Well?

Do you mean building a PC from scratch?

Yes

I think I've caught the bug and no doubt I'm going to need help later on - so just checking.

But having saidthat my existing PC refusestogive any sound. Everything I've read says to re-install the soundcard. But I did not install it in the first place! Anyway Idid it anyway, but there is still no sound.

In the 'sound/volume' part in control panelall of it is greyed out - apparently esp the first two sections (in volume),that indicatesa driver or soundcard problem.

In device manager it did have a'pci modem' with a yellow question mark on it. I said did have, because I went to change/remove hardware and stupidly removed it, I thought I could change it but it did not give me any options - it just went straight ahead and removed it. Now I don't see it anywhere! Why does it say 'change'?

Anyway so now I'm left with the problem of seemingly no soundcard and no trace of it on the system - yet it's inside the case!

I've got a cd which contain fax info and whenI installed that, 'voice playback and recording' and 'sound recording and playback', are no longer greyed out but there's still no sound and the volume parts are still grayed out.

Before anyone ask - yes all connections are connnected up as they should - (first thingI checked since whenI first got a pc a similar thing happendthen and I learnt the hard way that is what you should always check first ).

Btw its a 'Realtek AC97 Audio'.

Anyone with any ideas?

The realtek is an onboard soundcard. Its part of the motherboard.

The reason it would be greyed out is if its disabled in BIOS or if an additional PCI soundcard is installed.

No doubt its one of those factors.

Thanks stick-up. Yes I read something about the bios too but its sooo complicated and the one thing they keep stressing is messing about with it could mash up the system and we, (Microsoft et al), takes no responsibility for any damage caused, meaning we're now off the hook if anything goes wrong thanks to that statement.

Anyhoowhenever I boot up I just get a pure black screen then Windows so ...

The BIOS looks scary but don't forget you don't have to save any changes you make.


Just go into it -- normally by pressing del or ins during the first few seconds of boot-up -- and have a browse but don't save changes until you're confident.

ok will do it now - i'm assuming its the 'advanced' section i'd need but i'll hunt around. thanks for the tip - i think i may had saved something previously in the bios why i get a black screen on boot up now- sigh

@interested parties:

All fixed! It was a driver problem.