Hi there guys, 1st post here, and in serious need of help.

I have an SB audigy 2 ZS that has never given me any issues until earlier today. I turned on my pc, and the sound was not working, and got the 'Windows has detected new hardware' message, followed by the 'Install new hardware message' for my audio controller, firewire and PCI Input device.

So i re-install the device drivers, and reboot, only to find the very same thing when windows starts up, as if i had never installed it at all. Ive completely removed it from the system, re-installed, repaired, but to no avail. I just do not understand it, as before, it was working perfectly fine.

Please help me out, i really dont want to have to format and re-install windows over a sound card being difficult

Sounds to me like your soundcard is dead or something like that...
I've seen similar hardware problem with a dead dvd drive that would fail at random and then claim to have found new HW when it randomly got back.
Could be wrong though but that is probably what you need to investigate...

Hi. I would remove and reseat the card or/and try a different pci slot.

Perhaps a friend would let you borrow his/her soundcard if the above fails?

Didn't you by accident upgraded Win to XP SP2? Or maybe some other update, e.g. DirectX?
Jut beause I had similar troubles today with a SB Live (CT4830 IIRC) after we upgraded my friend's PC

Remove the found h/w from Device Manager and reboot. Close all "New Hardware Found" dialog boxes by clicking on the Cancel button and runn the Setup program from the CD-ROM that came with your card instead.

I had this happen to me recetnly with my Chaintech. The card had come unseated from the PCI Slot just enough and it was detected again as new hardware. I would do what Kennedyb4 suggested.