Audio Problem with 4.1 Speakers

I recently tried playing Half Life 2 with my 4.1 Altec Lansing speakers but my sound during the game is extremely poor.  I have reinstalled my sound card software (Creative SB Live!) updated the drivers through windows and I still get the same problem.  I have updated my video card and have updated my Directx.  Also when I tried to install the driver updates (R91928.EXE) from the Dell website I get an error message - "Setup did not detect the required components.  Setup will exit."  I have run the Creative Diagnostic test and it fails the 'Hardware Detection' test.  What is the problem here?  Do I need a new sound card? Can anything be done?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.