If you've already installed drivers for your soundcard in Windows XP, but the "Sound and Audio Devices" in Control Panel still claims you have "No Audio Device" installed, these instructions should fix the problem.  I'm putting them here because I *HATE* this problem, and the only solution you find for it is usually "Format and Reinstall", which too often isn't an option.  2 solutions to repair windows audio:

Solution #1

1. Find the machine.inf file in C:\Windows\inf and copy it to a different location.
2. Open the copied machine.inf in Windows Notepad
3. Find the line "ExcludeFromSelect=*"  and put a ; in the front of the line.
4. Save/Close the file
5. In Control Panel choose Add New Hardware
6. Choose "Yes, I have already connected the hardware"
7. Choose "Add a new hardware device"
8. Choose "Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (Advanced)
9. Choose "Show All Devices"
10. Choose "Have Disk"
11. Point to the edited machine.inf
12. Choose "Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator"
13. Click Next and finish the installation
14. Windows may end up installing other devices after the install.  Once done, check and see if your sound works again.

Solution #2

1. If the above doesn't work Open System Properties
2. Goto the Advanced Tab
3. Click the "Environment Variables" Button
4. Under the User variables click New and create a variable named "devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices"
5. Click OK
6. Open Device Manager
7. Choose View then "Show Hidden Devices"
8. Under "Sound, Video, and Game Controllers"  remove: -- Microsoft Kernel Audio Splitter --Microsoft Kernel System Audio Device --Microsoft Kernel Wave Audio Mixer --Microsoft WINMM WDM Audio Compatibility Driver
9. Select the Action Menu and choose "Scan for Hardware Changes"
10. Install the devices detected
11. You may need to reinstall the soundcard drivers and reboot the machine at this point
12. Hopefully your sound works now.

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