Hi, I have recently reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled everything from scratch. I have Windows ME on C:, all my programs on D: and all my files on E:. The computer is a Compaq 7460 with an AMD Athlon 500 Mhz processor and 192 MB 100 Mhz SDRAM (8 MB taken up by the integrated Trident Blade graphics card). Everything seems to be working very well, for the most part. The only problem is the sound. Sometimes the wlecome music for Windows plays, sometimes not. Sometimes Windows sound is very faint, sometimes nonexistent, and sometimes completely normal. I have not installed any specific drivers for sound (Ess Allegro PCI Audio), partly because according to Ess Technologies, Windows has all of the necessary drivers, and partly because I have not been able to find any specific drivers. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what might be causing these sound problems, and where Imight find drivers? Thanks.

Is this an on-board sound card or PCI? Try and search for drivers is the first piece of advise i can give you. Secondly, are you using hifi speakers or PC speakers? This does make a difference depending on the way you chose to do the wiring. Do you have the sound card output connected to the hifi amplifiers input? How many bits is the card? Have you checked the settings? Its really just a process of trial and elimination. What have you tried so far and what happens?

try to wiggle the speaker wiring plugs to the computer, they sometimes get oxidized and that causes inconsistend sound... you can also try to check out the sound with headphones instead of the speakers. Regards Miro

I had the same problem until I reinstall Me! Why don't you try it? Good luck Quang Huy

It seems the problem was directly related to the same thing causing my problem with multiple Windows Explorer windows opening at startup - namesly Norton Personal Firewall 2001. A timing problem, according to Symantec. For those who have the same problem, the solution is to tell NPF not to start at startup but to wait to be started manually. Then you put a shortcut in the startup folder on the start menu.