Solve problem creative usb audigy nx not working with Area 51m

[TriniVoice]

last month I bought a new creative usb sound blaster nx sound card to bring my laptop into the age of 5.1 surround sound with my klipsch 5.1 ultra sound system. My laptop consist of a 16" uxga, 1gb ram, windows xp professional service pack 2, ati 9700 graphics card, 3 ghz processor and a 60 gb hard drive @ 7200rpm.

After I installed the usb sound card, everything worked. I used updated drivers from alienware website and from the creative website. But then I did a windows update and after that I got a crackling sound like a scratched record when ever I played a music or movie cd or dvd. The movies would also show a jerky motion. I tried system restore to go back in time but that did not help, I tried norton go back but the system restore already removed the revert files of norton goback so I was screwed. I then backed up what I could and reinstalled windows xp professional and worked from there. After installing microft office 2000 the sytem froze. But it worked if the usb sound card was unplugged or I remove the slimtype 8x dvd burner. I realized that part of the freeze screen was caused by having a corrupt ati 8.03. drive.

I solved the problem by getting updated ati 7.99 and 8.03 drivers and installing it and removing the slimtype dvd burner before installing the usb creative sound blaster installation cd. This was done by first making an image drive of the installation cd with nero6 and then shut down the laptop and remove the slimtype dvd burner and then reboot the laptop and install the usb sound card from the image drive, then install the updated drivers from the creative website. Then shut down laptop and put back in the dvd burner and then boot up the laptop.

It looks like there is a hardware conflict between the sound card and the dvd burner. I must say that the usb creative sound card is the best garget I have bought and after hearing the sound quality through my klipsch audio ultra, I have to say that 5.1 surround sound such be standard. If you have any comments good or bad I would like to hear.