Need sounds

Hello everyone. I am a 53 yr old man who is rather computer illiterate. I lost my sound on my HP A465W desktop puter. I am running windows XP w/service pack 2. My puter has a realtek AC'97 on board sound chip. I have tried re loading, re-installing, downloading drivers, un-intalling, re-booting, and every other thing I can find to try...still no sound. I don't have a sound icon. Device manager says my sound device is working. But properties for the sound device on another screen says it isn't. When I try to activate the sound device, an error message says it isn't installed. Can someone bear with me to try and help? And please speak in plain language, cause as I said, I'm somewhat puter dummy. thanks so much.

 

In your control panel, double click on the Add New Hardware icon and see if the New Hardware Wizard can find any devices that are not presently installed.
You say that the Device Manager doesn't show any problem with your sound devices. Which ones does it list?
Are there any issues (exclamation points or question marks) listed in the Device Manager?

 

This is probably way too simple although it happened to me once, turned out mine it got muted some how.
I went to accessories in programs, entertainment, volume control.
Good luck

 

And if you are still having problems installing the driver, Completely remove Realtek, through Add/Remove Programs.
Run CCleaner, both the Cleaner and Registry.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/CCleaner_S...ish_d4191.html
Reboot, DO NOT let Windows install drivers.

Download and install this driver (Original 2004 Chipset driver)
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=391897&os=228&lang=en
Reboot (if the setup doesn't do it), DO NOT let Windows install drivers.
Download and install this driver (Original 2004 Audio Driver)
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=391897&os=228&lang=en


EDIT: Make sure to read the download and install insructions on the download pages.