Computer develops problems in few minutes after restarting

[greenhorn]

Operating System - XP Professional SP2
Computer - IBM ThinkPad T41

Suddenly the computer's sound device stopped working. On the control panel - Sound devices, it was saying "No Sound Device". This was strange, so I restarted the computer. After restarting the sound device was working properly when I tested with windows media player. After I closed the windows media player and restarted again, it stopped emitting sound. Again the control panel said "No Sound Device" found. I restarted and again the same cycle. If I keep any sound device working then it keeps working but only for one duration.

I noticed something else, in the device manager, the computer name tab says "Networking device not installed or not configured properly". This is related to sound device. When sound device is working networking has no issues and when sound device is not, even networking is not.

I don't know what the error is. I am not that computer literate in technical matters. Please if anyone of you have any idea then help me.

Thanks in advance.

[MartyMcFly]

I'm gonna be really careful when saying this, but it could be a motherboard fault, or some hardware related problem.

The two problems, bear little relation, except that they both sit on the motherboard.

Before I say anything else, and in the hope someone else will venture an opinion, you should check out device manager.

Boot into a faulty environment, and select "Start" > "Run" > Type devmgmt.msc

Do you have question marks next to devices. Right click the line next to any, and select "update driver", follow the process, and see if it helps.

Dave

['Stein]

Agreed with Marty. I don't think its a software-related problem. ;)