I recently moved my PC. I packed it up and set it up again, and connected all my peripherals. Everything works fine except my sound card. Its a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2ZS Gamer edition card I bought in 2003. It has never given me any problems. When I booted up after I set up my computer it worked for like 2 minutes then all of a sudden stopped. I reinstalled all the applications and drivers FOUND on Creative's CDs that came with my sound card. I even updated the drivers. The thing is that I dont think it is the card. I can play the sample DVD Audio file that comes up on the splash screen when my PC boots up. When I run dxdiag I can play sound when I hit the "Test Direct Music Option." However, I can't play any direct sounds including cd playback, audio playback, or midi playback.....in short I have no sound at all, not even the system sounds. I tried installing my motherboard sound drivers...did not fix the problem. I THINK IT'S A WINDOWS PROBLEM. When I run Control Panel and look at Sounds and Audio Devices everything is grayed out. There are no playback devices listed as default. My sound card is listed under audio devices in the device manager which means the drivers are installed. I can't run Audio HQ. The error message says that I'm missing some audio driver. I can't run any of the SoundBlaster software. When I try to run THX console it says that I have an incompatible sound driver.

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE I CAN FIND THE IN-BOX AUDIO DRIVERS THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO COME WITH WINDOWS? I think mine got corrupted or overwritten somehow. I tried searching microsoft's sites but I have no clue where they are. The only thing I can think of now is upgrading from Home to Professional edition to get the new drivers. HELP ANYONE?Try-These-Drivers Thanx...but no DICE. I tried all the Audigy2ZS drivers out there including the brand new ones from their site that are even more up to date than the ones you gave me. I really think that it's a Windows problem. Here is a post from someone else that adresses my problem and a possible solution:

Joker08 ~ Your issue stems from SP2 and Windows C-Media Audio '97. This problem is a result of new C-Media driver(s) pushed from SP2 update. To my knowledge MS hasn't resolved their SP 2 C-Media corrupted patch. When you try to uninstall:[right click my computer > Manage > Devices >] do you see any device errors? If not when you uninstall all of your audio devices and reboot the problem still exists. If you can't roll back the driver, the new push from SP 2 reloads and the problem is more frustrating than before because that should have fixed the problem. INORDER to "fix" the problem you will have to edit the registry. When you go to Control Panel to sounds and audio, are the speaker settings "grayed out"? Do you see Realtek AC97 Audio displayed? If any of this sounds like your issue let me know and I'll give you a registry edit....

Can I try to solve this some other WAY than a regedit? I know that it is risky. Can I upgrade from XP Home to XP Pro to solve my problem?http://www.free-codecs.com/download/VIA_Vinyl_Audio_Codec.htm

try this.Does your computer even recognize the sound card??

if not, then it would definetaly be worthwhile to open up the computer case and try to reseat the sound card.I'm sure that the computer recognizes the card. It can even play the DVD Audio sample from the splash scren that comes up after I install the card. My Creative Audio speakers are plugged into the ports in the back of the card and sound plays when I play the sample. The problem is windows. All I can think of now is reinstalling windows. I don't mind WIPING my drive but I don't want to spend the money on a new OS. I have my disk but not the key. Is there any way of finding out the CD key from my installed Windows?Go to Start/Run and type in sfc /scannow and hit Enter.
Let it run til it finishes.
This does not require o product code key
Re-boot and see what happens...i remember that this problems occured to a number of computers using creative sound cards.

i re-call it was something to do with your sound settings.

check the sound output.

i rememeber there were a few choices and only one of them worked.

sorry for being so vague, but i think it's worth a shot.