no sound?

[Arceus]

I just got a free computer from school, window XP
anyways, I got it working at home, everything works, except the sound, there is no sound, i already got the speakers. It seem that the sound was deleted or something, so i went to dell.com to download the audio, but with no luck. can anyone help me? what's the problem?
here is the message i keep gettting:

[Ummagumma]

Go to the device manager (right click 'My Computer' > Properties > Hardware tab > Device Manager) Check what is in the 'Sound, video and game controllers' rollout. I think that if it was disabled there it is ignored completely. Make sure everything is enabled, and reboot. The system should then detect it (the 'new hardware found' wizard).

[Arceus]

how do you enable it and roboot?

[Ummagumma]

You see that Multimedia Audio Controller in 'Other Devices' - That's an unrecognised device - Probably your sound card. All the others in the Sound, Video etc.. are just codecs and legacy stuff.
Right click on the unrecognised device and pick 'update driver'. With luck windows update will find all you need to enable it again. I'm not 100% certain, but if you right click it, go to properties there might be a 'device usage' drop down, set it to 'enable'.
Other than that, it is there, just unrecognised. Once you or windows has found the correct driver it'll be fine.

Edit: Thinking about it, is it onboard sound? - You should just download the motherboard drivers, that should identify it..

[Arceus]

You see that Multimedia Audio Controller in 'Other Devices' - That's an unrecognised device - Probably your sound card. All the others in the Sound, Video etc.. are just codecs and legacy stuff.
Right click on the unrecognised device and pick 'update driver'. With luck windows update will find all you need to enable it again. I'm not 100% certain, but if you right click it, go to properties there might be a 'device usage' drop down, set it to 'enable'.
Other than that, it is there, just unrecognised. Once you or windows has found the correct driver it'll be fine.

Edit: Thinking about it, is it onboard sound? - You should just download the motherboard drivers, that should identify it..

i updated but it didn't work, it said i need a cd, i already check the device usage, its enable.
how do you download the mother drivers?
ahhh, stupid computer

[Ummagumma]

It should be somewhere on the dell site. I'd have thought...? If you have any problems, just pm me your model name/number etc and I'll find what you need.
Another edit: If it is onboard sound find the 'realtek' driver for your model... Most of them seem to use realtek onboard.