Windows 7 Realtek AC'97 Kills my Windows Explorer

[katsuragi]

After installing the latest Vista/Windows 7 driver (6302_Vista_Win7_PG537) My onboard sound works great. However, when I try to access control panel Windows Explorer crashes. I have found that it is a Realtek .CPL file that is the culprit.

Here's the event log:

Faulting application name: explorer.exe, version: 6.1.7000.0, time stamp: 0x49431f06
Faulting module name: ALSNDMGR.CPL, version: 2.3.1.0, time stamp: 0x4948df7c
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0008f82e
Faulting process id: 0xfd0
Faulting application start time: 0x01c9a05a1ebe992d
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\explorer.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\ALSNDMGR.CPL
Report Id: 800a5b75-0c4d-11de-85f8-0015f250cadc

So if I uninstall the driver, everything goes back to normal except I have no sound. I've uninstalled/reinstalled/rebooted etc. etc...

I've tried disabling/deleting the .CPL file but I'm restricted with "You require permission for SYSTEM to make changes to this file"

So now I'm out of idea's, any help would be appreciated.

 

[katsuragi]

Anyone? I'm still having this issue