error message 'device is not available'

I was wondering if you could help me out. I used arcsoft total media 3.5 with XP with little problem. I now have an acer aspire with wndows 7. I keep getting the error message ‘device is not available or is in use by another application’. I disabled all services & enabled them one by one to find that the ‘power’ service is the problem. If it is disabled then the video flows great but the computer sound is off so I have no audio (nor internet). I can not seem to turn on audio without the ‘power’ in system configuration enabled but then I have no cable. Is there a way to do that? Or what if I partition the hard drive (something I’ve never tried) & install another XP or linux will that free up the driver?
No one seems to have an answer.

:confused