bad since you lose more control of what the default
>> fallback driver is, versus having nothing associated after
>> uninstalling an official Creative driver.
>
>If MS didn't write the Creative Labs sound card driver bundled with the
>XP install disk, then wouldn't this driver from Windows Update be a CL
>written driver as well?

Yes, but that makes it at best as recent as what CL has to
offer and at worst, an older buggier driver. It isn't
exactly new now, 2004, let alone 2001 was eons ago in a
computer timeline.

>>
>> You should make a backup of the OS, so in worst case you
>> just revert back to how it was before any changes are made,
>> then download and install the latest XP driver from
>> Creative's website, not Windows Update.
>
>After I read what you say here, I went to Creative's site, and they
>apparently have a different driver for a Soundblaster 5.1 from Dell.

I had wondered about that but didn't write anything because
my memory of the difference and which sound card model was
vague. I know at least one Dell card was seemingly named to
be the same model but didn't have some hardware support that
the retail card did, so it needed to do some soft processing
from a different driver - although it wouldn't have been
uncommon for CL to have just merged all the files for both
types of cards into one installer then the installer
identifies the card and installs the appropriate files for
it.


>This SB 5.1 is indeed from her old Dell Dimension 4100. When I selected
>my SB Live! 5.1 Digital (Dell) through Creative's menu system I was
>eventually taken to a page that told me, "Please note that the product
>you have selected has been classified as 'End of Service Life'". With no
>apparent option to download a driver. I then went to Dell's site looking
>for the driver and they have no option to select Windows XP as the
>operating system for the Dell Dimension 4100. So it seems I was stuck
>with Microsoft supplied drivers, or doing a web search to find
>something. The common SB Live! 5.1's latest driver at Creative's site is
>dated 2003, like the driver on at Windows Update.

You might have some luck with a Google search like,
http://www.google.com/search?q=Live+5.1+Dell+driver
maybe throwing the word "XP" in as well.

2003 is an entire year, not a driver version number which is
what you'd need to compare them. Also there can be some
lag, when a driver is posted it may not be posted at both
the manufacturer's site and windows update simultaneously.

>
>I think I might have went through this when I first built the system,
>and just settled for the bundled driver. A poor decision I suppose. I
>wanted her to keep the SB Live! 5.1 because I thought it would provide
>better gaming performance.
>
>It doesn't much matter now though. I have removed the Sound Blaster 5.1,
>a TI chipset Firewire card that I had transfered from the old Dell,
>moved critical data to the designated data partition, reformatted the C
>partition, installed XP from scratch, enabled onboard SoundMax hardware
>and installed its latest driver from Asus.
>
>I did the clean install because AVG Anti-virus has detected several
>viruses over the last few months (although I don't think they where the
>cause of the fatal stop errors and blue screens).

It feels like we've been missing some critical info here.
Why wouldn't a virus be a suspect? Just because AVG can't
find anything now isn't always telling, some of them mutate
and let's face it, the ultimate goal of the virus writer is
for their creation not to be detected unless they want it to
be so, and AVG is a pretty popular AV due to being free so
any savvy malware writer would check whether AVG can detect
their payload.

I'm not suggesting it's probably a virus, could still be a
driver or something else.

Better question now is how did they get onto the system as
this is a potential security hole (even if a user opening
email with attachments) that needs closed to ensure a secure
environment.


>Plus there was some
>spyware, and three tool bars on the system. Could have stripped it all
>away with Ad-Aware. But I was worried about viruses that AVG may not
>have detected.

Yes, I've came across plenty of systems AVG couldn't clean,
some of the more aggressive viri will copy themselves
everywhere as fast as anything can find them, even have
separate threads just monitoring whether anything happened
to each (other) so if you or AVG gets rid of a file the
alternate thread just replaces it again. Real PITA to
clean, can take as much time as doing a clean install or
more, considering it's time spent at the keyboard instead of
letting the windows installer run unattended.



>>> I have the Asus Probe software installed now. Its running pretty cool, but
>>> the case is open and there is no load, exept for me typing on the keyboard.
>>>
>>
>> Hopefully this is correct, but on occasion Asus Probe has
>> been known to not be accurate for any given board. You
>> might double-check what the bios health/hardware monitor
>> screen displays for temps, though for CPU it may be a little
>> higher reading in the bios because the bios doesn't have
>> Halt-Idle cooling mechanism like Windows does.
>
>Yes, Asus probe read 33C at idol, while the environmental monitor in the
>BIOS measured 38C. I'll wait and see. Hopefully I won't get another call
>saying "it blue screened again". When I hooked her system back up at
>here place, I noticed the lights dim for a split second when I turned
>the system on, or even when I flipped the switch on the power strip.
>Hopefully not more cause for problems and will ruin my reputation as the
>family system builder.


Quite a few systems with a fair amount of capacitance in the
PSU will momentarily dim the lights due to inrush current to
the caps. Not a big deal so long as the (household) wiring
isn't intermittent which would tend to effect more than just
the PC.

You haven't mentioned if windows was fully patched (or I
overlooked it), there might be something more fundamental
wrong with windows itself as we do know it's windows after
all, plenty of things that don't effect everyone slip
through the cracks.

The clean OS installation was probably the best start
towards a solution, but if it ends up bluescreening once
every month or some similarly infrequent period then just
explain that they need to try more to isolate what the
common variable is each time it does, isolating something
that is rare and intermittent is difficult enough on a
simple electro/electronic/mechanical system let alone a PC
running windows.