Hi GarfieldKlon,
Welcome in our club of "surround victim's". This issue will now follow you every crappy day of your life, until you give up.
So yes, you better bring the sound card back to where it came from,(Hell), and buy another one from Creative. Maybe you will have more luck with those.
But also their sound cards have lots of problems, so don't forget to check out user reviews on forums, good luck!