How to Reinstall Creative Media Player Software

Question

October 2nd 2006
If your update for Creative Media Source, Creative Media Player, and any associated programming has corrupted your system and you need to reinstall the older version or reinstall any of it period this information is critical to avoid serious frustration. It took me four days to figure this out fully and it was HARD to figure out with NO thanks to Creative Technical support. If anything Creative OWES me for this information since they are too stupid to answer my questions with anything but canned answers. It was posts on the Creative forum and several searches in Yahoo and Google that helped lead me to the conclusion of this issue and I feel that you as a Creative customer are not going to like this at all but hey, I?m just the messenger so please don?t kill me! Word of warning! Formatting your hard dri've and reinstalling all your software is far easier than what I am about to instruct you but what I figured out does work and seems to be the ONLY way of really fixing this bug. This applies to the Audigy Z 2S Platinum and should apply to ALL Creative Software in this line of Creative Products.
What caused this in the first place:
I was happily running the supplied creative Media Player, Media Source Go! software with THX, Dolby, and the other features that came with my Audigy Z 2S Platinum. As a conscientious computer user I like to keep things up to date and like to keep my software updated so I went to the Creative site and performed the automatic updates. BIG, BIG mistake! I lost the Equalizer, THX, the Mixer, and everything BUT the most basic of applications to this sound card. The point of me buying it in the first place was the features. The updates stripped me of them. When I tried to reinstall the original software the problems began. When using the supplied installation disk and attempting to uninstall the software was problem one. Creative never had the forethought of supplying an accurate uninstallation feature so when you use the ?Add/ Remove Program? feature you do not get the junk that Creative hides in your file system much like trying to extract AOL Files (which gave me the inspiration for getting rid of the corrupted installation of Creative Software). Like AOL software Creative is extremely invasi've and hides in a number of places you would not even think to look in.
The Issues you will be facing and the associated Error messages:
Upon reinstallation of the old software after my first of many attempts at removing the old installation I began to get the following error messages upon startup of the Media Source software, ?Exception-Created Object:Exceptions:FactoryNotFound Message:?Invalid Factory in Created Object: AudioChannelMappingMSG? and ?PFX file missing or corrupted, application will now terminate?, and the last of your nightmare messages ?Device not found by application and application will now terminate?. If you get any of these messages you are screwed and face a serious uninstallation procedure to correct this. Thanks to this you should be able to fix it all and get your reinstallation to take properly.
Something to keep in mind and I only found out about this the day before I wrote this, Apple Quicktime 7 has a serious conflict issue with DemoShield and the removal process is the same for the Creative Software since uninstallation will not get Quicktime out either. Before you reinstall remove Quicktime 7 or you are going NOWHERE! Quicktime 6 does not appear to interfere with the installation. You will get the error message ?DemoShield has encountered a problem and needs to shut down? followed by the computer wanting to send an error report. This is a sure fire sign that Quicktime is interfering with the installation along with the file DEMO32.exe which will need to be deleted.
Another thing I need to mention is that you WILL need the following software or something similar to eliminate all traces of Creative software, Error Expert, RegEditXP, Directory Cleaner, and Find Dead Links. This software will get the impossible and hidden stuff you will not find or be able to get rid of otherwise.
Preparation for this task:
Kick on some music, smoke a FAT joint, drink a beer, or do both because this process is involved and frustrating! If you don?t drink or smoke or both than I hope God is with you because you will be cursing and swearing when something does not go right. Remember, I was at this for four days FULL TIME with minimal information to go on. Patience is a MUST or be ready to pay an expert a LOT of money to deal with this.
Now it begins:
NOTE: It should not be necessary to uninstall the Card itself. The software and not the PCI card is the issue and the drivers are not what cause the hanging reinstallation. I did at one time in the process of figuring this crap out pull the card but when I managed to fix the problem I had left the card in. Again it is NOT necessary to pull the Sound Blaster card from it'ss slot to effect the fix for the software.
NOTE: Should at any time in this extraction process you get the message ?Application cannot be removed? or ?Another application is using file and it cannot be removed? hit CONTROL/ALT/DELETE to open the Task Manager. Click APPLICATIONS and if Creative software is running click END TASK. You can then continue the extraction process.
: TRY to save all of your important media files in another directory (preferably in another dri've or partition. Another dri've is preferred) before you begin this so you don?t loose your music and video files to an accident, misunderstanding, or software association. Making a special holding folder with an easily recognizable name not having Creative in its name will help keep you from accidentally deleting these files in the event the search turns them up.
2: Go to the ?Add Remove Programs? in the control panel and remove all instances of Creative you can find. When that is done go to Run\msconfig and select ?Selecti've Starup? and UNCHECK ?Load Startup Items?.
3: Restart the computer. Now the fun begins. Put on your hunting hat, you are on digital safari!
4: When the computer starts up you will be notified by msconfig that changes have been made to the way the computer starts. Hit the red X and close the message and do the same for msconfig. You will see the prompt ?restart computer? or ?close without restarting?, select ?close without restarting?.
