Creative SB0090 Audigy Platinum Sound Card driver trouble

[konfeta]

Hi, I've been having a couple of weeks of a nasty crashing problem, which started with virtual drivers instability, faulty ram, and overheating graphics card. All factors of those eliminated, and now I am down to multiple crashes of a strange nature.

Specifically, the computer is showing all signs of being healthy and stable, passing all stability tests I threw at it and the memtest for the ramstick. But it crashes, randomly, during video games without regards for the strain on the system by that video game. After asking around, it was determined that the crash isolated to a:

System Error Category (102) Event 1003

Error code 1000008e, parameter1 c0000005, parameter2 f45b7a0f, parameter3 ba4618d8, parameter4 00000000.


According to the guy who examined the only minidump I got from those crashes (I got several, in fact, but this is the only crash that was registered on the system log with a minidump after I put in my single working stick of ram; all others occurred at what I definitely know to be faulty ram now), the crash was caused specifically by this: (the minidump is in the attachment if anyone cares to look at it)

ha10kx2k.sys

Which I was told a driver for the SB0090 Audigy Platinum Sound Card I have in my computer. I tried removing the remnants of the driver fully, using first the control panel, then the device manager, then my software CD with a setup utility that supposedly removes all creative related drivers.

I reinstalled the latest version of the Audigy driver from their website, specifically SBAX_WBUP2_LB_2_09_0016 driver version. At first, I managed to play a game for almost twice as long as it typically took it to crash, but it crashed never the less. Just a distorted looping sound and frozen computer.

Anyone knows of this issue or how to resolve it? The rest of my system is as follows:

PSU: 500 Watt Basiq (antec)
Motherboard: Asus P4PE (6 PCI, 1 AGP, 3 DDR DIMM) ; Intel Brookdale i845PE
CPU: Intel Pentium 4, 2800 MHz (14 x 200)
RAM: 512 MB (PC2700 DDR SDRAM) (Frequency - 333)
Storage: Maxtor 4W100H6 (100 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Storage: WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0 (111 GB, IDE) (OS installed here)
OS: Windows XP; Service Pack 2
GPU: 6600GT NVIDIA
Network Adapter: D-Link AirPlus DWL-G520 Wireless PCI Adapter(rev.B)
BIOS: ASUS P4PE ACPI BIOS Revision 1006

Thank you for the any help you can provide.

*Overall, I am positive that this is a sound card driver issue. Disabling hardware sound acceleration seems to also delay the crash by quite a bit.

 

[raybay]

My guess is that your memory is inadequate for the job. You will do better with 1 GB, or more, and perhaps faster memory.
That board will handle 2 GB, so the more the better. Especially when gaming.

 

[konfeta]

I don't think it's memory. It worked perfectly fine with this ram stick for the last 3 years prior to the replacement of the hard drive.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

In the dump you posted (as you may already be aware) it blames your sound card again. The best I can suggest is to move it to another slot and maybe change it's IRQ. If you can find another set of drivers to try, that might also be worth while.

How do things run in Safe Mode?

 

[konfeta]

The only other set of drivers I am aware of is kX Project, but they say it's tailored for actual musician work, not gaming. I tried searching for older versions of the Creative drivers, but it's a pain to find anything. And I am not sure if I should use the ones that are on the CD, they are exceptionally old.

I think I had it in 2 different slots already. Might as well try a few others. How do I change it's IRQ?

Safe Mode? Dunno, I wasn't aware I could play games in safe mode, doesn't it disable the video drivers? The system itself is perfectly stable, it only crashes specifically during games at random, yet overall consistent timing.

*Actually, in another forum, someone suggested that it could be errors in my graphics card that cause it. Quoting,

What it boiled down to is minute glitches from the graphics card were effecting the bus in such a way that it would cause my soundblaster audigy card (alot of the sound blaster lives were known for having pci timing issues) to throw a fit over it and crash direct3d sound.

Does that hold any water?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Ah, I didn't realize it was purely limited to games, I missed that bit, sorry.

You can alter the IRQ settings via Device Manager.

I can't say whether or not that quote is definitely applicable to your situation, however, something, somewhere is conflicting.

I saw your thread last night at like 4:30AM here, I was too tired to get into a deep post so I just passed on it. However, when I was looking around I recall seeing a thread on WoW forums that was virtually identical to your situation, however, the issue was claimed to be limited to multiple core CPU's so I didn't see the relevance.

 

[konfeta]

Well, this is fun. Changed my graphics card to a new one (radeon), changed the ram to new sticks, and changed sound drivers to Kx, and the crash still persists. Move around the sound card, still the crash persists.

So.... What the hell? What else is left?

What else can I do short of formatting the computer and starting over again...

*If something, somewhere is conflicting, could it be the Legacy drivers and the other crap Windows auto-installs and doesn't allow to disable? How do I remove those?