Hi, I'm a complete newb to drivers and anything hardware, so I'm at a bit of a loose end. Basiclly I installed windows XP over my VERY old windows 98 1st edition.

After the installation I went to play a cd in WIndows media player, and to cut a long story short, I cannot play any sound. My games will not load becuase of it and its basiclly just very annoying. So I went to the device manager as suggested in XP help, what I saw was Three big yellow Question marks next to each of the phrases in the title of this post.

I have NO idea what this means, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE could someone help me. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO.

Many thanks from myself and my family!

Happy Christmas

When you went to device manager, what were the names of devices that had the ?
Do you know what motherboard you have, do you have onboard sound or a sound card?

Device manager didn't name the devices that had the ?. The just had a list under "Other Devices" And the list was as follows:

Ethernet,
Multimedia Audio,
SMBus Controllers

Each one had a big yellow Question mark next to it.

I have no idea what mother board, weather I have an onboard sound or a sound card. Please help, I cann't run any programs on my computer that require sound.

If you need more info, please tell me how to find it out, as I know VERY little about computers.

Many thanks

John

I'm sorry to "bump" this post, but this is one of the only message boards I could find that can help me. I really don't want to pay Microsoft for help so please could someone help me.

Thank you very much.

John,
I suggest you try to determine what hardware your machine has before trying to resume fixing your problem. Determine if said hardware is plug-in/add-on devices or built into your motherboard. If all the hardware is built into the motherboard then you must visit the makers website and see if that device is supported in Windows Xp. If the motherboard maker does not support it then look to the chipset maker for backup support. Alternately, Microsoft includes lots of support for most current hardware devices as well as rather obsolete hardware with the Windows XP os. If you used an upgrade version to installed Windows XP, that is most likely your problem and the easiest way to overcome that problem is a clean install of Windows XP rather than the upgrade. To fix the existing problem requires a bit of computer and Windows XP savy... and would be difficult to teach in this forum because of time considerations. I suggest also to read the knowledge base that Microsoft provides for free on their website and to utilize the power of google search engine for further XP trouble shooting help. :)

John,
I suggest you try to determine what hardware your machine has before trying to resume fixing your problem. Determine if said hardware is plug-in/add-on devices or built into your motherboard. If all the hardware is built into the motherboard then you must visit the makers website and see if that device is supported in Windows Xp. If the motherboard maker does not support it then look to the chipset maker for backup support. Alternately, Microsoft includes lots of support for most current hardware devices as well as rather obsolete hardware with the Windows XP os. If you used an upgrade version to installed Windows XP, that is most likely your problem and the easiest way to overcome that problem is a clean install of Windows XP rather than the upgrade. To fix the existing problem requires a bit of computer and Windows XP savy... and would be difficult to teach in this forum because of time considerations. I suggest also to read the knowledge base that Microsoft provides for free on their website and to utilize the power of google search engine for further XP trouble shooting help. :)

I appreciate all the above, but unfortunatly I have no idea what any of it means! How do I find out about my mother board, and if my sound is plug in or add on or built in, what do I search for at microsoft. They have no mataches for the title of my oringal post. So what am I supposed to do. Please could some tell me!

I appreciate all the above, but unfortunatly I have no idea what any of it means! How do I find out about my mother board, and if my sound is plug in or add on or built in, what do I search for at microsoft. They have no mataches for the title of my oringal post. So what am I supposed to do. Please could some tell me!

I have to say I am dissapointed at this community. i said I was a complete beginner at the beginning and I still havn't recieved a response from someone who posted a load of techical stuff. Please help me and my family. My kids can't play their games, I can't play DVDs or music, and its a pain in the butt frankly.

Please could someone tell me step by step, with pictures perferably, how to fix my problem.

Thank you.

if you can undo our computer case and look at the motherboard the biggest chip on the component side is usually the major supplier of drivers for that device, search thier website for a mother identification utility. i searched intels and fixed some of my error, also win xp will not regonize some of the components on some boards, generally these errors are usually on board devices.
I still havent found a driver for my onboard sound device.

To tell if you have on board sound open the case and seee if the audio jack is plugged into a "block" mounted on the mother board, if so you have on board sound.

If the audio jack is connected to a sepertate card usually inserted into a PCI slot on the board the you have indipendent sound card, chech this for manufacturer on numbers that may identify it.

Please let me know if you get a repair for the missing sound,

email reply jaywhy71@ntlworld.com

hope this helps

I have the same problem as you.... Hp are no help at all the s they said to me to pay them $70 to buy the back up cd's I have had no sound for 6 months but I can still play some games. I have just about given up. If you find the answer to fixing this please let us all know here too. Thanks Julie

You can email me at

petermcc99@hotmail.com

for step by step instructions

first we have to identify your board and bios, plus chipset.

Go to

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

or

http://www.wimsbios.com/ download bios agent and run program

then email me with the results

Julie,
if you will post the hp model # i may be able to help with your drivers .
terry