Now onto your sound card, scroll down the dxdiag.txt file until you get to:
Sound Devices
Description: Speakers (Creative SB X-Fi)
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0005&SUBSYS_60021102&REV_00
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1374 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
Date and Size: 6/3/2009 22:28:56, 685592 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Creative
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0x0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 0, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No
Description: SPDIF Out (Creative SB X-Fi)
Default Sound Playback: No
Default Voice Playback: No
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0005&SUBSYS_60021102&REV_00
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1374 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
Date and Size: 6/3/2009 22:28:56, 685592 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Creative
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0x0
Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 0, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No
There may well be more than one device listed, but you are looking for the one which lists Default Sound Device and Default Voice Playback as these will be providing your audio for the game.
Check the Date and Size line and if its older than 2012 you should go look for updated ones from your sound card manufacturer's website, this should be whoever is listed Driver Provider e.g. In the above example I would go to http://uk.creative.com/ .
If you have a built in soundcard on your motherboard or laptop, all you may see in the Description section is 'High Definition Audio Device'. If you do, its likely that the Driver Provider will be listed as Microsoft. These are the standard drivers which probably date back to 2009/2010 or whenever Microsoft were last given a copy of the device drivers for your soundcard. What you should do here is check on your PC/Laptop/Motherboard manufacturers website for updated Sound Drivers for your particular system.
BTW, the latest updated X-FI Soundblaster drivers for Windows 7 are here, and not always easy to find:
http://support.creative....oducts...hampion+Series
Updated Realtek Audio Drivers are here:
http://www.realtek.com/d...ow...&GetDown=false
As I said this has fixed around 80% of the problems we've seen with 'black screen' failure to launch and crash errors. If this hasn't helped you read on and I'll talk about specific fixes including some known issues we have and are working on.