System doesn't know it has a sound device

Greetings, all.

After doing a routine (bi-monthly? ish?) malware sweep on my laptop using Malwarebytes, Superantispyware, Spybot and Antivir's scanner (with a whipped-creamy topping of MGtools) I decided to give CCleaner's registry cleaner a quick go. I had done that fairly recently, as I'd forgotten, so there were only 4 entries that came up during the scan. Figuring, foolishly, that CCleaner "ain't broke nothin' before" it wouldn't do anything now, so I didn't think anything of clicking "fix selected issues".

Now, here begins my comedy of errors that led me to my current problem:

1) Instead of using CCleaner's registry backup, I simply exported the whole of the registry with regedit, not knowing that that wouldn't help me in the event of a problem...

2) After I realized that I essentially didn't have a registry backup, I also discovered that at some point, months ago, when I actually did have a malware issue I had forgotten to turn system restore back on.

I'm running XP SP2. Sound and Audio Device Properties says "no audio device".

Could I just download the drivers for my sound card and fix everything?

On a (possibly) unrelated note, since then the tray icon that shows how much battery power I have left hasn't been appearing when I unplug the laptop.

Help me Majorgeeks, you're my only hope.

-Moses

 

Downloading and installing the sound drivers is definitely a good start. You didn't mention what's listed in the Device Manager under Sound, Video, and Game Controllers. This would tell us if Windows is seeing the audio device but there's no drivers, or if the device is not being recognized at all. As to the battery icon thingy: right click a blank space on your desktop and select Properties, click Screen Savers, click Power, click Advanced. There you should see the settings for whether the battery icon appears or not..... posting your PC make and model would be helpful too.
:-D
Good luck!

 

Howdy, dlb, et alia!

Let's see... the laptop's a hp pavillon dv1331se.

In the device manager, to wit, is:

-Audio Codecs
-Conexant AC-Link Audio
-Legacy Audio Drivers
-Legacy Video Capture Devices
-Media Control Devices
-Video Codecs

 

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=228&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=501968
Driver downloads for HP Pavilion dv1331se

 

Alrighty, here's what happened:

I went to the HP website and downloaded the audio drivers for my model.

After installing, the sound tray icon didn't show up and before testing anything else I restarted the laptop. When I did so, I heard the "Windows is shutting down" sound and figured everything was ok.

However, when my computer started up again, there was no sound and Sounds and Audio Device Properties still says 'No Audio Device'.

Thoughts?