Ok before the catcalls I know that an sb audigy is not a pro audio card.  I have a couple other computers with good cards (deltas)   I just want to use this one occasionally.  It has an xp2500 with 1 gig ram. an asus board
I used to use it with my delta 1010 and it worked pretty well.
Ok  I just put sonar 8 back on thsi computer and I cant get it to record in 24 bit.  The card is supposed to be 24 bit.  If set sonar at anything above 16 bit in audio options the channel meter goes right to being pegged in the red on the channel/track.  any ideas?  it is on its own irq  windows xp sp3  I have disabled onboard sound

and even in 16 bit it seems noisy.  hum etc

It's because the SB isn't a Pro card.

And 1Gb of RAM is barely sufficient to run the OS, let alone Sonar as well.

most of the SB cards would not run 24bit simultaneous recording and playback, so sonar would not allow it to be set to 24bit.  even tho SB claims "24bit" on the marketing hype, they didn't mention that it was 24bit playback OR 24bit recording, but not simultaneous - 16bit only in simultaneous.

Ok this is funny because I just did the same thing. I have my old SB Audigy 2 in my office computer just to play movies and MP3's. I have no problems using Wave Lab, most of my work before Sonar was Wave lab so I got my $300 worth out of it. . But forget Sonar! I have many attempt's, believe me. Funny Sonar almost works better with the on board Real tech card than the SB.    
When answering questions on the forum it's handy to be able to open Sonar. So I installed it on this computer the other day, The problem is the drivers,  They just don't jive with Sonar. Another weirdness is it can ONLY do 24/48 Mhz or 96Mhz so it won't even play projects that were done at 44.1. 

My old DAW was a Q6600 machine.  I upgraded my computer to a new system - completely upgraded everything including the case.  so I put my Q6600 in another room to serve as a backup.  but the only soundcard I have available for it was the onboard soundcard or an SB card (I don't remember the exact model).

I had to use ASIO4ALL to get it to work correctly, but it does work correctly using ASIOALL in sonar.

Thanks for all the input guys.  I think I am going to try the asio4all drivers and if that dont work give up.  I dont know what it is about computers that make me want to keep messing with them. this old one!    But I must say that this particular computer used to run sonar 7 quite well with a delta in it.

If your still there, I just re read your first post , do you have the soundblaster mixer set to "what you hear", that would create the loop.

yes I am here.  that mixer is tricky.  sometimes I cant get a  reocrd meter in sonar (but will still record) but if I switch the creative mixer to microphone and then back to line in the meter works!  so if I have it on what you hear it will create a ground loop?  I just installed the asio drivers and they work although I dont know that they work better than the creatives. 
   Now I couldn't get anything useable with my vaio laptop and its onboard realtek audio.  Intel T2310 @1.46ghz  2 meg of ram. win xpsp3  It used to run sonar decent with my motu 8pre  firewire that I had to sell.  (which i think is what led me to trying this old beast again)

it is still pciking up some hum somewhere not terrible but not ideal  I make sure I am not too close to the monitor.  could my reciever being next to the montior cause it.