Had quite the hassle with our sound that all of a sudden was gone, as well as our drivers for SBL. Also was missing a .dll and others. In short, updating and reinstalling worked to no avail. Windows was unable to find the drivers on my SBL CD. I finally tried "using disk" in the install process. Drivers showed up under "Creative", began installing and then was told that these drivers don't seem compatible (not exactly in those words.) I continued the install, and then my screen went black. I had to reboot with the power bar switch. Windows booted, updated drivers, and now my SBL card is recognized and all the software with it works, except I have no sound coming out of the speakers. What shall I do now- reinstall SBL stuff from the CD, or will that put me back to square one? System Information says everything is okay and all the drivers are there.

Check through the control panel for your sound card (usually right clicking the speaker icon in the sys tray) and make sure nothing is muted, also click on the Multimedia applet in the Control Panel (Windows main control panel) and make sure that your playback device is actually set to your sound card.

Great news! I ended up removing the Sound Card and reseated it into another slot. Windows took over with the installation of drivers and all is well. Wonder why moving it is what made the difference?

sonni,

You might want to boot into SAFEMODE and check in DEVICE MANAGER under the Sound, Video and Game Controllers. After clicking on the (+) Look for double entries of the devices listed there. If you see any doubles...REMOVE them. (meaning, if you find 2 of something, remove both) REBOOT and let Windows find and direct to the reinstall.

Also, check under Add/Remove programs while there (if you found double entries in Device Manager) and Remove the SB Program.

There is a potential for "ghost" (double entry) drivers to appear when you change slots, or when you have difficulties installing, as you mentioned. "Ghost" drivers can slow your machine up, and/or, possibly create conflicts you might yet discover opening other programs.

Or, you can leave well enough alone...