What is a good start-up sound system?

No sound after virus removal/system restore on Compaq Presario 6000 desktop pc?

• I had to take my Compaq Presario 6000 desktop pc in to get a nasty virus removed, and they had to copy any files that I wanted saved and then do a complete system restore which wiped anything that I had previously installed clean, as if the computer was new out of the box again. I have older Polk Audio speakers that worked perfectly fine before the virus. Now there is no sound whatsoever, no music or video audio, no error sounds, no startup or shutdown sounds, nothing. Also videos on youtube don't show up (you can scroll through them and click on them, but it shows up as all white/blank when the page loads so you don't see the video at all). I cannot do a system restore since there is nothing to restore to, since the computer shop wiped everything clean. I checked the speakers and volume control to make sure nothing was muted or connected in the wrong spot, they are connected to "OUT" as they should be. When turning the speaker volume up, only the hum/fuzz from the speaker can be heard (as if it was muted, but nothing is muted). The audio device is listed as "VIA AC '97 Audio Controller (WDM)". I looked online and in the troubleshoot section for "no sound/audio" and none of the steps have fixed my problem. The only things that I installed/updated after getting the tower back home was my Netgear wireless adapter, I reactivated windows, installed Mozilla Firefox, Norton AntiVirus, updated Adobe Flash Player, and updated a Windows Service pack that came back as High Priority after a scan. I'm thinking the sound driver needs updated or something but even after uninstalling and reinstalling a couple that show up, nothing has helped. There are various websites that show driver or codec updates for the audio controller but I don't want to download a lot of random things that scan the computer looking for out of date drivers since they don't fix the problem unless you buy their software. HELP please & thank you!!

• Answer:

  I think it's a driver missing, too. I also don't like to randomly download drivers and such trying to find the right one. I would go at it a bit differently: Start RIGHT click My Computer Properties Hardware tab Device Manager This will bring up a window with a device tree. Near the bottom, look for Sound (may also say sound, game controllers...) If you open that up you will see a list of sub-devices. Right clicking on each one and selecting properties will open a window that will tell you if it's working correctly and also allows you to troubleshoot it. That same right click (above Properties) will let you update the drivers. A quick way to tell if something's amiss will be if you see a large exclamation mark or question mark on any of these devices. After you have fixed it, and I really hope this works, I'd uninstall Norton and burn the box it came in. But that's just me. Good Luck!