Updating Creative Drivers has lost my sound devices

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I have a Dell XPS8300 Windows 7 with a Soundblaster X-FiXtreme sound card.
On unsuccessfully trying to get the optical port to work I tried updating the drivers.
I now get the blue screen of death and the IRQI not less than or equal message when ever I try to do anything involving that sound card in device manager now.
The device has also disappeared from "Sounds" in the control panel even with show hidden devices ticked.

How can I uninstall the drivers when I always get the BSOD

Boot in safe mode and remove the drivers. Use driversweeper to remove any remnants.

Look for compatibility issues between the latest drivers you used and your operating system or computer itself.

The Xfi soundcards were pretty crap though. If you're using SPDIF out you can have the crappiest sound card in the world and it won't matter, so don't worry about it, but they are crap soundcards. I would suggest that you consider swapping the card out if you can't fix the problem. Any cheapo card with SPDIF out will suit your needs and they will all sound the same since the DAC is external to the PC in this case.

Cheers, I got the sound back by removing the card, rebooting, refitting the card, and the system detected it, still cannot update the drivers though without it going to BSOD.

As I have a Denon AV amp, I am thinking of using my GTX560TI graphics HDMI port for a better display than VGA and also to take the surround sound to the amp as the amp doesn't have multiple analogue inputs.
Just waiting for a cable, so sound card will shortly be redundant anyway.

As long as the amp is also a DAC you will get better sound out of it than you will a soundcard.

I thought all digital amps were DAC?
Isnt that how an amp turns its digital input into analogue for the speakers?

I am more concerned about game audio software such as EAX, will my amp be able to decode this on the fly to surround sound?

Beware of updating drivers needlessly. Most "upgrades" aren't needed or helpful, and if they don't work, your only hope is to roll it back and hope that fixes things.

I had an ATi card that buggered with updated drivers when I tried to play a game that ran fine on the OEM driver set. The game kept prompting me to upgrade when I didn't need it, and the game maker blamed the video card maker and the video card maker blamed the game maker.

What you have is probably a receiver/amp.

A receiver processes sound, an amplifier amplifies sound. A straight receiver is not an amp and a straight amp is not a receiver, and has no DAC. Most modern stuff is a receiver/amp combo. There are Amps with DACs out there too, but most amps are just amps. I hope you're even more confused now.

Your receiver can not do EAX. No game does EAX these days. I haven't seen it in a game for a very long time. EAX is a creative labs technology and I have only seen it outside Creative Labs products in the Auzentech X-Fi stuff where they actually build PROPER soundcards around X-Fi chips. Those are dinosaurs now too though.

Really, Creative Labs, and anything they put out these days, is crap. The only really good soundcards they ever made were the EMU based cards. That's ancient history now.

Also their original high end multimedia speakers, such as the stuff where they partnered with Cambridge Soundworks, was a head of its time and was good. But I reiterate that any modern Creative stuff is crap.

Does this mean that sound cards have had their day and I am doing the right thing by taking sound and vision directly and digitally from my graphics card via HDMI to my AVR?
EAX was the only sound programme that came to mind, are there others that my AVR wont be able to decode or do computer games use more recognisable to AVR programmes?

Not in today's modern games. You are doing the right thing by offloading the DAC and amplification work to proper A/V equipment. That's the future. Soundcards are only so good because they're limited to a $200-300 price bracket and they have to deal with a LOT of noise inside the computer.

Like I said, EAX was the only thing that you needed any specific sound card for, outside of audio production that is, and for a modern gamer you're going to get better sound out of a proper Hi-Fi setup than you are out of a soundcard.

Even companies that have long been soundcard makers are moving towards external (usually USB) DAC/AMP setups. Most people who really care about audio are just taking the signal from their PC to their HIFI stuff digitally via SPIDF or HDMI these days. It's the right direction to move in.

You're not going to see EAX in any modern game. That died almost completely in the first half of the 2000's decade. In a lot of ways, what EAX could do in hardware has been superceded in software in a lot of modern games anyways. You're not missing out.

So today I connected all my computer to the HDMI ports on my AVR, firstly, a much sharper picture than VDA.
Only one computer has a Graphics card with HDMI, (the others I had to use a DVI to HDMI cable so still have to use the anologue sound cards), but the XPS Graphics card does have the HDMI port which also passes digital sound and it the one I watch DVDS ON,
What an improvement over the sound card, the way I heard a bird on the film fly across my ceiling had never been recreated that well with my sound card and computer 5.1 surround system.

You have a Dell XPS? You should really build your own computers. It's an idiot-proof process these days and you get much more bang out of your money. Higher quality components as well. Particularly the case and power supply.

Check out www.overclockers.com

You should also get a BluRay drive for your PC. Replace the DVD drive. Make sure you get a Bluray drive that includes Bluray playback software.

You'll want to go into the software and set up the playback for maximum detail. Hardware decoding, post-filters, etc etc. The Cyberlink BluRay software is pretty decent. I have experience with it.

Due to HDCP you are not likely to be able to play a BluRay without licensed software. It's not like a DVD that you can just play back in Media Player or VLC.

You'll get WAAAAY better sound and picture out of BluRay. Totally uncompressed audio.

Is it worth getting Blueray when I have so many films in DVD, on top of which I have two DVD drives in each computer so I can play different region DVDs, will a Bleray player play DVDs?

All optical drives are backwards compatible. DVD plays CD, Bluray plays DVD and CD.

If you have a particularly weak computer, though, don't expect miracles for Bluray playback.

Also, if you have a bad monitor, like pretty much any TN panel, you shouldn't bother with Bluray. You want a 1080P to 4K display with an IPS, PLS, IGZO or other high end panel.