Insanely annoying sound card(s) issue

[Thanatoid]

Thought I'd learned a few tricks, but problems like this pop up periodically to remind me otherwise.

Specs: Win 2kpro
Abit NF7-S
WD 37gb raptor (system disk)
Seagate 250gb (storage)
Radeon 9800 pro (Cat 5.10 and Cat 5.11)
768mb kingston hyper-x pc2700
3000+ athlonxp (socket a)
Linksys gigabit network adapter (pci, model EG1032)
Attempts at sound: Creative soundblaster live 5.1, Some old Yamaha
windows had the drivers for, and the onboard nforce2 option

I tried so many things, and more chaotically as time went on, that it is difficult to describe, but here goes:

I decided it was time for a reformat. Went about things as usual, format the raptor NTFS, install 2k pro. First thing, sp4 and all criticals, plus dx 9.0c which my mobo driver disk claimed was needed. First format (there were 2) I tried the Abit driver disk, second time I used the 4.27 drivers from Nvidia's website. I installed all drivers, including sound, same as I had done before, though I planned to disable the onboard sound in bios.

Here was the problem. After the post mobo driver restart, my "multimedia audio controller" was not recognized. I attempted to reinstall just the audio drivers and the result was the same. Got a desktop, windows tries to find the drivers, then give me the following: "An error occurred during the installation of the device. The data is invalid".

The first time, I figured the hell with it, I'll just install the soundblaster. Reboot, disable onboard audio in bios, get a desktop, install liveunipack (creative's recommended driver), reboot. Exactly the same shite. Windows finds an audio controller without drivers. Try to reinstall them, get the "An error...." mesage (code 28). Use the driver cleaner recommended here (something 2 pro?) as indicated by the text file, and retry. Same result. Wipe it all clean and try an old yamaha card I have. Same result.

The second format, I did the same stuff, except skipped install of nforce sound drivers, disabled in bios and tried the creative and yamaha with the same results.

Now I've Googled the hell out of this problem. I've found some similar problems, but they mostly seem to involve an upgrade to win xp. I've tried every registry hack and registry cleanup that I could find. Always the same result. I've put 6-8 hours into this seemingly basic problem and am near to bloodying my head on my beautiful new Saitek keyboard. I thought that after building a fair number of systems, this kind of thing just didn't happen anymore. If you can help me diagnose and solve this problem, I'll remember you in my will. Ask if there is any information I forgot to include. Thanks.

 

[Ichigo]

Have you tried reformatting and using a different driver installation order? It's stupid but maybe......

Also check in device manager and see if everything is normal.

 

[Thanatoid]

Two formats so far. The strange thing is that I've formatted this machine twice before and done everything exactly the same with no problems. Device manager shows the yellow exclamation point and under properties, says the driver has not been installed. Over and over and over again.

 

[montag451]

have you diabled onboard sound in the BIOS?

 

[Slikkster]

While this is a process for XP, have you tried this procedure from MS? It should work the same for Win2K. Definitely sounds like a driver issue to me.

Cannot install hardware. An error occurred during the installation of the device. The Data is invalid. Faulty or incompatible drivers are the leading cause of this error. This one can occur if you have tried to install legacy hardware just after upgrading to WinXP. Try replacing the drivers that came with the hardware with authorized ones from the WinXP CD-ROM. Begin by restarting the system in Safe Mode. (To do so, click Start, then Shut Down. Select Shut Down from the drop-down menu that appears. Click Restart, then OK. Press F8 when you see Please Select The Operating System To Start. Select Safe Mode.) Rename the Driver.cab file under the C:\WINDOWS\DRIVER CACHE\I386 directory (it should be on your C: drive unless you installed Windows on a different drive) to Driver.old or Driver.bak. Insert your WinXP CD-ROM and select Perform Additional Tasks from the Welcome screen that autoplays. Click Browse This CD, open the I386 folder, and copy the Driver.cab file by pressing CTRL-C or selecting Copy from the Edit menu. Paste the CD-ROM's Driver.cab file to your system's WINDOWS\DRI VER CACHE\I368 directory by pressing CRTL-V or selecting Paste from the Edit menu. Now remove the device that caused the error. You may have to look around to find it in your system. You can find the printers by clicking Start, Control Panel, then Printers And Faxes. Other devices can be found in the Device Manager by clicking Start, Control Panel, then double-clicking System, clicking the Hardware tab, and clicking the Device Manager button. Select the hardware item and press the DELETE key. Now restart the system; WinXP should redetect the item and install the device's default approved driver from the WinXP Driver.cab file.

Edit: You might want to do the above but modify it by using the SP4 Driver.cab file, if it exists.