HELP!! Serious Problem with Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1

[superconfused00]

Someone PLEASE help me. I'm running Windows 2000 Pro, and have a 1.4 GHz T-bird, Asus A7M266 mobo, and a Gladiac 920 (GeForce 3) video card. I started off with a Hercules Gaming Theater XP, but between the four non-functioning USB ports, the incessant "explorer.exe" error, and finally having absolutely no sound at all, I got a Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1.

An hour or two after installing it things started freezing. I click Tribes, get to the choice of Online or Single Player, and if I make that choice my computer just freezes, Ctrl+Alt+Del doesn't work, the mouse won't move, etc. No blue screen, just frozen. Same with an SNES emulator program, and upon opening mpeg movies. Internet Explorer and Winamp still worked, and I still got sound from Windows.

I reformated the harddrive, reinstalled all the drivers, and again downloaded all of the Win2k Pro updates. I even played Tribes 2 once, as well as my emulator. Then I tried to watch an mpeg movie, and it froze after half a second. I rebooted, suddenly found that Tribes2 and the emulator both froze now too. I tried uninstalling the three things I found in Hardware manager that were from the sound card, but now there's no sound and the games still freeze. All along Windows had a question mark on my Multimedia Audio Controller, and even after searching the installation CD-ROM with the Live! drivers, no suitable drivers could be found.

I've checked the Live! website and both times had all of the firmware and the single driver update installed before using any other programs. Didn't see any issues like this on their small Tech Support FAQ. Anyone have any advice? This is my second sound card and I want to get it working. PLEASE help me!

[-=kenshin=-]

wow someone with nearly the same configuration as i do except that i dont' have a 5.1 i just have a live value...apparently some of my friends have been telling me that the sb live series cards do not go well or not really compatible with the a7m mobo cuz of the chipset, even with vias 4in1 drivers they told me there are sometimes conflicts i believe your in that situation rite now...have u actually tried d/l the via 4in1 drivers, u can find them at download.com or viahardware.com also the agp miniport driver helps from amd *thought i just might add that* if u got both of those and still issues than the problem lies with your on board audio or something, i too have a question mark beside my pc audio in the device manager, i believe it's something to do with in the bios, actually u shud try to flash it...disable the audio in the bios and i think it shud work...i have yet to have time to go do that...but if anyone else can suggest something to fix this problem pls do cuz for some reason in the middle of watching a dvd with power dvd ver 2.55 it just dies, 20mins into the dvd i lose sound for no apparent reason, and the video quality is pretty bad i have to use elsa's own cinaviewer to view dvds *hhas yet to deterimine what the problem is but beleives it has something to do with that ? in the device manager beside the pc audio*...anyhow dude give that a try and tell me what happens

[Un4given]

That board uses the VIA 686B southbridge. You could be experiencing the issues that were associated with the Live cards and this southbridge. You may want to check the Asus web site for a BIOS update.

There is also the possibility that you have a configuration problem. Have you looked in your manual to see if the PCI slot you are using is shared, and if so, with what?

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Knight for the OC Crusaders

P3 700@1001 (143x7.0 1.85V)
Abit VH6-II w/256MB PC150 (2-2-2)
Radeon 64MB VIVO 200/200
SBLive! Value
13.5GB & 30GB Maxtor ATA100 (5400RPM)
Memorex 36X CD-ROM/TDK 8x4x32 CD-RW

[-=kenshin=-]

the issue still exists for me even after i flashed the bios

[KnickNut3]

I had the same problem, except I have the KT7A-RAID mobo (same chipset). I flashed the BIOS, which added new PCI options to help that specific problem. It helped, but I still lock up randomly, and the music skips and loops. BIOS options were the root of the problem, but it still exists.

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KnickNut3
My PC... built but still somewhat unstable... wish me luck!
1.2GHz Athlon Thunderbird 266MHz FSB
Abit KT7A Motherboard
256MB PC133 Crucial RAM
LeadTek Winfast2 64MB Geforce2 GTS
Maxtor 40GB HD
NEC MultiSync FP950 19"
Pioneer 16x DVD-ROM
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 X-Gamer
DTT2200 Desktop Theatere
Wingman Gamepad
Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad
Windows Optical Mouse
Countless man hours to come...

[superconfused00]

I have the via 4in1 already installed, as well as the miniport update. I've heard there is a BIOS upgrade, but when I use the Asus upgrader that came with the mobo, it says it can't find any on the Asus site.

[-=kenshin=-]

ok at least now i know it isn't just me cuz i thought i damaged my mobo once when i accidently unplugged my cpu fan *really stupid mistake of me* and i took my cpu up to 90 degrees without knowing it lol for 10mins probably...i have a hearing problem so i didn't hear my fan whether it was going or not so phooey, at least my cpu still works heheh