Getting rid of Creative Drivers ... X-Fi problems

[ditzilla]

Hello oh great ones. I have a problem.

OK, so had my computer rebuilt (sig) and they put in what they said was a Platinum, but turned out to be an XtremeMusic (SB0460). No disc was sent back with the puter. Also, they did not install the extra software, all I had was the cruddy white "box" audio console (no EQ, etc.). And the card just didn't work right, kept coming up in control panel as X-Fi Audio [9800] plus just lots of problems with front panel not working, mic doing a "lovely" echo or delay.

Was sent an XtremeGamer, in the box with CD. Fine, take old card out, uninstall drivers, put new card in, install drivers and ... in control panel still says Audio [9800]. Uninstall, reinstall, rinse, repeat.

So, having problems, getting those window error messages and just about all of them are CT based - which from what I can find by looking at drivers in Device Mgr is Creative.

What it seems like to me (I could be wrong!) is that when I uninstall the drivers (tried from Device Manager, from Add/Remove Programs and using CCleaner, along with the Creative CD uninstaller for the Gamer) that the drivers for the Gamer are being uninstalled (have no sound - onboard IS disabled in BIOS) ... but the drivers for the other card are somehow still sitting in there - and yes I did uninstall those before putting in the Gamer. After uninstalling there's still a Creative Audio Console sitting in control panel, though it doesn't work if I click on it. And there's Creative folders in c:\Drivers, WINDOWS\system32\, \data\, \drivers\, and the registry HKey-Local Machine, Current User and Root (don't mess with that, just looked). This is after uninstalling the Gamer drivers.

When I reinstall the actual card and boot up, I get the New Hardware bubble, then another that says there's a problem with the hardware device. I've assumed that was because the drivers weren't installed yet.

Someone suggested I use Revo Uninstaller, but I'm hesitant to use anything that might harm my computer.

In the meantime, I'm getting hangs, freezes, sudden CPU going to 100%, can't shut down using C/A/D, have to reset - and about 99% of the time, there's the windows error box and CT whatever is the error.

So, is there a way to completely uninstall everything Creative so I can start from scratch and get my XtremeGamer installed properly ... without having to reformat my entire computer? I'm about to tear my hair out! I do online dj'ing, so I need clear music and mic.

Thanks for any suggestions/help in kinda plain language if possible? Yes, I am noobish with this stuff and I don't want to fubar my computer

 

[Sycraft]

Well if you are willing to drop a small amount of cash ($10) I'd try DriverCleaner.NET. It seems to do a real good job of scrubbing every single last trace of a given driver (you tell it which) from the system.

If you don't want to spend money, you can note the files generating the errors, grab a couple of autoruns from Microsoft, track down where they are being loaded, stop the loading, then find the file and delete it. That is more work though, and requires more technical knowledge.

I picked up DC.net and it seems to work real well. I keep it around for any time a device acts up and I want to reinstall the drivers. Normally if I update a driver, I just install it over top of the old one. However if something goes batty, I uninstall the driver, have DC/net purge it (it always find things life over) and install the new one. That usually clears things up.