Removing Creative drivers and Software

By the godfather
in Microsoft (Windows)

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the godfather

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hey all,

well heres the scoop. i found an update fo rmy SB Live! 24-Bit. so i though hey ill use driver cleaner to clean my old sound card drivers WITHOUT uninstalling them first. WRONG.

file errors, programs not loading, registry screwups ahh its all over the place. i did a system restore to yesterday, but its still not working. ive tried installing from the CD again, and uninstalling them through Add/Remove programs but its still comes up woth uninstallation errors.

also ive tried driver cleaner in safe mode, removing the "creative" folder from Program Files, Start Menu>Programs but nothing is working, there are still some files that are missing/corrupt/ still there and not allowing a clean reinstall.. i dnt no what to do, any suggestions? thanks

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JRosenfeld

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Posted (edited)

Whenever I have updated my creative (Audigy 2 in my case) sound drivers, I have not removed the old ones or used any driver cleaner. Just install the new ones.

If you really need to remove them, check out

Soundblaster how to remove

Edited by JRosenfeld
Community Regular

Kilgore Trout

Posted
Posted (edited)

go into device manager, in view click "show hidden devices". right click on everything creative, and delete. ignore prompts to reboot untill you get them all.

make sure to get the wdm driver, expand sounds, videos, game devices.

then reboot. cancel install new hardware wizard.

dowmload dtiver cleaner here

run with filters, creative audio and creative audio lte.

install the good drivers

It is always a good idea to fully remove any sound or graphic driver, before installing a new one

Edited by Kilgore Trout
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the godfather

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well ive tried everything. i went to the site JRosenfeld gave me, went through all the uninstallation processes. didnt work. i also tried in safe mode, removing it through Add/remove programs. through the CD, Device Manager, Driver Cleaner. and all that happens is that i cannot open any Creative programs, and at startup a grey box comes up on the desktop in the top-middle. I go to Task Manager and it shows a creative process running, i close it and the box disappears. the weird thing is my 5.1 surround sound still works perfectly. its weird :p

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the godfather

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yeah i did. well i think ive fixed it all. i couldnt for the life of me get everything 'cleaned' and a fresh install. so i installed everything, corrupt or not, then i realised myy brothers PC has the same Sound Blaster card. i copied his "creative" folder from program files folder, and copied the Creative registry entries. i 'installed' them on my computer, reset and everything started working, except for EAX. i then went to the CD installation and clicked custom installed. it showed everything that was installed and everything that wasnt. EAX was the only one left :p. so its working now and 5.1 is sounding goood... thanks again Kilgore Trout (u too JRosenfeld :p)

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