Windows update drivers= fried sound card (SB audigy SE)

have a sound blaster audigy SE sound card
had drivers from audigy website. worked great.
windows update notifies me they have better drivers
allow windows update to install
windows installs them, restart, freeze as soon as the windows sound logo plays
happens several times in a row
boot to safe mode, uninstall drivers
reboot, boots fine, no sound.
install from SB website. works for a bit.
put computer to sleep
gone all weekend
come back, wake up computer, freeze at windows chimes sounds after typing in my password
reboot to safe mode, uninstall drivers
reboot normal
install drivers
freezes after drivers are done installing
reboot, freeze on windows chimes again
unintstall the sound card and enable onboard again
computer boots fine. no issues.

the sound card is sitting on my desk. Is there anything else that could have been causing it?
I'm kind of at a loss.
The card was only like $25 so it's not a huge loss, but still i don't understand why it doesn't work.

Try the sound card in another computer to confirm that it is really fried.

NeonCancerCandy said:

freeze as soon as the windows sound logo plays
happens several times in a row.

Click to expand...

Reseat the sound card and try again..... Also, it may be a bad PCI slot.

(And one time a while ago, I also had corrupted Windows audio when the start up tune was being played, I had to reseat my SoundBlaster Live! 5.1)

Tell all your friends & cousins to never download hardware updates from Windows update.

Only download Windows OS updates, never allow Microsoft Windows update to 'update' hardware drivers for you. Always get those from the manufacturer. Once again, use Windows Update to update the Operating System software only. Make sure to uncheck and hide any hardware driver updates it suggests.

Regardless of what really happened, remember that advice.


But to get back to your hardware, are you able to do what the second poster asked you, which is to place the sound card in another computer to see see if it is working?

If it is working, Windows Update is to blame - if it is not working then it just happened to fail the second Windows Update messed with its drivers? Unlikely, but not impossible.