computer won't start up

T

Titanium

New Member
I need help badly.

I decided to buy a sound card for my computer. I install it and boot up the system. I place the CD that contains drivers and everything and installed them. I also installed a driver update. So I restart my system. It boots up fine. I place the plug from my speakers into the card, and a loud static noise comes up. The computer crashes and I get the blue screen of death. I immediately take the plug out of the sound card. I turn my computer back on, and now Windows won't load anymore. I get to the Windows XP logo screen, and it freezes at that point. I've restarted the system many times, and each time it freezes. I'm not sure what to do anymore. Should I remove the sound card, leave it in, what?
 
You probably saw a bad install of drivers the first time around. The first step now since Windows is seeing the BSOD is to boot up in safe mode and remove the drivers/sofware for the new card. Right as the post tests end press the F8 key for the Windows boot menu. Sometimes you hit the F8 key repeatedly to see the menu screen.

When first installing the card driver's and software from the disk you boot the system then to see the drivers fully installed. By rushing for an update prior to seeing the original drivers fully installed some clash was apparently seen there. If you are simply going to go for the update then install only that since the original have to be removed when any update goes as part of the process.
 
OK, I boot up in Safe Mode, uninstall the drivers and applications, and then I reinstalled it all from the CD. I restart my computer. The Windows XP logo sign appears along with the status bar at the bottom. However, nothing happens. The bar just keeps on moving for minutes. So I turned off the computer and started it up again. After the BIOS, I come to this screen that asks me if I should Start Windows Normally, start Windows at its Last Known Good Configuration, or go to Safe Mode. Except for safe mode, I still can't get past the Windows XP logo screen. It freezes at that point.
 
I have tried that. When I do that, nothing happens. The Windows XP logo screen appears, and the blue dots in the bar continue to move. But there isn't any other activity after that.
 
Safe Mode works. Uninstalled everything labeled Creative from the control panel. All that remained was product registration. Rebooted the PC. That time, windows did boot up. Now, do you suggest that I reinstall the drivers through the CD or from the website? I don't want this to happen again. Perhaps make a system restore too?
 
Yes, do an System Restore, if that does not work try to see if the card is having an conflict with another piece of hardware.
 
The first time saw the obvious conflict between the cd version and the update's attempts at finishing the installation for each. That was a software clash seen there. With everything removed you may want to go for the update if you had originally selected the correct one to begin with. If unsure simply stay with the driver set and software from the disk.

That should avoid seeing problems. Which slot is the sound card installed in? If you are running an AGP not PCI-E card move it to the second pci slot with XP to avoid XP's resource sharing issue. That was seen alot with older SP1 as well as some SP2 installations on older boards but may be present there. Also make sure the onboard sound is disabled in the bios to avoid conflict with that.
 
It's in a PCI slot. I did install from the CD, but it is creating problems for me. I think the computer recognizes it, but the message says that it may not work properly. Sure enough when I plug the speakers in, no sound comes out. I did disable onboard sound. Maybe I should just install that driver update?
 
You can go for the update after seeing the original set and software removed and a reboot to have Windows perform a fresh detection on it. Hopefully you didn't receive a bad card giving you the headache there. When going with the X-FI XtremeAudio model for the new build I had some fight with sound problems while Windows still loaded normally.

The drivers for that model did go right on for both XP and Vista here. Do you have any firewalls, antivirus, or IE protection programs running? Often those can cause installation problems when adding new hardwares.
 
Ugh...these drivers are giving me a headache. I install from the CD and then restart the computer when everything is installed. It finds the new hardware called Multimedia Audio Control, and a popup box comes up asking if I want to install the software for it. I hit yes from the CD, and the whole computer freezes at that point. So I had to uninstall everything from Safe Mode, and I'm back to where I started. The same problem comes up with the driver from the website....system freezes.

I'm beginning to wonder if I should just burn the data onto a blank CD and try there. Maybe just a corrupted CD?
 
I've been having some fun with the drivers for the XtremeAudio on the new build here where I see two popups and hear the wav files assigned to critical stop right when reaching the desktop. There I ran RegCleaner to remove any now useless items and manually removed two Creative entries to see if that helps any. Having just downloaded all MS updates plus optional for softwares and hardwares totally over 90 the idea was to see what lingered from going from the origiinal to the updates leaving some loose entires in the registry. So far so good until the next reboot.

The updates can be saved rgiht into folders you create on your own in case the disk is bad or was smudged up or scratched from handling. The Windows update page when using the custom not express update does the same thing when going for the optional updates for softwares and hardwares where you still see that replace the original. I would try totally removing the drivers/software there to grab an update. But do this after a good run of a registry cleaner to see anything stuck in the reg gone first.

RegCleaner itself works well but is a little different to look at. When you click on the icon the main window is not for cleaning but shows all non MS apps and games main reg keys in plain sight. The automatic registry cleaning tool is found in "tools" on the menu bar and opens another menu to the right when that is selected. Usually I simply use the "do them all" option except for the problem seen here where the automatic cleaner is the one to use there. That's free at http://www.dewassoc.com/support/useful/regcleaner.htm

That one there works just as well on Vista as it does on 98! Another popular cleaner CCleaner to be exact also known as the "crapcleaner" apparently has a registry cleaner in that as well as being able to clean up useless temp folders and clear the IE history. That's another freeware found at http://www.ccleaner.com/
 
Well, I think I got a bit further in this today. The software from the CD has been installed, but there still is one problem. I get a message that says "The audio device supported by this application is not detected. The application will exit."
The application is the audio console. And when I go to the Device Manager, there's a yellow exclamation mark by Multimedia Audio Controller.
 
Which model do you have there? I've been running smack into problems with the Xtreme Audio model on the new build here where I will see two messages come up when first reaching the desktop while everything else seems to work well except no sound mixer for adjusting levels as well as bass, tremble, and the old Audigy line's equalizer option.

I'm about ready to tear this one out and go for another Audigy 4 Pro with things that work. This is despite removing everything and seeing either the original or update used. In the device manager with the Audigy line you could easily right click on the yellowed out audio controller and browse the driver folder on the disk or where an update unpacked itself.

The auto updater on one try installed a Vista update on XP? That one threw me fast when seeing that one! The newer models seem to be seeing far more software/driver problems the way the newer stuff is written. Give me back the old Sound Blaster thank you! :rolleyes:
 
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