I have a laptop that was having some trouble with the mixer device and as a result, couldn't produce sound. So me and my workmate tried eveything under the sun to get it working including installing different drivers (for audio and other devices), changing settings, re-bootng the machine and the list goes on! There were a couple of devices that had exclaimation mark which weren't sound devices and so I decided to try and uninstall one of the devices (which was a PCI device) and refresh the list to see if it could find and install the device automatically. It didn't. Now the computer's running very slowly and I'm just sitting here like a lump, scratching my head. lol I need help!!! Please!!!! Thanks in advance! Life is but a dream ...

You have to find out exactly which devices need drivers & install them. You wrote that there's a "couple of devices that had exclaimation mark"...what are they listed as? The PCI device might very well be sound. Did you install the motherboard chipset drivers?

You can try a 'System Restore' to a date before the trouble started. Use a program like 'SIW' to determine the devices that are connected to your system.

I'm not sure if the motherboard chipset drivers are installed but you might be onto something there. I've tried using Everest Home Edition but because this laptop's a business computer, it won't work and I don't wanna have to pay for the corporate edition. And I can't try a system restore because I don't want to lose any data on the C: drive. What's really annoying is that the NIC doesn't work and that can be a pain when you're trying to get an image of it using Altiris. Life is but a dream ...

Update: We were finally able to successfully get the sound device and NIC working. All it took was updating the drivers via Microsoft. Thanks so much for the advice, guys. I appreciate a lot!!! Life is but a dream ...