My system crashed a few days ago. its been a slug to get it going again. Maye my daughter who was the last one to use it downloaded a virus. The sound won't come up properly, I think that this is the only problem left. I had problems with the colour and the 3D too. I have a Pentium IV 1.6. The computer speaker works OK but not my external speakers. I go to DirectX analysis and click on the music tab and test the sound and beautiful music comes through the speakers. So, the speakers work. I can hear some crackle coming through the speakers when I switch the computer on. I go through control Control Panel and click on sounds, the little triangle that points to the right is greyed. This means that the sound will not work, and it doesn't. Also, in this section are about 5 sound devices detailed and they are all greyed. I go to the system icon and click on sounds and things and there are listed a MIDI device and a few other things that look like sounds. I check the drivers on these and they are OK. There are no conflicts. I go to the manufacturer's site and download the latest drivers but that doesn't improve anything. Sound still doesn't work. I go to sound trouble shooter and try all of their tricks. The only one that I can't try is that it says that the driver should end in VXD. But the manufacturer's disk puts a driver in there with a different ending, knowing that it is suitable for windows me. Anybody got any suggestions?

Clive, just a thought. Right click My Computer>>click Properties>>click Device Manager (Tab) Click the + sign besides sound, video and game controllers. Look for a reference to your sound card. Right click it then click properties. See if under Device usage Disable in this hardware profile is check. If it is try unchecking it. Forgot to say when you first get to Device Manager see if there is any ? ! X marks. I'll Try