Windows 98 Identical Sound Card Driver Problems

I had purchased an old box of sound cards from an estate auction and am trying to test them for functionality.  I have generally not had an issue, but something has popped up and I wonder if it is coincidence or if something is conflicting in software.

Here is the two examples that have the same exact issue.  One is a Sound Blaster PCI card and the other is a Sound Blaster Live PCI card.

I have two identical models of each card.  For each one the first card tested went smoothly.  When swapping the cards for the identical model I have a problem.  It want's to reinstall the hardware.  I have already removed the drivers. 

Windows detect the new hardware, but when I go to install the drivers it says that it cannot find the drivers for the hardware.  This is after pointing it to the drivers that had just successfully installed just minutes prior.  Am I missing fragments of the old drivers or maybe registry entries that are preventing it from installing again or are the cards defective and that is why it won't let me get to install the drivers even when I hold Window's hand and show it where the files are. 

The first one I though was just a bad card, but now I have the same issue again with a different card so I think that there is something else going on.  The cards look to be in very good condition as there are no obvious defects.

I've been thinking of just doing a fresh Windows install to see if that would fix the issue, but I don't want to sink the time into that if I don't have to.

Update:

During one boot it said there was a resource conflict on PCI slot #2.  This was intermittent and would appear randomly during boot.  I switched the card to the 3rd slot and it installed on it's own during windows boot up.  I'm thinking I might have a bad PCI slot or is the registry entries for each slot the problem.  For example, will I have the same issue if I put the other identical card in slot #3 now?

It detects the new hardware, but will not find drivers anywhere.  I will check the BIOS as well.

I got the sound blaster 16 working with a new PCI slot.  The other one is much more stubborn, but I think it might be because of the card itself.  It is a Sound Blaster Live SB0200.  The other one that I got working with little difficulty was an SB0060.  I compared it with the previous card I got working and found that while looking identical, the model was different.  The Live cards are notoriously difficult to get working at times.  I think my version may be easier to install on XP than Win98.

Edited by phantomenforcer, 14 March 2024 - 09:48 AM.

It's pretty common apparently with the SoundBlaster Live cards and it apparently depends on the model.  The other Soundblaster cards I tried like the 16, AWE64, AudioPCI, etc... were all pretty much plug and play.  The 16's just needed pointing to the drivers and were fine.

The Live card I'm trying has a date of 2003 (I think) model SB0200 which would definitely be more of an XP card.  I found somewhere that Audigy drivers will usually work with the Live cards, but I didn't have luck with mine.  It may just be a bad card.The other one I tried which worked with ease was model SB0060.