loss of sound

[agentbad]

i had this problem on an old system of mine with xp and now its back to haunt me. for some odd reason my sound mixer will just randomly disappear giving me an error when i try to click on it. it tends too happen most when im exiting steam or counter-strike. though it has happened just using winamp. in the past i was able to use my soundblaster audigy driver disk to fix the problem but i lost it when i built my new pc. i remember even the xp drivers on the disk wouldn't fix the problem but there were some other drivers on there that would (something like emu10). not only that but i get the same error with my onboard realtek sound which tells me its gotta be either drivers or software related. i have suspicions that directx may be causing the errors yet i can't figure out why.

please help,
agentbad

xp pro
soundblaster audigy mp3+

[Info]

Have you tried getting the drivers from the creative site?

[agentbad]

ive tried the creative drivers and older ones i find on the net to no avail.