Audigy 2 platinum ex problems

[packt]

alright, here's the run down...
i have purchased an Audigy 2 Platinum Ex sound card (very nice indeed). now if i could only get the thing to work. the hardware install has been perfect, as well as the included software. as a note...i have the latest drivers and have tried getting support from creative labs (which has been of no use). first my system specs:
i run a dell XPS B733.
384 MB RAM.
Windows XP Pro.

now the problem:
The card works great...for about 5 minutes...in playback of audio (in any form including video, windows media player, sound forge, etc) my system freezes up solid and produces a very nasty feedback from the speakers. my system is entirely unresponsive and requires a manual reboot. i've concluded that re-installing the drivers and software won't change a thing. i've done all but pack the thing up and try to re-sell it. either that or build a new system that will work. anyway, i know for a fact that other people have encountered the same problem but i've never found a good solution. can anyone offer some help on this? i'm drawing a total blank. thanks
Al

That's some really bizarre behavior. Do you, by chance, know which motherboard chipset the Dell uses? I'm going to assume it's an Intel chip. I've never heard of a problem like that with an Intel chipset, or any problems at all with the Audigy 2 and Intel chipsets.

Does the Dell have on-board sound, or did you replace a PCI card with the Audigy? Perhaps if it's on-board, the on-board card hasn't been disabled and it's causing some sort of playback problem.

Will the computer still lock up if you don't play any sounds?

Also, welcome to TechIMO.

[packt]

it's an intel pentium 3 chipset. the motherboard does not have onboard sound. i replaced the pci card. my original sound card was a sound blaster live! i also went as far as to remove a dial-up modem card that i don't use so that i could have an IRQ solely allocated for the audigy. my computer runs fantastic as usual until i start to play audio files, then it freezes up the exact same way everytime. the oddest thing about the lock-up is that the feedback that is sent through the speakers is the same pitch and tone everytime. almost as if there is a certain frequency that locks it up. but to be honest there's is no way to tell if that's the case. when i play sound files, my computer doesn't freeze in the same spot. it's almost as if it's doing it at random....i don't know? the main problem is, i don't even know what part of my system is causing the problem. the processor? the motherboard? overlapping drivers perhaps? who knows...not me, that's for sure.