1. I have no sound! i go to "sounds and multimedia properties" and i click on the audio tab. but under both sound playback and sound recording, under preferred device, it is just gray and says "no devices". i know i have a device becasue everything else was there probperly, but because it's gray i can't click on it or change it so that i can list the device i want. 2. also i noticed that in "sound and multimedia properties", i have no option that says "Show volume control on the taskbar".i dont have volume control period, and i think this may have something to do with it. 3. one more problem, and i dont know if this is related or not, but when i press start, and run and type in "taskmgr" it says windows cannot find it??? any suggestions ?? thanks in advance!

You could try a System Restore to a point before the problem occurred, if there is still a problem (that can be fixed too!)... Run DirectX diagnostics, (Start|Run|dxdiag|Music tab) and test the ports, hear anything, any messages? Any problems in Device Manager (right click My Computer|Properties|Device Manager, (expand the + sign on Sound,video and game controllers) look for yellow exclamation marks)? If so: Boot into Safe Mode [F8 on boot]. Remove anything to do with sound from Device Manager, reboot and let Windows detect your hardware and reinstall the Soundcard drivers (if you have your drivers disc, use that or download the latest drivers from the Soundcard's manufacturers website). Unrelated to your sound problem, try running taskman not taskmgr. Good luck. Bill.

If you have a toshiba laptop then you can uninstall the audio drivers from device manager, then take the configuration disc in and let it auto start with pc on, then you'll see how to reload those drivers. Hope this helps, John...