Strange problem with Win2k, X800, SB Live! 24bit and Brother printer

[MrGaribaldi]

Hello

Got a bit of pc trouble I hope you can help me with..
I put it here, as it involves several different parts of the system, and could very well be windows related...


I've got an almost clean system, clean install about 2 weeks ago, but it's got a few problems which are really annoying...

The system:
A64 3000+ on MSI Neo Plat (754) with 1GB DDR400 (brand) with an X800pro and SB Live! 24 bit (pci), printer Brother HL1430.
Software: Windows 2000 pro SP4, Cat 5.5, Brother driver 1.59, Creative drivers found on the net

Games affected: Unreal 2k4, Delta Force Xtreme demo.

First problem was finding drivers for my soundcard, as they are not listed on creatives site. Found a set ripped from the original cd which I downloaded and installed. And it worked.

Everything went fine (or at least UT2k4 did) until I installed my printer driver. Then suddenly my sound disappeared. Winamp told me I got a corrupted D3d sound driver. Uninstalling and then reinstalling got it back, but now my printer doesn't work. Ok, I play more games than I print, so I left it like that.

Enter next problem.
When playing custom maps or custom mods in UT2k4, ATI's VPU recovery kicked in and my system went black. Ok, I figure it's just a bug in the mod (strange though, as it is endorsed by epic) but oh, well...
Disabling the vpu recovery seems to fix the problem.

Next, I try the Delta Force Xtreme demo and it too starts the vpu recovery (which incidentally is supposed to be disabled).
Actually, it doesn't only start vpu recovery, but also starts to install ATI's drivers...

Now DrWatson kicks in and tell me that and "Application exception occurred" with Idriver.exe.

This has been going on for a few hours now, and I've not been able to find out what is really the cause...

Could it be the flaky Creative drivers, SB Live! 24bit is a POS card made originally for Dell, but is now sold in Europe. Or is it a bug in the Cat 5.5? (I seem to get a few of those every now and then)
Or is it something completely different?

The IDriver.exe is located under
"D:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\8\Intel 32\IDriver.exe"
which I find a bit strange since I'm on and AMD system, but it could also be something more generic...

It does seem to be connected to DirectX, as Wolfenstein:ET works like a charm...

Any tips, ideas or suggestions are appreciated...
(I'm willing to buy a new soundcard if that's what it takes)

Thank you for reading

 

[RealBlackStuff]

One of my W2K/SP4 installations with all updates, (ported from AMD XP1900 to AMD64-3000 through mobo-change) has this under Driver\7\Intel 32\IDriver.exe
IDriver from 04/10/2002, size=626,688

A new instance (from about a month ago) of W2K/SP4 with all updates, on the same PC, does not have that Driver directory at all, so it is NOT part of W2K.
Both have DirectX 9.0c.

I don't have any games at all, so one of them seems to be your source.

Never was happy with SB cards, they are poorly constructed and have bloated drivers.
Nowadays I just rely on the on-board sound (5.1) from my Abit-AV8.

 

[MrGaribaldi]

Ok, good point..

I got the card for HL2 to use for a surround setup, and it did it's job. Not very much better than what my onboard does (but that's more to do with both of them doing most in software). And as for the drivers... I once promised to stay away from Creative hardware due to their drivers, but fell for the temptation with HL2... Guess I'll just rip it out and use the onboard sound...


As for it being the games causing it, a development today made a bit unsure... Whilst playing Frag Ops (ut2k4), i got the regular VPU recovery, selected don't send, and kept on playing. Everything went good until I exited the game and loaded up NS 8. Which was a mistake. Complete graphics corruption.
A restart later, I notice that my graphics adapter seems to have a problem with NS when it's launching, and my system hangs from time to time when loading several tabs and switching between them...

Thus I'm leaning towards it not being a game problem, but generally a system problem Hopefully changing soundcard will fix it, and perhaps a regression to Cat 5.4. If that doesn't cut it, NS8 is out of there...

Thanks for the input RBS

EDIT: AS for the IDriver.exe crash, it seems that's a known bug...