windows XP - no audio device...i am fed-up!

Well - first, i updated my computer from windows 98 to windows XP. now i cannot get any audio - so, i went and bought a sound card from microcenter and installed it but my computer continues to register 'no audio devices' - consequently, even though i have used hte CD to install the drivers - it is just not working. i don't know what to do anymore - it keeps flashing that it cannot install something called "media" because of some unknown reason. is there any help to be had at all!!
PS: have been trying to install the sound blaster 4.1 digital

 

if you goto start>run.. then type "dxdiag" w/o the quotes there is a sound test that might point you in the right direction

if you goto the device manager and uninstall the current driver than reboot then reinstall the drivers might fix the problem

also putting it in another PCI slot may help if there is a device conflict of some kind

 

Also make sure you disable the on board sound in the bios. That will mess you up quicker then anything because the computer will continue to try and configure the on board sound at the same time as the new card which of course causes a conflict