Audigy 2 IRQ problems
 

Hi

I have some troubles with my audigy 2 (platinum). The soundcard worked perfectly for a couple of months, then suddenly disappeared from my system. I tried almost everything: removing all my other PCI cards, switching the soundblaster to other PCI slots, disabling all devices I do not need (serial, parallel, usb, firewire ports), force update irq in bios. Nothing helped, except the force update irq in the bios helped a few times. But then when I enter windows, my system locks up when the "new hardware found" message pops up. I know for sure the soundblaster is not damaged because it works perfectly on my other PC and I even RMA'ed it back to Creative, who told me the card was fine.

This is a very frustrating problem, because it seems that the audigy ZS also sucks when it comes to IRQ sharing, so buying a new one won't solve the problem.

what motherboard?

What you can do:

go into the BIOS, and control every card has it's own IRQ.

then, go into windows (unplug your soundcard though) and allocate IRQ's to every device which needs one, share IRQ's as long as you think this won't bug your computer any further, but keep one IRQ solely for your soundcard.

I think that might do the trick.

PS: that's what I would have done in your place, it might be wrong :D

if you tried all possible solutions, there's not much more you can do.

Download the latest drivers for motherboard!! and soundcard. Check for a BIOS update.

Then try again, disable all unused ports, and remove all non essential PCI card (just graphics). Find a PCI port in wich it works (best would be PCI 2-3-4) and then slowly add the rest of the cards (if it works off course)