Hi,
Here's the situation. I was given a Dell Optiplex GX260 computer at work, which came with Windows XP. I reformatted the hard drive and installed Windows 2000 (Traditional Chinese), but ever since, my computer has been unable to produce any sounds (no startup sounds, nothing whatsover). It's not a speaker problem, because I've tested the speakers elsewhere, and they work. I suspect it's a sound card driver problem, because when I check Device Manager, many of the multimedia/sound related components are listed under "other devices", with a question mark as the icon and an exclamation on it. However, when I try to install the drivers for them, they cannot find the drivers anywhere, including on my Windows 2000 CD, saying that they cannot find some kind of .INF file.
I have tried downloading various possible drivers for my sound card, which is supposed to be a Sounblaster Live! series card, but whenever I go through the installation process for these drivers, they always come out saying that they cannot locate a Soundblaster device and abort the installaton process (tried installing Soundblaster and KX series drivers).
So what is happening? Why can't these driver installers find my sound card? Why can't my hardward installation wizard find the .inf file that it needs to install the driver? According to Device Manager, I'm also missing drivers for Ethernet Control Card, PCI device, PCI input, Multimedia Control Card, and USB Control Card. Does it matter that I don't have these? Is the lack of any of these the reason why I can't get sound? And if so, where can I get these things?
Oh, and one more thing, if I upgrade to Windows XP (again Traditional Chinese version), would my driver problems go away?
Thanks a million!
Chris
P.S. -- Anothing thing, because the computer is company property, the box is locked, and I am not allowed to open it up to physically inspect the parts or make adjustments. I can only use software to determine what hardware components it has inside. Don't know if this matters.
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