just installed windows XP home edition, no sound

Just to get this in the clear and out in the open...i know NOTHING about computers, a friend took control of my computer to install some things (a professional computer guy, literally) and now that i can change my resolution, and he also installed windows service pack 2. I try to watch videos but i get no sound, i need what i guess is called a driver.

my computer is a dell, we just put in a 80 GB hard drive and i had another tower to save all my songs, so before i transfer files i want to get my music working.

i linked to the page with my "service tag" to show what kind of computer i have if that helps you guys. I tried to download a audio driver, thats what i was told i needed since in the control panel, system, hardware, driver, it had a question mark indicating i needed a driver but when i downloaded it, nothing happened, i opened the driver and it had an error.

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...ystemID=PLX_PNT_P4_GX260&hidos=WW1&hidlang=en

I hope all this makes sense, i do auto mechanics for a living but computers are a whole nother ball game.

thank you for your time.

 

Alright...so we've downloaded the file, but have we installed it?

Usually driver installation with these downloads from major OEMs is a two step process, actually.
The first expands the files into a directory you select
(IIRC, with dell the default is c:\dell\drivers\driverdesignationcode).

Some will then take you to a wizard which will install the drivers for you, other times, you have to manually install them by going into device manager (where you see the driver error), right-click the device, and select 'Update Driver'. You then point the wizard to the location you expanded the files to.

 

Using the link you supplied above, I found this link: http://support.dell.com/support/dow...=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=3&fileid=67126 Click on it and you'll be directed to your sound drivers. Download it to your desktop (or any other place it'll be easy to find) and double click it to start the install. Then follow the on-screen prompts, and reboot when finished. That's it! Good luck and feel free to ask any more questions you may have.

NOTE: The file name is R56339.EXE and this is the file you must double click on to start the installation, so remember where you downloaded it too. If you're asked something like "...the folder doesn't exist, do you want to create it?" answer Yes. Or it might say "The folder already exists, do you want to over-write the current folder". Answer Yes to this one too.

 

alright, well i did as you said, i thought i was doing it differently, and i get this when i try:

http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/6766/data1bv5.png