Realtek onboard sound and PunkBuster

Hi people ! Im currently having some compatibility issues with my Realtek sound card and any game that uses PunkBuster, being Lockups and freezes with looping sound.

After diggin up a bit I found that this is a common problem with Realtek onboard sound cards and PB.

Im currently trying to get in contact with Realtek about this issue, but I couldnt find their forums. I also contacted EvenBalance (PB), and they told me I should contact Realtek.

"How are you sure this is the problem ?" you say ? Well, basically after DISABLING the onboard sound and playing the games for hours and hours gave me no crashes !

The solution ? there is no known general solution... At least for a fix... But the best one is to get an external sound card, being an USB sound card the best solution.

I just want to share this info and try to find a solution to this, there are no drivers for my sound card (at least for windows 7) in HPs support site :S

Thanks for the help !

Additional info:

Using latest Realtek drivers.
Updated PunkBuster.

I had something like this but having updated punkbuster it seemed a lot better, but I'm sure you have already done that.

Depending on what HP supports on this model, you are probably looking at using a USB connected sound "card". If HP does not have Vista and/or Windows 7 drivers and only has XP drivers they are not compatible or fully compatible. RealTek does not deal with consumers, they only deal with OEM manufacturers such as HP, Dell, Acer, or motherboard vendors such as Gigabyte, ASRock, ASUS, etc.

In most cases, Vendor supplied sound drivers are needed for proper operation, as non-Vendor drivers (in this case HP) usually do not work or do not work correctly. Many vendors do a custom implementation of the chip and thus the reequirement for vendor specific drivers for proper operation.