It starts because I need to find out why, after a FATAL exception OE, my sound card doesn't work (and the windows volume control icon has dissappeared).

Started with an unknow device problem and went from bad to worse in a hurry (shades of the barrel of bricks in D-A-L's "Accident report" post).

Looked in Device manager and didn't find the plug and play software device numerator shown. Did have an unknown device (which subsequently turned out to be PM when I downloaded the new IBM driver update manager) but used new hardware to force the load of PnP... no result and not found in device manager. Repeated. No success. Loaded Plug and play bios (fail safe) (what kind of name is that?) and all went to pot in a hurry.
Had to use the start up disk and go through all the routines in safe mode....
Finally disabled all hardware devices and rebooted and then discovered all sorts of duplicated hardware. Uninstalled all duplicates, rebooted and began to get there.

AIDA32 identified the Plug and Play fail safe and about 6 copies of the PnP software device enumerator (not shown in device manager).

DirectX says the PCI Audio card doesn't have its driver loaded. (integral and AID32 says i have a CS4614/22/24 Crystalclear sound fusion audio accelerator, bus 0, device 5, function 0 .... my OE was a Bus 0 device 1 function 0 but that was before i unloaded and reloaded the hardware so who knows?)
The IBM autmated diagnostics confirms but can't do anything.
IBM PC DR says basically the same thing; present but drivers not loaded.
Downloaded the new Crystal logic divers. Uninstalled the drivers as per the prompt. Rebooted and New Hardware found and loaded crystal fusion and the WDM interface but not the PCI audiocard.
Removed PCI from hardware profile.
Rebooted.
PnP reloaded everything in slow time ... except the PCI aduio card.
Using AIDA32, which seems to provide more detail on windows devices than dveice manager and appears more useful than Belarc, I find a Microsoft Kernel System renderer in the sound controller and video games section that doesn't appear in device manager. (?)

I downloaded the WMI scan (IBM T20 with WIN98se), well to be honest, I downloaded the wrong scan first but it identified that I had the wrong OS and aborted, then I downloaded the win98se version, installed it and rebooted.
Nothing.
Re-installed and nothing.
Searched for the files and found the WBEM folder in Windows System and tried to run the tools from there....

Winmangement log says:
(Fri Nov 25 12:32:28 2005) : core is being shut down by WinMgmt.exe, it returned 0x0(Fri Nov 25 12:48:48 2005) : core is being shut down by WinMgmt.exe, it returned 0x0(Fri Nov 25 12:54:29 2005) :
WINMGMT terminating an existing copy was detected(Fri Nov 25 12:54:29 2005) :
Bailing out due to Initilaization failure(Fri Nov 25 12:54:29 2005) : core is being shut down by WinMgmt.exe, it returned 0x0(Fri Nov 25 12:57:45 2005) : core is being shut down by WinMgmt.exe, it returned 0x0(Fri Nov 25 12:57:48 2005) :
In Restore, restoring C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WBEM\Repository\Cim.rec!!!

and the webmess.log (how appropriate a name is that?):
(Fri Nov 25 12:31:41 2005) : Failed to open child namespace DEFAULT in root: 0x80041003
(Fri Nov 25 12:31:41 2005) : Failed to open child namespace SECURITY in root: 0x80041003

The core log:
(Fri Nov 25 12:31:32 2005) : Core physically unloaded!
(Fri Nov 25 12:31:41 2005) : Error 80041003 occured executing queued request
(Fri Nov 25 12:31:41 2005) : CAsyncReq_OpenNamespace, Name= root\DEFAULT, in parent namespace root
(Fri Nov 25 12:31:41 2005) : Error 80041003 occured executing queued request
(Fri Nov 25 12:31:41 2005) : CAsyncReq_OpenNamespace, Name= root\SECURITY, in parent namespace root
(Fri Nov 25 12:32:04 2005) : Error 80041002 occured executing queued request
(Fri Nov 25 12:32:04 2005) : CAsyncReq_GetObjectAsync, Path= WmiBinaryMofResource.HighDateTime=29265367,LowDate Time=3029562368,Name="C:\\WINDOWS\\System\\ndiswmi .sys[NdisMofResource]" in namespace Root\WMI using flags 0x0
(Fri Nov 25 12:32:04 2005) : Error 80041002 occured executing queued request
(Fri Nov 25 12:32:04 2005) : CAsyncReq_GetObjectAsync, Path= WmiBinaryMofResource.HighDateTime=29265367,LowDate Time=3029562368,Name="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\wmicore .dll[MofResource]" in namespace Root\WMI using flags 0x0
(Fri Nov 25 12:32:05 2005) : Error 80041002 occured executing queued request
(Fri Nov 25 12:32:05 2005) : CAsyncReq_GetObjectAsync, Path= RuntimeBinaryMofsAdded in namespace Root\WMI using flags 0x0
(Fri Nov 25 12:32:05 2005) : Error 80041002 occured executing queued request
(Fri Nov 25 12:32:05 2005) : CAsyncReq_GetObjectAsync, Path= RuntimeBinaryMofsDeleted in namespace Root\WMI using flags 0x0
(Fri Nov 25 12:48:14 2005) : Error 80041002 occured executing queued request
(Fri Nov 25 12:48:14 2005) : Error 80041002 occured executing queued request
(Fri Nov 25 12:48:14 2005) : CAsyncReq_GetObjectAsync, Path= RuntimeBinaryMofsDeleted in namespace Root\WMI using flags 0x0
(Fri Nov 25 12:48:14 2005) : CAsyncReq_GetObjectAsync, Path= RuntimeBinaryMofsAdded in namespace Root\WMI using flags 0x0
(Fri Nov 25 12:54:29 2005) : Core physically unloaded!
(Fri Nov 25 12:57:45 2005) : Core physically unloaded!
(Fri Nov 25 12:57:48 2005) : Creating a new repository based on a previously backed up version.
(Fri Nov 25 12:57:50 2005) : Repository file was successfully restored from backup.
(Fri Nov 25 13:09:20 2005) : Core physically unloaded!

