System: AMD 2700+ (running @ 2200MHz FSB 100MHz 22x CPU Mult) 256@100MHz - RAM nVidia nForce2-128 SPP +MCP-T - Chipset ALC-650E AC'97 Audio (on board and disabled) SB Live Value plugged into a PCI v2.2 compliant PCI slot with the latest drivers from Sound Blaster site that came in the LiveDrvUni-Pack(ENG).exe ATI Radeon 7000 64 MB PCI Video DirectX 9.0a Problem: When running games, my computer will lock up. I have ruled out Video issue because the games run fine with the SB out and the onboard card enabled. (Note: I can run media player, regular windows sound's will play properly as well as the dxdiag.exe tests which all pass when run.) I have cleanly installed the drivers for the SB card nurmerous times over the last 5 days, looked for conflicts, contacted microsoft and creative labs tech support to no avail. My Idea's: I'm wondering if my PCI v2.2 slot can use a PCI v2.1 card? FBS @ 100MHz too fast? Creative Labs and Microsoft are run by monkeys that have no idea whats going on? (I've asked the the same quetions they replied "huh?") *********************************** PLEASE! DO NOT OFFER HELP UNLESS ITS REFERING SPECIFICALLY TO THE SOUNDBLASTER LIVE! VALUE AND WINDOWS XP/2000(IE. NOT PLATINUM,5.0 ETC.!! WINDOWS 95/98/98SE/ME/NT!!)

Do you have DMA enabled on your drives? I had a similar problem with sounds skipping on certian games with a SB Live!. Discovered that by enabling DMA the problem went away. Also try lowering you hardware acceleration for your graphics card. Hope this helps :-)

DMA is enabled.. note.. i have no video problems

Don't know if this helps but ... I also have a Sound Blaster Live! Value card, and was getting mysterious freezes once or twice a week; seemingly more and more frequent. Then my PC speakers/amp went out -- no sound. I bought new, better amplified speakers & sub-woofer. No freezes since (thank heaven).