Can't get US-144 to work

[shai halud]

I have received a Tascam US-144. It comes with the supplied Cubase software. i have loaded the new drivers from the web site. My computer is 2.66GHz processor,512 MB Ram with a 160 GB external hard drive. Sound card is A Sound Blaster live 24 bit. After succssfully loading all the software and following the directions in the owners manual, i attempted to record a short guitar piece to test the recording. At first, nothing happened. After a while i was able to record something but i couldn't hear what i was recording either through the US-144 or the computer. The monitor indicator was moving and there was a wave form on the screen of the computer in track one's display. I tried loading the DirectX ASIO driver that came with the Cubase. After i did that, i was able to hear the produtc of track one through the computer, although the quality of the recording was poor and varied from one playback to the next.

Can anyone give me some insight and guidance to try to solve these problems. The operator's manuals give no help.thanks