Creative driver issue (mic)?

[Biohazard]

I can get my mic working fine through my Audigy 2 ZS /breakout box. However using apps like CS/CSS/TF2 and TS2 after each round or every hour or so the system deactivates the mic. I re-enable it by going to Creative Play Control (volume/speaker on the start bar) and I go to:

Options - Properties - Recording

I click/select/tick Line-in1/Mic and it works again.

What is unselecting the line-in1/mic channel? Is it one of the apps or is it creative software?

I suppose its irrelevent that it all goes through a mix and amp as they can't control windows!

I was thinking drivers of which I have the most recent. I know creative problems are vast and often go unsolved, just want to see if anyone else has seen this.

 

[split]

A lot of apps are capable of "grabbing your sound card".
If you are a MIX user (creative What U Hear) whenever you launch skype it will set your sound card back to MIC.
You would really want to use MIX on skype anyway but this setting to grab your sound card can be turned off. (tools > options > audio settings uncheck let skype adjust my etc)
Other apps like MSN do the same but no option to stop it in that.

Games may well be the same...not sure if you on XP, but that has a "use only default devices" check box in sounds.
Maybe worth a try....Vista sadly lacks anything in the sounds department