Thks for the tip GibMonkey. didn't know about the hidden control panel
The only way I can get the latest driver to install is thru a pain in the ass process which was explained to me by a reply email from creative tech. (they were prompt I'll give them that) requiring me to go into msconfig and doing a selective startup, yada, yada... followed by a winzip extraction of the latest driver..... more yada's
followed by executing the file CTZAPXX.EXE which does a Delete all shared creative audio driver files.
I guess the latest drivers didn't like updating overtop of the older files.
I think you gave me my solution. I'll keep my fingers crossed on my next os reinstall.
Cheers.