and the mofcomp.log:
(Fri Nov 25 12:31:37 2005) :
(Fri Nov 25 12:31:37 2005) : Parsing MOF file: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WBEM\CimWin32.MOF
(Fri Nov 25 12:31:47 2005) :
(Fri Nov 25 12:31:47 2005) : Parsing MOF file: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WBEM\RegEvent.mof
(Fri Nov 25 12:31:47 2005) :
(Fri Nov 25 12:31:47 2005) : Parsing MOF file: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WBEM\WMI.mof
(Fri Nov 25 12:32:05 2005) :
(Fri Nov 25 12:32:05 2005) : Parsing MOF file: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WBEM\msi.mof
(Fri Nov 25 12:32:07 2005) :
(Fri Nov 25 12:32:07 2005) : Parsing MOF file: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WBEM\CimWin32.MFL
(Fri Nov 25 12:32:14 2005) :
(Fri Nov 25 12:32:14 2005) : Parsing MOF file: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WBEM\msi.mfl
(Fri Nov 25 12:47:58 2005) :
(Fri Nov 25 12:47:58 2005) : Parsing MOF file: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WBEM\CimWin32.MOF
(Fri Nov 25 12:48:14 2005) :
(Fri Nov 25 12:48:14 2005) : Parsing MOF file: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WBEM\RegEvent.mof
(Fri Nov 25 12:48:14 2005) :
(Fri Nov 25 12:48:14 2005) : Parsing MOF file: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WBEM\WMI.mof
(Fri Nov 25 12:48:14 2005) :
(Fri Nov 25 12:48:14 2005) : Parsing MOF file: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WBEM\msi.mof
(Fri Nov 25 12:48:16 2005) :
(Fri Nov 25 12:48:16 2005) : Parsing MOF file: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WBEM\CimWin32.MFL
(Fri Nov 25 12:48:24 2005) :
(Fri Nov 25 12:48:24 2005) : Parsing MOF file: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WBEM\msi.mfl

All very frustrating.
I'd like to avoid F Disk as i am sure there must be a way out and hope you guys can help.

For your sound drivers, the PW3041.ZIP driver package from Cirrus Logic should do it.

Here's the direct link. Once downloaded, unzip the files from the PW3041.ZIP file into an empty directory. Close WINZIP (or whatever program you use for zipped files) and navigate to the directory and run SETUP.

Thanks Dan,
excellent response.
Using AIDA32 identified the Microsoft Kernel System Renderer as a rogue but since it did not appear in Device Manager i could not remove it directly.
I used the IBM sourced Crystal logic installer to remove the drivers, checked with AIDA32 and found the rogue was gone, rebooted and this time, instead of sending hardware installer to the driver folder with the IBM sourvced drivers, used the original WIN98 cabinet files.
This loaded the Crystal Fusion PCI audio accelerator OK though the other two hardware items are now not as expected.
On reboot i was greeted with the annoying Windows wav that told me my sound card was recognised and i also have Microsoft AUdio control back in the task bar.
Anyway, I can now repeat this excercisse with the drivers you have found for me.
Thanks.
I'll let you know how it goes.
I don't think I'll worry about the WIM problem for the moment.

OK, the new driver setup worked no better than the last (they are different), i ended up with no sound card again.
Removed drivers, using the Crystal logic tool, rebooted and when Hardware installer prompted, followed it through to the point where it said it had found a driver but chose the option to choose one of the other options instead and chose the PCI audio accelerator. That did the trick and i got my sound card back.

Now it is just my curiosity to satisfy whether there is a problem with PnP, with the Crystal Sound driver files or what? But since i am up and running, it is academic.

"... followed it through to the point where it said it had found a driver but chose the option to choose one of the other options instead and chose the PCI audio accelerator"

Was this a Windows (98SE) supplied driver set? Or, did it get the info/files from a previous .inf file that was on the system from a previous load? (When you load a driver set, the information for that set is written to c:\windows\inf as XXXX.inf files. These in turn point to drivers/.dll files in (usually) c:\windows\system.)

Hi Dan,
I did an F Disk some while ago and relaoded all the win 98se and the ibm files which included a win 98 suppliment but these are held in the c\drivers folders
windows\inf has 1426 files in it.....
any particular one i should look for?
msaudio.inf refers to msaudio.cat which find files can't find....
c\windows\inf\other contains crystalcwcaudio.inf
nothing in c\windows\inf\catalogue about audio files.
File checker doesn't eprot anything but i guess that's because of the file extensions if have been using..... the default set.
c\windows\catroot\cataloue3 (the only one there) has no msaudio.cat file though it has an msdsound.cat
I find wmdaudio.cat in windows\system\catroot\F750E etc.
The installtion of windows 98se required I create a c\win98 folder where I find the base and driver *.cab files.
In C\drivers\win9x\audio (which is where the IBM Crystal sound download was installed) I have a cwcaudio.inf file.
Anything else and anywhere else I should look?

I appreciate the time you are taking, though given that it is working, you could be forgiven for saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" though i must say I am curious as to why and why not and whether this problem is causing other unidentified problems.

PS the drivers are all in C\drivers
c\windows\syste\drivers is empty (I checked that I have show all file types selected)