I have had various problems with chaintech's drivers but I've had worse problems with others so that doesn't mean much. My problems are usually getting to take the downmixing of front stereo to rear out for using my external amp/speaker setup. I found the best solution so far is to put it in slot 5 which is as far as possible from other cards.
I can't remember how I got my present working install to work but I'm pretty sure it is mainly from reinstalling the card as far as possible away from other cards. I got it in slot 5, a good 5 empty slots from my agp card.
I took out my card and restarted in admin account and deleted or uninstalled a much as possible per the VIA read me file below.
I am using the 500b installer download from VIA Arena. I can't remember what I did but I think once you delete files (.inf and drivers per readme) then you probably can install from windows detector or install from the setup.exe program. I may have did both to get the cpl installed.
Note it says in manual install to direct windows to 2k directory. I'm pretty sure I directed it to the xp directory though they may be the same files.
Don't forget to boot to an admin account to install everything. I think you have to reboot so do so from the admin account again and then reboot to your normal user account.
QUOTE
6) Windows 2000/XP Driver
*************************
** Driver Installation **
*************************
a) Automatic Installation
Uncompress the zip folder and Type
D:> SETUP.EXE (where D equals the location of the setup file)
in the run command promopt or double click the setup.exe file. Select "Install".
After reboot the system, the driver will be installed completely.
b) Manual Installation
Under Device Manager, the message "PCI Audio Multimedia Device" will be displayed
if the "Envy24 Family Audio Controller" is detected by the PCI enumerator.
Set the source destination directory to the "\WIN2K" with the
"Envy24 Family Audio Controller" installation file, Envy24HF.INF.
After the selection, the "Envy24 Family Audio Controller" and its subsystems
will be installed successfully.
***************************
** Driver Uninstallation **
***************************
a) Type
D:> SETUP.EXE (where D equals the location of the setup file)
in the run command prompt or double click the setup.exe file. Select "Remove".
After reboot the system, the driver will be removed completely.
b) OR you can remove the "Envy24 Family Audio Controller" from the device manager.
If you want to totally remove this driver, you should delete the relative installation file
"OEMx.INF" under the "\WINDOWS\INF" directory.
At the same time, you should remove the driver file, Envy24HF.SYS, under the "WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\Drivers" directory. Then the driver will not install again after the next boot.
NOTE: Please note, under Win2000/WinXP, the .cat file can't be installed from the setup program (option a).
If you want to check the "Digital Signed file" from Micrsoft, you must install the driver
using option b - through the Device Manager.
GOOD LUCK hope this helps.