sound card problems

[solkoe]

I have an Audigy 4 soundcard running on XP pro. The system work fine for over a year. I even did some music recording that worked fine. Recently, my sound disappeared. I reinstalled the driver and the sound came back for a few minutes then dropped out again. I got driver updates from creative labs. No result. I will usually check the sound on Windows Media Player after a driver reinstall. WMP will play the song and I will think that I have solved the problem. Then I will do a diagnostic on the sound card. It tells me that the computer sees the sound card but that there are problems with Midi etc. When I return to WMP, it will not play anything and tells me that their is no sound device to play the music.
Last night, I removed the card and reinstalled it in a new PCI slot. Sound returned for a few seconds then left again.

I thought it might be a virus. I did complete scans with no improvement. I did a system restore, no changes.

Can anyone help?

[S0ULphIRE]

I dont think its a virus, its probably a faulty sound card. If its under warrenty, see if you can get a replacement.

[solkoe]

Thanks for replying. The sound card warranty is 12 months so I guess I'm screwed. My question is, why does it work after for brief moments? Why does my computer tell my that the sound card is working properly?
I'm trying to avoid the decision of having a computer techie look at it for $100vs. buying a new sound card from scratch.

[peterhuang913]

the computer doesnt know if something is faulty unless its 100% dead.