Hi there all, thanks for your replies.

I have XP, and I have a fairly good knowledge of PC's. Used to work for 6 years in a computer store as a salesperson/technician. Two of my former colleagues there continue this line of work at their shop and i can drop by or call anytime I have a question that I need answered. Sometimes they do the same thing also, especially when it has to do with older hardware.

The reason to clean up is that i download and install every thing I see on the internet on that pc, meaning it is full of things that I may not need now but I installed 2-3 years ago (and we all know that usually things leave tracs and mess up registry if you uninstall them). I treat it a garbage can of programs. The only reason the system is up and running today is that I am careful enough to read readme files and such.

Usually I work that way, eg "stick it in and it will work", it didn't work like that with the Audiophile and the Live. Audiophile's FAQs say that they don't endorse mixing up with another soundcard. Also, I didn't mention that my motherboard has an embedded el cheapo AC97 soundcard, which won't work along with the Audiophile or the Live.

True, I probably can manage to put them in and make them work together, but in a system like that, you won;t exactly be sure if it is a driver that causes a problem, or a forgotten program somewhere, hence the clean install. And...the older I get, the less i want to mess with things. Sad but true.

Anyway, has anyone worked with an Audigy 4 or the new X-Fi?