5: Open Windows Explorer, Start\Programs\Accessories\ Windows Explorer. The search feature here is a great help but for the moment get the obvious crap first.
6: In Windows Explorer click ?View? and select ?Show hidden files? in the selection menu window. This will allow you to get the stuff that regular uninstallation can't get at nor will a regular search reveal. THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT STEP DO NOT TRY TO WORK AROUND IT OTHERWISE YOU WILL FAIL EXTRACTING ALL THE JUNK!!!!!
7: Look for these three directories first:
C:\Documentsandsettings\USERNAME\StartMenu\Program s\Creative
C:\Documentsandsettings\Aministrator\StartMenu\Pro grams\Creative
C:\Documentsandsettings\USRNAME\Applications\Creat ive
Delete them!
8: Now go to the C:\Programs\Windows directory. This gets touchy. WORD OF WARNING TO NOVICE AND INTERMEDIATE COMPUTER USERS ALIKE (Experts should need no warning about this) BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT WHAT YOU DELETE HERE! THERE ARE FILES HERE CRITICAL TO THE OPERATION OF ALL OTHER APLICATIONS ESPECIALLY WINDOWS AND DELETING THE WRONG ONE WILL RESULT IN A COMPUTER THAT WILL NOT START! You can confirm who made the file by pointing at the file in question with your cursor and it should display the maker of the file.
You will be hunting any and all programs with the following beginnings, CT, SB, ct. The files beginning with ?ct? can either be Creative or Microsoft, CONFIRM EACH BEFORE YOU DELETE THEM.
The Windows files you will be looking in are:
C:\Programs\Windows\ime
C:\Programs\Windows\inf
C:\Programs\Windows\PIF
C:\Programs\Windows\prefetch
C:\Programs\Windows\Registration
C:\Programs\Windows\System
C:\Programs\Windows\System32
Lower down in the Explorer window you will find the following files that also need to be deleted:
C:\Programs\Windows\CTCCW.DLL
C:\Programs\Windows\CTDCRES.DLL
C:\Programs\Windows\CTDV0K.CDF
C:\Programs\Windows\CTDV0K2.CDF
C:\Programs\Windows\CTDVAUDY.CDF
C:\Programs\Windows\CTHELPER.EXE
C:\Programs\Windows\CTRegrun.exe
C:\Programs\Windows\CTRES.DLL
That gets the obvious and less obvious stuff out but the hunt is not over by a long shot.
9: This is where it begins to get complicated. In Windows Explorer you will be using the Search button.
Click Search and look for these files:
HKLM\Software\Creative Tech\Software Installed !!DELETE THIS FILE!!
Demo32.exe !!DELETE THIS FILE!!
Creative
SoundBlaster
{5CDDF96A-BC34-4D72-9ABA-EFFF0C39977} !!DELETE THIS FILE!!
AC3 !!Delete any and all files found associated with Creative. With the AC3 files MAKE SURE they are Creative file before deleting them. There are AC3 files unassociated with Creative and they will appear in your search. ATI uses AC3 decoders as well and you DON?T want to screw up an application that is not the problem.!!
THIS COMPLETES AS MUCH OF THE MANUAL EXTRACTION YOU CAN AS A USER GET TO WITHOUT THE ASSISTANCE OF SOFTWARE.
0: Run Directory Cleaner and set it for Creative Audio and click CLEAN followed by setting it for Creative Audio Light and again Click CLEAN. Shut down Dri've Cleaner when you are done with this step.
: Run RegEditXP and fix all issues it finds and close it when it is done.
2: Open Error Expert and set it to Scan for Registry Errors. This gets the stuff RegEditXP misses. When it has found the problems it can select FIX.
3: While still in Error Expert select ADVANCED SYSTEM TOOLS and select STARTUP LIST MANAGER. Remove Creative from the list in any form you find it. Close Error Expert when done.
THIS COMPLETES THE REMOVEAL PROCESS FOR CLEARING YOUR COMPUTER OF CREATIVE SOFTWARE.
IF YOU HAVE QUICKTIME 7 IT HAS TO BE REMOVED DUE TO A COMFLICT WITH CREATIVE INSTALLATION SOFTWARE!
If you do not have Quicktime 7 then open msconfig, reset your computer to ?Normal Startup?, click ?Apply?, then close msconfig and restart. You can now reinstall your original software.
4: Removing Quicktime 7:
This sucks as well. Uninstalling Quicktime 7 from the ?Add/remove Programs? will not work. First make sure it is OFF. If it is acti've it will not be removable. Check with the task manager and in your system tray at the bottom right hand corner of your computer monitor. If you see the blue ?Q?, close it before beginning the extraction process or it will get very complicated.
Windows Explorer Search found all the files I needed to remove but like Creative reference all the same folders in C:\Programs\Windows as you did for removing the Creative Software and remove all references of Quicktime you find;
C:\Programs\Windows\ime
C:\Programs\Windows\inf
C:\Programs\Windows\PIF
C:\Programs\Windows\prefetch
C:\Programs\Windows\Registration
C:\Programs\Windows\System
C:\Programs\Windows\System32
Windows Explorer will lead you to other programs it hides in and the one file I could not remove under any and all circumstances was the one in C:\Programs\Adobe. That one reference will not interfere with anything so you can leave that one. Once you have removed Quicktime 7 go to msconfig and select ?Normal Startup? and restart your computer.
After your computer boots up fully slap the CD ROM in the dri've and it should begin to start up as if it was never installed in the first place. You will get the prompt to, ?Modify, Repair, or Uninstall? software. Uninstall is a joke since it does not work and it is unnecessary. There should be nothing to repair after all of this so I chose Modify. I now have the original software that worked right when I first got the Audigy Z 2S sound Card and it works fine. As a footnote to all of this I did get one error message when I restarted after the installation. It said ?cdrw32.dll missing? but it had no apparent effect on my computer. A subsequent reboot and the message never reappeared. I am not looking this any deeper than I have to since the message never reappeared and I suspect it had something to do with the reinstallation process of Creative Media Source and the media player.
The End!

Answer 1

Audio Console is included in the latest drivers, the easiest way to reinstall it is to reinstall the drivers but if you want to reinstall only the app, uncompress the drivers package with WinRAR and run the setup program from the AudCon Folder. If your X-Fi is OEM you may need to mod CL's drivers, or get a package from Dell that includes AudioConsole.