System was operating fine until an abnormal shutdown wreaked havoc with my soundcard. On the shutdown, the computer locked up on the "Windows is shutting down" screen. I had to hold the power buttom in to get the computer to shut down.

On the next reboot, the computer no longer recognized the sound card (SB Audigy 2 ZS). Oddly, it did "find" a new "Creative Audigy Audio Processor" and installed it, but the Audigy 2 ZS is gone. When I tried to run any Creative application, it said that it couldn't find the associated hardware.

Next I tried reloading the drivers and sofware from the original disk that came with the sound card. It seemed to install ok (which means that it DID detect the sound card), but after rebooting the computer again, the sound card still wasn't found by the computer or the Creative software.

Next I uninstalled the drivers and the software and rebooted. Now when I try to install the drivers, it says that no sound card is found!!!

I am out of ideas. I don't know if I have a BIOS issue, a Windows issue, or a hardware issue with the sound card....

Any advice would be appreciated.

System Specs:

Pentium IV 3.2 GHz
1 Gig Ram
ASUS P4C800-E motherboard
Radeon 9800 XT video card
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card
Windows XP Pro

An Update -

After leaving the system shut down for a couple of hours, I restarted it to try some more troubleshooting. THIS time the sound card was recognized! In the device list, it was shown as "Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS" instead of "Creative Audigy Audio Processor". I was then able to reinstall the drivers and applications without a problem. The system is working fine at the moment.

I sure would like to know what happened there...

thanks for telling what happened with you
it gives us the experience somehow

Absolutely. I had actually seen in another thread similar to this problem, where very much the same thing happened. I would just like to know if anyone has ever seen this issue and figured out what caused it in the first place. Since I've seen it once now, I wouldn't be suprised to see it again if the sound card or motherboard are going bad...

Yes oddities,,.