Dimension5150/E510 desktop i'm an old guy i came home yesterday from celebrating my 55th birthday to find my computer had no sound at all. i can't hear it come on, i can't the buzz when i chat nothing. then this error came up that said no active mix device now i think i need a sigma tel high definition audio codec. i don.t even see the speaker icon on the task bar any more. what happen i don't know i when to play media player i had just added a new song and no sound came out. but i can't find the download i need i'm running windows xp is there someone who can leead an old man to the right place i would like to thank you very much for listening. and thanks for any help you can give.

The right solution for puter probs is nearly always 1. Restart, or 2. Turn off and turn back on ("Cold Start"), or 3. Uninstall and reinstall whatever is giving problems. But that's generic, and in this specific case you have a much better option, which is to do a "System Restore." Stop, do not panic! The name is much worse than what actually happens. Things are not wiped out, and no work that you've saved is distroyed. System Restore is not a violent operation. What actually happens is that recent changes are undone. Which is what you want in this case because some program running, or something, has courrupted your sound system in some way. We don't care exactly what happened because Windows will restore things to an earlier point, and so fix the prob. Or so we hope. In any case things won't be worse. Windows XP makes a System Restore point every day, automatically. You don't know it's happening, but it is. And three (or so) of these are kept in reserve for just this sort of situation. The trick is to get to System Restore, which is, as will all things puter, all a matter of knowing where to click. In this case click Start (the Start button in the lower left-hand corner of your monitor screen), and then click Help and Support. One of the options offered, will be "Undo changes to your computer with System Restore." (or similar) Click this, of course. A dialog (a new window) appears, and what you want to do is "Restore my computer to an earlier time." (or similar) So select that and click Next. And follow the instructions after that. Probably you want the earliest restore point available. My final thought is to return to the subject of how things broke in the first place. Do you run an anitvirus? You must. And do you update it? Sometimes the manufactures issue updates every day, and these must be installed. An antivirus not updated is worthless. Hope all this might be of some help. - Al A. -