XP SP3 Sound Issue with Kernel Drivers (Code 38)

[cherrycheese]

(I got logged off in the middle of the first time I tried to post this apparently, and this is consequently shorter and blunter than I had originally planned)

I have a Gateway MX 6455 and recently had to have the hard drive replaced. Instead of the restore disc, a basic XP Media Center Edition was installed. The people who installed it for me (I had the hard drive replaced under warranty) apparently upgraded it to SP3 because they were having an issue with the audio device, but the upgrade did not fix it. I took the computer back because I needed it for schoolwork.

I know it's not a hardware issue because I mainly use Ubuntu Linux and the sound works fine there. In Windows however it would not recognize the audio device (which was listed as RealTek AC'97) and continuously beeps at me. Now that I have access to the restore discs I tried to get the driver from it, but it didn't work. Eventually I tried a Conexant driver and it actually installed for me. But as soon as the Conexant driver installed some Kernel devices appeared in the Device Manager, and all were marked with a "!". This is the error code I get:

Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because a previous instance of the device driver is still in memory. (Code 38)

The devices involved include any number of the following (it depends on each specific boot):
Microsoft Kernel Acoustic Echo Canceller
Microsoft Kernel DLS Synthesizer
Microsoft Kernel DRM Audio Scrambler
Microsoft Kernel Wave Audio Mixer
Microsoft Kernel Audio Splitter

The support for this error says to reboot the system, which I have done at least a dozen times in trying to fix this, and it has never worked. I also tried uninstalling the devices and having it reinstall after it booted back up, and this temporarily solved a couple of them, but they soon had a "!" again.

Sometimes these Kernel devices are listed twice in the Device Manager, sometimes they are not.

In case it's important "serial" also has a "!" next to it, and there are two copies of the "Plug and Play Emulator." I have also checked and both the audio device and plug and play are set up to automatically start.

I am using Symantec Endpoint Protection Client for antivirus in XP.

After working in Windows most of the day, eventually the beeping got to me and I had to get out of XP, so I don't have those stats, but I have the system stats from Ubuntu with some mobo info. I can get the info from Windows as soon as I can reboot into it without wanting to throw my computer against a wall because of the beeping.

System information report, generated by Sysinfo: 11/28/2008 1:31:39 AM
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gsysinfo

SYSTEM INFORMATION
Running Ubuntu Linux, the Ubuntu 8.10 (intrepid) release.
GNOME: 2.24.1 (Ubuntu 2008-10-24)
Kernel version: 2.6.27-7-generic (#1 SMP Tue Nov 4 19:33:06 UTC 2008)
GCC: 4.3.2 (x86_64-linux-gnu)
Xorg: unknown (24 October 2008 09:06:49AM) (24 October 2008 09:06:49AM)
Hostname: Humbert
Uptime: 0 days 1 h 19 min

CPU INFORMATION
AuthenticAMD, AMD Turion(tm) 64 Mobile Technology ML-37
Number of CPUs: 1
CPU clock currently at 800.000 MHz with 1024 KB cache
Numbering: family(15) model(36) stepping(2)
Bogomips: 1591.83
Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt lm 3dnowext 3dnow up rep_good nopl pni lahf_lm

MEMORY INFORMATION
Total memory: 935 MB
Total swap: 2737 MB

STORAGE INFORMATION
SCSI device - scsi0
Vendor: ATA
Model: Hitachi HTS54161
SCSI device - scsi1
Vendor: HL-DT-ST
Model: DVD-RW GWA-4082N

HARDWARE INFORMATION
MOTHERBOARD
Host bridge
Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
Subsystem: Gateway 2000 Device 0300
PCI bridge(s)
ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge (prog-if 01)
ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge (prog-if 01)
USB controller(s)
ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (prog-if 10)
ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (prog-if 10)
ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller (prog-if 20)
ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (prog-if 10)
ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (prog-if 10)
ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller (prog-if 20)
ISA bridge
ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge
Subsystem: Gateway 2000 Device 0300
IDE interface
ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 IDE Controller (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Gateway 2000 Device 0300

GRAPHIC CARD
VGA controller
ATI Technologies Inc Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)
Subsystem: Gateway 2000 Device 0300

SOUND CARD
Multimedia controller
ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Gateway 2000 Device 0300

NETWORK
Network controller
Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Device 17f9:0006
Ethernet controller
Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8036 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
Subsystem: Gateway 2000 Device 0300

Normally I can solve my problems with Google, but not this time apparently. Does anyone know anything I can do to make this better?

[cherrycheese]

Resolved with a system recovery from the disc that wiped out the "fixes" that were done before I received it, allowing the normal process of installing RealTek and then updating it as Conexant to work. The only downside is it also wiped out other drivers (ethernet, the correct wireless, VGA, etc) and my bootloader (which means that I can't get into my main Ubuntu partition until I can get ahold of the disc again as I stupidly left it at school).