Dear Tubesandwires You are high on the list of my gurus that know... Let's not spoil youe elevated status by trying to reinstall SoundMax yet again. I'm scared stiff that it will flake out again as it did after the initial installation by the people in the PC shop. Ok I haven't got the little arrow icon on the bottom of the page bar. Ok the playback sound is a trifle tinny.. but I do have a microphone that now transmits when I speak. So for me , once again, many thanks and as the bard says let sleeping dogs lie Bye and thanks Fred

Thanks for that, but I'm no guru. I just try to help others according to what I have experienced, and/or what I have learned of, when I can. Multiple posts about the same subject are a no-no on this web site. You really should have posted that post on your previous thread to finish it up. http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... Did you see response 6 in it? There is no risk involved in installing the right drivers the right way. The quality of the sound you get depends more on the quality of your amplified speakers and what input impedence rating is ideal for them, which varies quite a bit, more than anything else. If you have other amplified speakers, try them. If you have a stereo system close enough to your computer, you could try connecting Line Out to Aux In or similar on that.