accidently deleted the "sound" on his computer!!! Do I have to reinstall windows XP or can someone figure a better way??? It is loooooooong gone.....no sound for his music etc.

A couple of things here...

Did he just delete the icon on the toolbar? Or did he go into control panel and hit 'uninstall'?

he went into the control panel!!!!! IDIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT HE IS GEEEEEEEEEEZ!!!

i THINK he also deleted it!!!!! He meant to delete something else which he thought was a virus!!!!! STUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPID KIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ I BLAME HIS BRAIN ON HIS FATHER GEEEEEEEEEEEEZ!!!!

Hmm...I'm not an expert on this stuff, but that doesn't seem right. I mean, I didn't think you could uninstall "sound only" from the control panel. Let me investigate this one. Hopefully someone else may be able to help you out.

Can he get into "Control Panel" and click on "Sound, Speech, and Audio Devices"?

maybe I will post this in the help section as well! Thanks anyways bay!

Go to start, Accessories, system tools and click on system restore,, you can restore your comp back a fews days should bring it back for you

Hmmmmm I think he killed the sounds, speech audio devices.....

Thanks I will try that LaMOM

Good luck sweetie,,

Heres ur cure darling,...what he did was dump the sound driver!
Get on line, go to the website for ur computer? like Dell,hp, gateway....look at the model name and number on the computer, type in the search field, sound drivers, driver updates! when it takes you to the download, click save to desktop, double click on the driver,install it and reboot! Good luck darling

Thank you for all your help guys!!

just re-install the sound driver and software

I do not run XP, but this is a generic cure for this problem:

The idea is to delete all the sound drivers.
Windows will detect the sound hardware and re-install the drivers on the next re-boot.

Hopefully.

In Win2K, I do this; it may be the same in XP:

This is a clean wipe, and you don't need to find all the drivers and wrestle with Bill Gates to install them.

If it doesn't work, you may need to re-install drivers,
which is where you are now, anyway.

Go into the device manager:
Right-click on My Computer
Right-click on Properties
Click on the Hardware tab
Click on Device manager

Or find another way. There are several.

In Device Manager:
Open the Audio file (Sound, Video & Game controllers)
Delete everything in it, or at least those that relate to audio.
(You need to open the audio file repeatedly to do this;
it closes after every deletion)

Re-boot

Hope this is a help

Another way to get there:
Open Control Panel
Click on System
Click on Hardware
Click on Device Manager


If you successfully restore the sound,
you might consider installing protective software.

I recommend 'Mittens,' available at most local clothing stores.

Forgot to mention:

Mittens must be installed in pairs, or your son will be able to remove them.

Unlike Windows' memory, a matching pair is not necessary.


Things are not always as simple as they might appear.
You can contact me directly about this computer problem
using <my name> at yahoo (if you wish);
I may be able to walk you through it over the 'phone.

Good luck.

At the risk of being obsessive, here is another thing:

The idea here is that Windows may become clogged with multiple obsolete or duplicate drivers, over time.

Re-installing a driver does not necessarily replace the the original (who knew?).

This procedure is a software enema.

Boot up in Safe Mode:
Press the F-8 key at the critical time during startup (experiment - it also may be F-12 for Compac, I think);
select Safe Mode from the menu.

When your desktop appears,
go to the Device Manager as described previously.

Open every folder. Every one, one at a time.

Delete every entry that is a double.
They will be adjacent listings; they are sorted alphabetically.
Delete them BOTH.

Delete every entry that relates to obsolete hardware,
like the printer driver for that old Epson you replaced with the new HP. Or that driver for your old scanner.

If you are not sure about a file, don't delete it!

Shut down.

Re-boot.

Windows will find each piece of hardware and re-install ONE ITERATION of the driver software for it. EXCEPT:

Several instances of those multiple 'Holders' and 'Hubs' you deleted from the last two folders may be required.
Don't worry if Windows installs more than one of them.