Sound not working on XP

[meditative]

I was using Windows XP since long time on my home desktop but recently it got some virus. Hence formatted the completed hard drive and reinstalled windows. Installed all required applications and drivers. SO far everything is working except the sound. I tried some troubleshooting and found that it is Legacy audio driver but it says the file location is unknown, also it wont allow me to delete the same. I thought updating the driver could fix the problem but no success.

When I checked device manager, I found these stuffs listed under sound controllers:

• Audio Codecs
• Legacy Audio Drivers
• Legacy Video Capture Devices
• Media Control Devices
• Video Codecs

Do I have Media Audio Controllers?

[CoYoTeA]

First of all find out the make and model of the hardware you have in your system, visit the manufacturer's official website and download the sound drivers. Install the same and see what happens.

[crater7]

Okay I just found out my sound problem after about 4 months of not knowing what to do. I’m pretty good with computers and I couldn't find this one out! I searched the internet forever and never found an answer. Allot of people with these problems say that they formatted their computer and reinstalled everything but the sound didn't work

Specs-
1. Windows XP (pro)
2. SoundMax integrated digital audio (that I had no idea I had until the sound was fixed)
3. A motherboard mounted sound card.
4. A dell dimension 3000 desktop computer.

Here are the symptoms I experienced-

1. "I-Tunes has Detected a problem with your audio" shows up when I start iTunes

2. When I went to "start>all programs>accessories>entertainment>volume control" it told me that there was no audio device or something similar to that. (I forgot lol. cuz it doesn't show up anymore)

3. When I went to device manager the "Multimedia Audio Controller" had a yellow exclamation mark (a conflict with another device)

4. The "sounds, video and game controllers" part of device manager had the audio devices. (Which means it was detected by windows)

5. The only sound ever made by my computer was a CPU beep.

So after I searched the net for hours upon hours and tried to find the problem, I found out how to fix it.
Allot of people experiencing this problem say that they tried to reinstall the "Multimedia Audio Controller" but it said they needed a disk and, of course, none of them had it. You also have the option of browsing for the driver info. So I think that means that anyone who formatted their computer won't be able to fix it without buying the disk. But mine just stopped working. It wasn't because of reformatting. so I browsed for the driver info and I found it and that’s how I got it... that’s probably confusing because its worded badly lol so here is a step by step instruction

1. Go to "start>my computer"
2. Right click on that folder and click properties in that pop-down menu
3. Got to the hardware tab and click on device manager
4. Expand "other devices"
5. Find the "Multimedia Audio Controller" device and right click on it.
6. Click on update driver in that pop-down menu.
7. Now an install wizard should pop up it will ask if you want to connect to windows update to find the driver. Say yes or no, it doesn't matter. Click next.
8. There will be two choices. Choose "install from a list or specific location (advanced)". Click next.
9. Select "search for the best driver in these locations" and click browse. A browsing window will show up. 10. Go to

"My computer>local disk>dell (or whatever your computer manufacturer is)>drivers"

Okay... from here it’s a little weird. At this point the names of the folders turns into just a letter with numbers following it. My specific one is "R94481" but I’m not sure if yours will be the same. Just expand all of those folders and sub-folders. One of those folders should be called SMAXWDM if you have the same sound card as me. If you can't find it and you don't know what card you have then just try all of the folders in "drivers" that might be a sound card (ex. win2000 would NOT be a sound card). After you expand SMAXWDM then there should be folder called W2K_XP
So, assuming you has my computer exactly then here is what it would be

My computer>local disk>dell>drivers>R94481>SMAXWDM >W2K_XP

10. Click okay. Click next. If you selected the right drive then it should start installing it. Wait for the install once it’s done then you should be able to use your computers sound to its fullest!!!

I'm pretty sure I covered it all but if i left anything out then tell me.
I hope this helps allot of people!