No sound after reinstall

Using Dell dim. 3000, win xp home, sp2, C-media sound card (which replaced original dell card)

I reinstalled windows and got most of my programs back up and running but the sound is not there and I have tried dozens of "fixes" to no avail. I got all the dell drivers I needed after the reinstall. A long time ago, I replaced the Dell sound card with a C-media card and it has always performed well - UNTIL after the windows reinstall! I have posted many times at Dell forums but can get no useful help there. I removed the Cmedia card from my Dell tower so there is no physical sound card in the cumputer for now. I had hoped to access the internal audio device from the front jack with my headphones but still no sound at all.
Currently, the device manager shows = SoundMax audio = Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39) Click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter for this device.
I would greatly appreciate it if anyone can help me out here or offer any leads, etc. to get sound back on my computer.
thank,
jim

The driver for the onboard device is available from Dell's website (here - http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19), if the hardware is in one piece, installing this should sort it out?

Make sure you have onboard audio enabled in the BIOS before trying to install drivers. Also I'd try the C-Media card again (after disabling onboard audio in BIOS), their driver page is here http://www.cmedia.com.tw/en/DownloadCenter_Detail2.aspx
You'll need to know the model no. of the card (usually on a sticker on the circuit board).