no audio device help PLEASE...

I have had a problem for a month now and all attempts to fix have failed. I have a DELL OPTPLEX GX260 and a month ago I noticed I had no sound. I checked Sounds and audio devices and "NO AUDIO DEVICE" is posted. There were no X or ? listed in device manager and when I list hardware all indications are that everything was working.

I tried to re-install the drivers from Dell web site but that did not work.

I tried to restore windows to earlier point but I seem to be unable to do that as well. I tried 7 restore points and all faied.

I tried Microsoft Fixit but that did not work.

I made sure that Windows Audio is activated and automatic in Computer management services.

Finally I caved in and bought another sound card thinking it may be a hardware problem and not a software problem. I installed the new card but I have the same problem just with a different sound card. My new card is STARTECH.com 4 channel PCI sound card with AC97 3D audio efffects.

I did disable integrated sound card when I installed the new card but enabled it since just to try that.

Another message board indicated I should re-install windows which I can not do as I do not have XP disk for this system, Windows XP was installed when I bought this system.

I have SPECCY so I can attach more detail if needed
Summary
Operating System
Windows XP Professional 32-bit SP3
CPU
Intel Pentium 4
Northwood 0.13um Technology
RAM
1.00GB DDR @ 132MHz (2.5-3-3-6)
Motherboard
Dell Computer Corp. 02X378 (Microprocessor)
Graphics
SyncMaster (1680x1050@60Hz)
Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller Hard Drives
75GB IC35L090AVV207-0 (ATA) 41 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8162B
Audio
Sound Cards
C-Media PCI Audio Device
SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio
Speaker Configuration
Speaker Configuration
Speaker type Stereo

 

Hello

I am thinking your problem could be that your audio is not active in your bios.

Check your bios and see if your audio is switched off.

 

Goldenskull, I did check integrated sound and it was on. I did turn it off when I installed my new sound card but when my new card did not work, I turned it back on. Are there more bios sound settings? I looked through but did not see anything.

 

Go to settings/control panel/system/device manager

Do you have any devices in the list saying unknown en:confused

 

Found a solution for anyone experiencing the same issue.

Locate "machine.inf" on your OS, copy it somewhere and modify it.
Find "ExcludeFromSelect=*" and remove the line or simply exclude it from processing by adding a ";" at the beginning

Check the "machine.inf" file for location where SWENUM should be located (mine was reading: SWENUM.CoInstallers.CopyFiles = 11 ; %windir%\System32)

Find "swenum.sys" file on your XP installation CD and copy it to system32

Go to Control Panel Add Hardware and follow the wizard towards manual selection of device to be added

Select Add System device

Select Have disk

Navigate to changed machine.inf

From the list select standard devices (in the left list) and "Plug and Play Software Enumerator" in the right list

Finish the installation