I recently had a computer friend look over my computer and tweak it a little bit, and in turn he ended up frying my entire motherboard so he rebuilt it for me a while back. He put in new and faster ram, new processor, new mobo, and completly new vent system.Since then I had a total Windows Crash,and lost everything, then installed Ubuntu, then I reinstalled Windows XP Pro Corp. Now, after the third or so wipping and reinstallation of OS's, I can't use my speakers anymore. They worked when I used Ubuntu, and when I had WIndows before that, but now I get nothing. I know the speakers are working fine. I know that Realtech sound drivers were installed on the fist windows installation, and now its not so I'm thinking I just lost drivers, but I can't find out what sound card is in there. I'm pretty sure its a built in sound into the mobo. I've tried running dxdiag and it has no soundcard installed so I'm drawing a blank on what to do now. Speakers are a big part of my system so I'd really like to use them. Anyone else run into this problem?

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Intel E4500 Dual Core ~2.2ghz
Radeon 2400PRO ~525Mhz w/ 512mb
Triboot Xp, Vista, and Ubuntu WD 250g

Can you tell whether the computer has a sound card or on-board sound?

I feel certain It is the sound driver (or lack thereof). Let's test this first. EDIT: I say sound card whether it is integrated or not.

Go to the device manager (In the Start Panel, Right-Click "My Computer" and select "Manage."
Then Click (In the left frame) the console for "Device Manager."

Is there a section labeled "Unknown Devices" with a yellow triangle (Right Frame)?

In the right frame, Expand the "Sound, Video and Game Controllers"

Are there any Yellow triangles?


If yes, this is likely to be your sound card. The thing to do is to go to the realtek site and download the proper drivers for your sound card. Follow their directions (usually unzip and run setup.exe) to install the drivers.

You can chose a die roll, and go ahead and see if MS can find the drivers. To do this:
Right-Click the sound card (either in unknown devices or in sound,video and game controllers) and chose "Update Driver..."
This will start the Found New Hardware Wizard. If you already have the sound card driver, you can tell it NO at this first screen.
If not, say YES, THIS TIME ONLY, and then click on the NEXT button. The wizard will attempt to go out and find out if MS has a working copy of a device driver. This is not necessarily the BEST driver, just one that will work. You can walk through the rest of the wizard easily enough. IF MS can not find the right driver, Don't worry, you can get it from Realtek.

The best thing is to download your driver from realtek, and use its install program to get it going.

Thanks thaylok! I followed everything and got them to work! Great advice!

__________________
Intel E4500 Dual Core ~2.2ghz
Radeon 2400PRO ~525Mhz w/ 512mb
Triboot Xp, Vista, and Ubuntu WD 250g