Processor: CyrixInstead 6x86M ESS 1869 Plug and Play Audio Drive and ESS 1869 Control Interface I have no sound on my computer. It used to work correctly, but 2 years ago, I spilt a glass of water on my keyboard and it has never worked since. I have replaced the keyboard. I have tried removing the Plug and play devices from the device manager as well as downloading drivers from the CD from the supplier (Time computers) as well as downloading new drivers for ES1869 from the internet. Device manager shows no conflicts and states that the device is working correctly. I have been into the BIOS to check settings and there have been no changes to the sound/PNP screens. I have checked the volume settings. None are muted. In multimedia in trhe control panel, the ES1869 Plug and Play Audio Drive is enabled and active. The sound card exists in all hardware profiles. The is a directory on my hard disk c:\essutil with some dos/config/ini programs. I have tried various settings in autoexec.bat and config.sys but there is still no sound with or without the following lines: [autoexec.bat] C:\ESSUTIL\ESSCFG.exe /A:220 /I:5 /D:1 /B:330 /J:E C:\ESSUTIL\ESSVOL.exe /V:8 /L:8 /W:8 /M:0 /C:8 /S:8 /A:0 [config.sys] DEVICEHIGH=C:\ESSUTIL\ES1868.COM /A:0 /I:0 When I try to run es1868.com I receive the error ‘this program has performed an illegal operation – tried to execute invalid instruction, fault location 0612-0100. However, I don’t know whether this should work, if it has ever worked, or whether the sound should use this directory. I was receiving an error on boot-up that the ES1868 PNP did not exist or that es1868.com was not installed. I removed all the c:\Essutil references (above) from autoexec.bat and config.sys and this error disappeared. In msconfig, win.ini tab, I have the following under Sounds: System default = Should this be set to something? Anyone any ideas? Any help would be much appreciated as I have been trying to fix this, on and off, for 2 years, to no avail.

I don't understand how spilling a liquid on the keyboard could cause and audio problem, but ... Try using msconfig to temporarily disable config.sys and autoexec.bat. They should not be needed for windows audio to work.

It's a long shot but did you try this driver? CLICK HERE It cured bad sound on a friends Packard Bell machine. Derek

Hi Thanks for the suggestion. I tried it but unfortunately it didn't make any difference. CLaire

Sorry Clair, that's about all I know about it. If this posts gets near to the bottom of the page without any more input I would repost it. You may be relying on just the right person passing by who knows this problem. Derek