Safe mode is primarily for the removal of existing creative devices in device manager. Uninstalling the creative software shouldn't have to be in safe mode, but it couldn't hurt. Installing the card and drivers should be in normal mode.

I am hoping that the new drivers will resolve the IEEE 1394 problem as well. Have you let windows search for a driver? IEEE 1394 is supposed to be natively supported in XP. Do you have SP1 or SP2 installed?

You should either install the game port or disable the device if you don't plan to use it.