This usually occurs because of corrupted drivers .. you should completely uninstall the sound card driver, reboot and let windows detect the card and if it's not plug n play ... install the driver manually, not automatically.

Thanks for helping!

I've reinstalled the driver like you suggest. Windows detects the card and installs the driver, but still there is no sound and no volume control on the taskbar. Also, the sound control panel tabs for volume, sound and voice says that no sound device is available, and all the options are unactive (greyed).

So - I'm still quite puzzled..

See if there is any conflict in the hardware irqs ... go to run -- msinfo32 -- hardware resources -- conflicts/sharing.

Thanks again for helping!

I have now run msinfo32 and looked for conflicts. No warnings or error messages that I can detect. The list looks like this:

I/U-port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 PCI-buss
I/U-port 0x00000000-0x00000CF7 Kontroller for direkte minnetilgang (DMA)

I/U-port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF NVIDIA nForce2 AGP Host to PCI Bridge
I/U-port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF RADEON 9200

IRQ 21 Standard OpenHCD USB-vertskontroller
IRQ 21 Realtek AC'97 Audio
IRQ 21 OHCI-kompatibel IEEE 1394-vertskontroller

IRQ 22 Standard OpenHCD USB-vertskontroller
IRQ 22 NVIDIA nForce MCP Networking Adapter

Minneadresse 0xA0000-0xBFFFF PCI-buss
Minneadresse 0xA0000-0xBFFFF NVIDIA nForce2 AGP Host to PCI Bridge
Minneadresse 0xA0000-0xBFFFF RADEON 9200

I/U-port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB NVIDIA nForce2 AGP Host to PCI Bridge
I/U-port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB RADEON 9200

The IRQ-list looks like this (I don't know if it's helpful):

IRQ 0 Tidtaker OK
IRQ 1 HP PS2 Keyboard (2K - 3) OK
IRQ 4 Kommunikasjonsport (COM1) OK
IRQ 6 Standard diskettkontroller OK
IRQ 8 CMOS/sanntidsklokke OK
IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-kompatibelt system OK
IRQ 10 NVIDIA nForce PCI System Management OK
IRQ 12 Logitech PS/2-portmus OK
IRQ 13 Matematikkprosessor OK
IRQ 14 Primær IDE-kanal OK
IRQ 15 Sekundær IDE-kanal OK
IRQ 16 RADEON 9200 OK
IRQ 18 Conexant HSF V92 56K PCI Modem OK
IRQ 20 Standard utvidet PCI til USB-vertskontroller OK
IRQ 21 Standard OpenHCD USB-vertskontroller OK
IRQ 21 Realtek AC'97 Audio OK
IRQ 21 OHCI-kompatibel IEEE 1394-vertskontroller OK
IRQ 22 Standard OpenHCD USB-vertskontroller OK
IRQ 22 NVIDIA nForce MCP Networking Adapter OK

I'm still open for good suggestions on what to try next.. :-)

Knut

Here are a couple possible solutions.

Click "Start", click "Run...", type "msconfig", and click "OK". Click the "Services" tab, find "Windows Audio" in the list, put a checkmark next to "Windows Audio", click "Apply", click "OK", and restart your system.

If that doesn't work, try the following.

- Click "Start"
- Select "Control Panel"
- Select "Add Hardware"
- Click "Next"
- Select "Yes, I have already connected the hardware" and click "Next"
- Scroll all the way to the bottom of the list, select "Add a new hardware device", and click "Next"
- Select "Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (Advanced)" and click "Next"
- Select "Sound, video and game controllers" and click "Next"
- Select "(Standard system devices)" under "Manufacturer", select "Media Control Devices" under "Model", and click "Next"
- Follow the remaining prompts

Tried both these suggestions but there is still no sound.

The Windows Audio was already checked in msconfig, so I clicked it off and on before applying and restarting. When I reinstalled "Media Control Devices" in the "Add hardware" control panel, everything went OK. I restarted the PC after this step too, but sadly, no improvement in the situation.

I really appreciate your efforts and suggestions! Thanks

[Windows XP]: You can try restoring your system to the default audio settings by using a simple registry tweak. Click the "Download Now" button and select Run from the resulting menu. Click "Yes" when prompted to restore the default settings. http://www.5starsupport.com/download/defaultaudio.reg
Note: As always, be sure to make a backup copy of your registry prior to making any changes to it.

Backing Up Registry
Click START, then RUN. Type "regedit" in the box, without quotes. Click OK. When the registry editor opens, click on FILE, then EXPORT. Choose the location you want the backup (example: My Documents) to be saved in, and then, type a name like "regbackup-todays date" and click OK.

Thanks. Tried that too. Still no sound device detected by Windows. In my "Sound" control panel all entries in the tabs for "Volume", "Sounds" and "Voice" are still disabled. In the tab "Hardware", a standard system device "Media control device" is now listed 4 times. The name of the device is "Mediekontrollenhet" in Norwegian, so I'm not quite sure that it's called "Media control device" in English. Oh well.

Hi all! I'm still struggling to get my sound device back into Windows, but still no results. Yesterday I uninstalled and reinstalled win xp sp2 and all the updates, as someone tipped me that it might help. Unfortunately it didn't. Maybe it would be an idea to try to physically remove the sound card from the motherboard? Anybody tried that?