Updating my Soundblaster drivers

[roten]

Hello,
I know to update video drivers you need to get rid of every trace of the original driver before you install the new one, is it the same for sound card drivers? I just reformatted and reinstalled WinXP and am reloading all my drivers etc. WinXP installs default soundblaster drivers for me but I wanted to try the drivers from Creative's site. There is no add/remove program entry for these default drivers so I went into device manager and removed the driver there. But when I restart windows, this driver is automatically loaded back in.
Could someone please tell me how to install new soundblaster drivers? Maybe I can just install them over the top of the winxp ones? Maybe I need to uninstall drivers, turn off pc, remove soundcard, restart and install new drivers, then put soundcard back in? Maybe I need to do stuff in safe mode?
OK thanks for any help.

 

[Grimmett]

Hey roten,
There is a program called driver cleaner 3 that gets rid of Creative drivers. Im not real sure if it will get rid of drivers that come with WinXP or not, but you could give it a try. Just pick Creative from the list and then click clean. You should restart the computer after that. If the drivers still install automatically, then I would say to just go ahead and install the newer drivers over the WinXP ones. I've been using a Soundblaster Live 5.1 and I havent had any problems with installing over the WinXP version of the driver.

 

[PookyBoy]

I didn't uninstall the default windows drivers. I haven't experienced any problems.

 

[Calin]

The sound drivers that Windows XP installs come with the Windows XP CD. You can use those, or if you have better drivers, you simply install them (or select the device in device manager and press the "Update driver" button. I don't suggest to remove anything from the windows folder (or windows\drivers, where the default drivers are located).

Calin

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: roten
Hello,
I know to update video drivers you need to get rid of every trace of the original driver before you install the new one, is it the same for sound card drivers? I just reformatted and reinstalled WinXP and am reloading all my drivers etc. WinXP installs default soundblaster drivers for me but I wanted to try the drivers from Creative's site. There is no add/remove program entry for these default drivers so I went into device manager and removed the driver there. But when I restart windows, this driver is automatically loaded back in.
Could someone please tell me how to install new soundblaster drivers? Maybe I can just install them over the top of the winxp ones? Maybe I need to uninstall drivers, turn off pc, remove soundcard, restart and install new drivers, then put soundcard back in? Maybe I need to do stuff in safe mode?
OK thanks for any help.

All I did was to go and download the appropriate drivers (SBLive! 5.1) and install them on my XP box. Everything is just fine.

 

[imported_raybay]

Don't remove the default XP sound drivers, just disable them in the device manager. Then install the new sound drivers (making sure they are the correct ones for your sound chip set) before you turn off the computer. You can use the control panel to add new hardware upon reboot. Usually works.