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But the main MB drivers with their software mixer etc. don't function 99% of the time.
Once in a blue moon the computer will start up with the drivers loaded.




Please think of the possibility that you're having hardware issues here and not necessarily software. Perhaps the issue isn't with configuration or setup or settings at all.

From my own experience, whenever I've had PC's that were obviously 'hit' after voltage spikes (or lightning strikes), your PC is bound to do some pretty strange things either right away or in the near future -- assuming it survived the electrical 'jolt' in the first place. As your electronics were never designed to survive such a thing, you just never know to what extent your net damage is going to be. You may have some electronics (IC's, etc) overheating at some point, you may have some parts of your system working intermittently, you may have some that appear to work (on the surface of things) but then are actually CAUSING problems with other parts of your system, etc.

It's a crap-shoot whether you should even continue to use the system or not. If you weren't 110% certain and you are 'relying' on this machine, I'd recommend that you take your PC to a shop and have them perform a few detailed diagnostics on it and then give you their opinion on whether it's safe to use or not and whether you should continue investing in it (just how reliable or unreliable it will likely be). Only you yourself can decide whether it's a good idea to continue to invest your time and money into it -- Myself, I doubt I'd even plug a new peripheral device into it. I'd be overly concerned for the welfare of any new box I plugged into it! And as you may or may not know, electrical 'hits' take their toll on your electronics (all over your house, not just your PC). You can count on it reducing the lifespan of all your equipment.

I've built, configured and repaired PC's and peripherals for many years (for 1000's of business users) and quite frankly, depending on the necessity or application of that particular PC, I wouldn't do anything with that machine that was in a critical application or where you aren't prepared to endure some weird things happening from time to time (not to mention you should consider that it will crap out on you altogether sooner than you think). I use those 'questionable' PC's for printer servers or the like. Remember too that it's likely to be okay maybe if by 'weird stuff' we're saying that we'll need to endure the inconvenience of an occasional reboot. But what about those things you can't predict? What about if your PC starts to take a toll on the new technology you're likely to be adding to it in the future? Right now, you don't know the percentage of the problems you're having can be traced back to software or hardware.

I know it's not an easy proposition but why do you think that those companies selling 'spike' protection equipment can offer you thousands (even hundreds of thousands) of dollars to insure you against something like this? And even then I can tell you that it still happens -- Spikes will get past the protection equipment from time to time. I've seen this happen and my company has filed a few claims like this before. Not before months of pulling-your-hair-out troubleshooting. There's really no way to protect against mother nature's power -- With the technology we currently have, we cannot even generate the power that Ma' Nature creates in one single lightning strike!

Similar to your situation ... I had a PC (on $50,000 dollar-insured, surge suppression) one time that the morning after a bad storm, wouldn't power up -- black screen. We went through that machine with a fine-tooth comb and eventually the solution was to physically pull out the fried modem and sound card -- the mobo survived but evidently the peripherals sustained the bulk of the hit. Once replaced with new peripherals it was fine -- or so we thought, until six months later with the mobo finally died. Lesson learned I guess.

On another note, if I were you and I was fighting the gremlins that you are, I'd yank that original sound card right out. There's even a good chance that the old card is or will cause you additional future problems. Secondly, if the sound card is built in (integrated into the mobo), then you should have a switch on the mobo to turn off external peripherals (read your documentation). And apart from that, if you have a more advanced mobo, then you might find the on/off switch for your integrated devices to be in your system setup / BIOS (usually accessible during hot boot). Finally (assuming you're still in fight-my-gremlins-mode than you are ready buy a new system), Tiger Direct (at tigerdirect.com) can get you a replacement board (probably with more features than your old one). If you're not comfortable with that (or like me, you get tired of it nickel and diming you and wearing out your troubleshooting patience), start over with a new machine -- It could cost you a lot less money and time.

Ike