How to uninstall sound card without the software?

My Santa Cruz sound card from Turtle Beach recently went out spectacularly on my Dell Dimension 8100. I considered myself lucky to have found a supposedly new Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 CS PCI sound card that is compatible with my Windows 98SE operating system. In my haste to install it, I neglected to first uninstall the Santa Cruz software. The new sound card installation appeared to have completed and passes the Creative diagnostics, but there is no sound. Could there be Santa Cruz drivers or other software interfering with my new sound card?

There is a "Santa Cruz Control Panel" that still shows up in the Control Panel (it only says that Santa Cruz is not detected if I try to double click on it). There are no Santa Cruz entries under sound, video, game controllers in the Device Manager. There is still a Turtle Beach folder under the Program Files folder with Santa Cruz Control Panel and Drivers folders. There are no Santa Cruz programs listed in the add/remove programs part of the Control Panel. Unfortunately, I don't have any Santa Cruz installation software. Is there anything I can do short of wiping the hard drive and reinstalling everything?

I'm also wondering if I made a mistake during the Sound Blaster installation at the point where Windows was doing its part and advised me that I had newer versions already installed of drivers than some of the ones that I was installing off of the Sound Blaster cd. I accepted the Windows advice to leave the more recent driver versions in place. I tried to repeat the installation, but didn't get another pop-up with that question. Should I completely uninstall Sound Blaster and try re-installing it, this time declining to keep the newer driver versions?

One last question: the replacement sound card showed up in a Zip-loc bag, without any anti-static protection and with the cd inside the bag without a sleeve. The bracket that secures the card to the case was bent and the cd is scratched, so I was amazed when it seemed that the installation appeared to complete without any errors. Is it possible there still was damage either to the card or the cd that didn't show up with the built-in diagnostics application?

Sorry for the long post and much gratitude to anyone who can advise me on this obsolete hardware/software issue!
 
https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/dimension-8100/manuals
http://ccftp.creative.com/manualdn/Manuals/TSD/2380/Audigy2.pdf

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 CS? or do you mean.. 'ZS' (SB0350)? looks like ZS to me.

Scratched CD? could be an issue. You may wish to search for alternative copy if things don't work out

Bracket? can be removed and trued up as needed if you are 'handy'. I usually correct the worst and leave the rest... as long as good insertion in PCI slot, it should be 'ok'. While zip-lock is not preferred packaging, unless it has been zapped, it should be 'ok' - can't tell at this stage of 'installation'.

Uninstall the Sound Blaster in software and physically.

Device Manager - first things first - start DEVMGR in admin mode. Click VIEW tab and SHOW HIDDEN DEVICES. Remove left over Sound Blaster and Santa Cruz elements.

Restart.

Then, in admin mode, run System File Checker ( http://www.helpwithwindows.com/windows98/start-142.html )

Restart.

Now, try to install your Sound Blaster

Um, hope it works.. 20 year old system, components and software.. who knows?!? I cannot help but wonder what you are running that needs such an antique.

There does seem to be a bit of a market still...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Turtle-Bea...640449?hash=item3fc24b1641:g:EGIAAOSwRG1c14Rh
 
https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/dimension-8100/manuals
http://ccftp.creative.com/manualdn/Manuals/TSD/2380/Audigy2.pdf

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 CS? or do you mean.. 'ZS' (SB0350)? looks like ZS to me.

Scratched CD? could be an issue. You may wish to search for alternative copy if things don't work out

Bracket? can be removed and trued up as needed if you are 'handy'. I usually correct the worst and leave the rest... as long as good insertion in PCI slot, it should be 'ok'. While zip-lock is not preferred packaging, unless it has been zapped, it should be 'ok' - can't tell at this stage of 'installation'.

Uninstall the Sound Blaster in software and physically.

Device Manager - first things first - start DEVMGR in admin mode. Click VIEW tab and SHOW HIDDEN DEVICES. Remove left over Sound Blaster and Santa Cruz elements.

Restart.

Then, in admin mode, run System File Checker ( http://www.helpwithwindows.com/windows98/start-142.html )

Restart.

Now, try to install your Sound Blaster

Um, hope it works.. 20 year old system, components and software.. who knows?!? I cannot help but wonder what you are running that needs such an antique.

There does seem to be a bit of a market still...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Turtle-Bea...640449?hash=item3fc24b1641:g:EGIAAOSwRG1c14Rh

Thanks for posting a reply so quickly and for the Sound Blaster manual!

Sorry, yes it is an Audigy 2 ZS that I'm trying to get working.

I did remove and straighten the bracket, so am able to seat the card properly and secure the bracket.

I have to plead ignorance on the admin mode in Windows 98SE. I think I installed SE over an original Windows 98 system many years ago, but don't recall setting up users. I don't get warnings or errors when I install or remove programs. Does that mean I'm in admin mode or do I need to do something special to invoke it? Under System Information it shows "Normal Mode" on "MYNAME" as "My Name" (where My Name is my actual name). How do I get to Admin Mode if that is what should show instead of Normal Mode? Is this why I don't see a VIEW tab in Device Manager and no place to click SHOW HIDDEN DEVICES?

Failing that, I went ahead and uninstalled the SB card and software using the Creative uninstall function. I restarted and then ran the System File Checker, enabling checking for changed and deleted files and expanding the Windows and Program Files folders. There were a great many prompts for restoring original files. Mostly the original files were older (by months or years), although in a few cases I think the restored file was newer (I think they all were 2002 or older). I was hesitant to revert to old files. Should I have done that? There was one corrupted file identified, and I did agree to have that repaired.

I restarted and re-installed Sound Blaster. Everything seemed to proceed smoothly, except for failure to find "msanalog.vxd". I skipped that one, hoping that it wouldn't be necessary since I think I will be using WMD instead of VXD.

Bottom line is that I still am not getting any sound, even though the Sound Blaster Diagnostics gives a check mark for hardware detection, wave, midi, mixer, DirectSound 3D, sound font and mixer settings.

I hope you can set me straight on the admin mode issue. I have been using this computer to transfer a large collection of vinyl records to cds. I feel like I finally know just how to make my old Dart Pro software do what I want it to do and am afraid that at 65 it would be a challenge for me to learn a different audio restoration application.

Many thanks for your bearing with my obsolete programs and hardware situation.
 
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