hello and thanks to anyone who may reply! I recently re-formatted my computer and i seem to have a problem with my sound card (?). When i try using windows media player, i get the following message: "cannot play back the audio stream: no audio hardware is available, or the hardware is not respoonging". i went to the control panel just to test sounds etc, but can't even do that... the option is not available to me. ANY ANY ANY ideas as to what i can do?

thank you v. much and Merry Christmas!

Try uninstalling your sound card from the Device Manager, then reboot, and reinstall it.

Which sound card is it by the way?

The sound card drivers arent probably even installed. Try installing them then report back.

If you have trouble finding them - tell us the model of the card, and we'll try to find them for you.

Thank you both (Arcanum and Federelli). K, i don't think i have a separate cd for the sound drivers... i just thought they would automatically go on with the reformatting. I don't know which sound card it is.... would finding out involve me opening the case or is there a simpler way? (dunno how relevant this is but i went to the system information tab and there is nothing under sound device). could u please please please drop a line on the drivers or anything that may help... thannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnk you!

el desperado

it would help if you listed what kind of a computer you have. if it is a brand name then give us the brand and model number.

also you can download SIW and run it to find out what your motherboard is that would tell us if you have onboard sound.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/gtopala/

it's an AMD Athlon(tm)XP,1.05GHz, 256MB RAM for what it's worth. i will try downloading the program BUT i am on really slow dial-up. Thanks