[ChaoticDayZ]

Hi i have been messing around with helping build PC's for around 7 yrs and never had this problum before.I reformatted from Vista back to XP and now have no sound.I went to control panel sound and it says no device installed.This situation is kind of temp were going to rebuild this PC next week but its's still driving me crazy.Im so used to vista.Isn't the device mgr in the control panel? it's not there

Help thanksBruce

[Daveskater]

Is it a manufactured PC or custom built one?

There may be a CD with drivers on so if you're using on-board sound, try that. If it is a manufactured PC or you are using a PCI sound card, then check the manufacturer's website.

[ChaoticDayZ]

Thanks for getting back so quick.This is a homemade system AMD 6000+Dualcore AM-2 ASUS M2N32-Deluxe SLI evga 8800GTX- X2 creative 5.1 speaker system.I reinstalled Vista at least now the headphones work but im starting to think maybe the speakers are shot.Im showing no errors in the device mgr before under XP it showed no errors also.Kind of frustrating,any more ideas im looking thru all my PC junk to find a another set of speakers.any oter ideas??.Thanks -Bruce

[ChaoticDayZ]

It was the darn speakers after all. Seems like sometimes i try to look TOO into a problum + neglect the simplest answer.Im about to rebuild this system Thursday .no more Nvidia for the 1st time ATI 4870X-2 GPU with a DFI 790FXB-M2RSH mobo.wish me luck im gonna try crossfire this time on 1 card instead of my 2 evga Nvidia 8800GTX X2 in SLI mode when i can get that to work.Sound problun closed.Thankyou
ChaoticDayZ(Bruce)

[Albert Lionheart]

Back to your original question (or one of them anyway!) the device manager in Windows XP is in System > hardware > device manager.
Also if you have a look at the Sounds item and check to see if there is an audio device listed (just at the top on the first tab marked Volume) - if not then reinstall as suggested by DaveSkater, if there is check it is not muted and the other obvious things like the speakers are OK. You can see if the card is generating output by selecting a sound and clicking on the play button (Small one of these >) - if the > turns even briefly to a square the sound card is probably OK.
Let us know how you get on!