No Sound After Windows Reinstall - PC Hardware Questions & Answers

Laura writes in with a hardware question.
Q. Recently had to do a complete system restore. We had to re-install Windows XP now I can’t get my sound to work. I can watch movies in media player but I have no sound. Can you help me please?

Answer: The most common reason you won't have sound after a Windows reinstall is because of a missing driver. I would look in Device Manager under Sound, video and game controllers and see if you have a sound card listed and also see if you have a yellow exclamation point or question mark there. If you do that most likely means you are missing the driver or something is wrong with it. If you know the make and model of your sound card you can go to the manufactures site and download the latest version or maybe try the driver tab and have Windows try to update it online.
 
If your restore CD was the type that installs Windows and all of your programs rather than just a Windows CD then it should have installed the driver when you did the restore. You may be able to find the driver on the CD as well. If you don't know the make and model of your sound card you are going to have to contact the manufacturer of your computer and see if they can tell you.
 
If your sound card is listed and doesn't have any errors showing then you may have to do a little more troubleshooting to get it to work. Check out this question from a visitor who had a similar problem.

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