How do you know when your soundcard is broken ?

[eyn093]

Hey guys,
The title says it all, 'how do you know when your soundcard is broken' ?
Here's the situation: for over 2 years now i've had this Creative X-FI Xtreme music soundcard.
It always worked without any problems.
Now just today i wanted to listen to some music ,and.... nothing. No sound !
I've checked my audio settings ,but couldn't 'see' my X-fi soundcard. I could only 'see' the Realtek onboard soundcard.
I've checked inside my case just to see if the X-FI soundcard was still in its place , no problems here.

So what gives ?? Could it be that my soundcard is broken, just like that ?
Any ideas ?
If broken, would it be worth it to get a Xtreme gamer in its place ?

 

[eyn093]

Small update.I did a system recovery to the last date that i was sure it was working.
Guess what , its working again... !
Weird.Is there a conflict between my OS / MB / Soundcard ?
The only problem i have now is , i can't open the Creative start console icon.It stays as a small white box on my screen.
Atleast i have sound.
Now to get the console working again....

 

[bf2gameplaya]

You most likely have a BIOS setting that enables/disables your onboard audio.

When this setting is enabled, your on-board audio (if the drivers have been previously installed) very often becomes the default device and the end result is your Creative card doesn't do what you expect it should.

There are other OS related conflicts with sound mapping and mixing when you have multiple audio device drivers loaded. None of them are out in the open so to speak, but all can usually be fixed with changing a setting or two.

You need to familiarize yourself with your BIOS settings, specifically the audio related settings, and then you should uninstall everything related to onboard audio : software, drivers, etc. Then you might wish to reinstall your soundcard drivers (check for updates) and then DirectX (System Restore and DirectX have issues)

 

[eyn093]

k , thx