Sound won't work on computer

I just reformatted my hard drive on a Dell Dimension 4700 desktop. The computer is factory except for the following: it now has 1.5 gig of ram, a different hard drive and a different graphics card. Those were upgraded a couple years ago.

The computer (and sound) worked fine until the reformat a couple days ago. That was done due to various little issues that were annoying (like slowness and adobe not updating, etc.)

According to "system information" I have the follwing for a sound card:

Name Creative Audigy Audio Processor (WDM)
Manufacturer Creative Technology, Ltd.
Status OK
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0004&SUBSYS_20061102&REV_04\4&10416D21&0&08F0
I/O Port 0x0000CC80-0x0000CCBF
IRQ Channel IRQ 17
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\ctaud2k.sys (6.00.01.1241-2.12.0700, 508.29 KB (520,488 bytes), 4/10/2007 5:20 AM)

Microsoft Window's website says I have no more updates available. Dell's website directs me to a sound card driver 994481.EXE, but when I install that, it says I do not have the right sound card for this driver.

I don't know what else to try to get my sound working. When I boot the computer, I get sound for a fraction of a second (that annoying windows startup sound) then it goes silent.

Speakers are on, sound is not muted, btw. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!!!

 

Did you reformat from a factory image or from your own cd (I'm assuming you are using windows xp?)

 

I reformatted using the disks that came with the computer from Dell. Yes, I am running XP.

 

There is supposed to be a separate CD that has the drivers for the audio.
I suspect that it's not a driver issue since you do hear sound when you first start up the pc.
Go to Control Panel -> Add New Hardware wizard and let me know if there is anything there with a question mark.

 

Also, To make sure that it's not the audio player,
Go to Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices
Click on the Sounds Tab on top
Then in the program events section, click on one of the events that has a speaker icon next to it.
Then hit the play symbol on the bottom (on top of the cancel button).
Let me know if you are able to hear anything.

 

Awesome! I went to the area you mentioned and did what you suggested and had no luck. On a whim, I uninstalled the device and made the computer find and install the driver for it. It worked!

I would never have thought to do that without you pointing me to that spot Thanks so much.

 

Update:

Everything worked perfectly until I rebooted my computer. Now, I am without sound again.

I had everything working - windows noises, cd's, videos online, media player.

Any ideas on what would cause this?

 

Oh, to answer the questions you asked.....

I am not able to hear any system sounds when I do what you asked. Also, there are no question marks next to any of the devices when I go to the add new hardware wizard.

I had windows troubleshooter open and did what they suggested up until they mentioned BIOS. The troubleshooter could not provide step by step info and I decided to wait to hear from you all.

I don't know if it matters or not, but I decided not to install "sonic digitalmedia v 7 le and my dvd 6.11 le", "photo album 5", "norton", "sonic cineplayer", "word perfect" and "cyberlink power dbd" 5.3.1012 software. These were all on seperate disks and they appear to be stuff I'd never use or want to have on my system.

I am using AVG free version for my anti-virus at the moment.