Hi: I lost audio from my speakers except for the ability to hear recorded music on CD's. Windows WAV files (opening and closing programs) no longer heard. Windows Media Player returns error that sound card is not installed. System tray is missing volume control. Device Manager shows no conflicts: I uninstalled Creative Sound Blaster 128 PCI (WDM)in SAFE mode, rebooted in Normal mode, system found new hardware and again installed driver. Same issue. I looked at SNDVOL32.exe in System folder and nothing happens when I click on it. I tried to open Sound Recorder but the error message is there is no sound device installed. I went to Add/Remove Hardware and reinstalled the sound device. Nothing. Volume Control is grayed out in the Accessories folder under Start-Programs-Accessories-Entertainment. Really stuck on this one! Adam

Wanted to add that in Control Panel\Sounds and Multimedia\Devices\Audio Devices, the device listed is Audio for Creative Sound Blaster PCI128 (WDM). Status is: "Driver is enabled but inactive due to unknown problem." Adam

Third additional piece of information: In msconfig, I used selective start-up and on reboot the MS-DOS start-up screen appears. I used "NORMAL", not "DIAGNOSTIC STEP-BY-STEP" start-up. All sound files are normal (WAV, MPEG, and Windows sounds). Hope this helps someone. Adam

I also lost my audio...I think I deleted my speakers...I can't even go to my volume control...how do I get my sound back...thank you Melissa

"I think I deleted my speakers" Your speakers are pieces of hardware that sit on your desktop. How do you delete those?

Sounds like the same problem i had. I have a Sound Blaster Live CTCT4830 card. Device Manager indicated no problems yet i didn't have any sound, volume control in Systray. Clicking on a sound file produced a popup which said "Waveout format not supported" & other areas indicated no sound card. I installed a new SNDVOL32.exe file which didn't make any difference. After about 2 months of fiddling , i gave up on it & reinstalled WinME over itself without reformatting the hard drive. I had the WinME folder on my hard drive so i just clicked on setup.exe. To my surprise, all my settings, programs worked & files remained. The only thing i had to reinstall was AVG. Goback does have to be disabled b4 the reinstall. Now i have sound, volume control in Systray.

A bit complicated but this usually works The first step is to reboot into Safe Mode: Click on Start Choose Shutdown From the Shutdown Menu select Restart and click OK As your computer reboots repeatedly tap the F8 key on your keyboard (once per second) until a Startup menu is displayed Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to choose item #3 Safe Mode Press Enter on your keyboard. The next step is to remove Multimedia from Windows Setup: Click on Start-Settings-Control Panel Double-click on Add/Remove Programs Choose the Windows Setup Tab across the top of the window In the list of installed components uncheck Multimedia Click Apply and once the files are uninstalled click OK Close the Control Panel The next step is to remove the media resources keys from the registry: Click on Start-Run In the "Open" box type "REGEDIT" minus the quotes, click OK IMPORTANT "Backup the Registry": Click on the registry menu then click on export registry from the drop down menu. This will open a new box click on the down arrow beside Save in and select Local Disk (C:) In the File Name box type "backup.reg" minus the quotes Make sure under the Export Range that the radio button is beside ALL Click on save Click on the plus sign beside Hkey_Local_Machine Click on the plus sign beside System Click on the plus sign beside CurrentControlSet Click on the plus sign beside Control Click on the plus sign beside MediaResources Click once on the yellow folder beside Aux and press delete on your keyboard Click Yes to confirm key delete Click once on the yellow folder beside Midi and press delete on your keyboard Click Yes to confirm key delete Click once on the yellow folder beside Mixer and press delete on your keyboard Click Yes to confirm key delete Click once on the yellow folder beside Wave and press delete on your keyboard Click Yes to confirm key delete The next step is to remove and reinstall the sound drivers: Right-click on My Computer and choose properties Click on the Device Manger tab across the top of the System Properties window Click on the plus sign beside Sound, Video, and Game Controllers Remove all items under this category by selecting the desired item and clicking remove Note: You will have to click the plus sign beside Sound, Video, and Game Controllers again to re-open the category Once all items have been removes and Sound, Video, and Game Controllers no longer appears in the list click Close Reinstall the Sound Card Drivers When it has finished installing close all windows Click Start-Shutdown Choose Restart and Click OK The next step is to reinstall all multimedia components: As windows reboots it will redetect the sound card and partially reinstall multimedia components Click on Start-Settings-Control Panel Double-click on Add/Remove Programs Choose the Windows Setup Tab across the top of the window In the list of installed components uncheck Multimedia then recheck it Click Apply and once the files are installed click OK Close the Control Panel