StarDestroyer.Net BBS

My friend is having trouble with sound on his comp so asked me to consult the collective intelligence here:

'I'm using an onboard sound device, it has been working fine until now. I now have no sound at all, although for a period I had error sounds such as the tone that sounds when you hold backspace on msn messenger. I'm not sure exactly when it stopped working, but I cant seem to find an audio device in my device manager. I have updated all the drivers on the screen shot. Any ideas? Could it be a software issue of some form? Thanks.'

http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/3592 ... icesx0.jpg

Updating the drivers for a device Windows thinks is no longer there isn't likely going to help much
1. Make sure that the device isn't simply disabled in the BIOS. If it isn't, DO
disable and reenable it, just in case. If it IS disabled, well d'oh.
2. Try to reinstall the sound card via the hardware option in system control (Find new hardware, add hardware, whatever it is called in english). For whatever reasons Windows occasionally forgets about installed HW.
3. Does the sound card still show up as 'Standard Device' under 'Sounds and Audio Devices' (or something to that effect)? If not, that's a sign Windows does no longer recognize it's there. Go to step 1. If it does but still doesn't show up in device manager, I'm buggered but still recommend 1.
3b. If you feel like it's worth it, uninstall ALL the audio drivers and go back to step 2. I doubt it's going to work, but I can't with 100% certainty say that it WON'T. This can be expanded up to and including a complete Windows reinstall. Your call.
4. If none of the above works, chances are the card is fried.