Thank you Rock,Freddie,Captain Roberts,Peter Foldes and Peter

Thanks for your input guys.

I still feel agrieved as I was quite happy with the drivers I had under XP
and it is Vista that disabled them.

I bought an Xmod but my 5.1 speakers dont have a 3.5mm line in socket so on
top of £50 for the Xmod I am looking for £40 - £50 for replacement speakers.

Whatever MS did with Vista has also disabled the control software for my on
board sound chip so I cannot reliably default to that option.

One final point, do a simple google search for Vista sound drivers and you
will be amazed how few pop up as available. Most of the search results are
problems and cries for help. If you also search for Vista compatible
soundware, there is not alot out there that gaurantees compatibility.

MS with all there research resources should have been able to build in
forward compatibility for such a basic home user needs like soundcards but
especially UNIVERSAL serial bus controllers

Thanks for listening

Graeme