xp pro - lost sound

[Guest pc]

I've an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe, XP Pro, all the service packs and

patches. The board has Realtek ALC850 sound. It's been a no brainer

for years.

 

A couple of weeks back my sound went out. About that time the Plextor

software I use for ripping audio started acting up. I uninstalled and

reinstalled it several times, but it has just stopped working. No big

deal, except for the boken audio. This may or may not be related.

 

I reinstalled the latest NVIDIA drivers which include the sound

drivers. Nada. I disabled audio in the BIOS, installed a 24 bit

soundblaster audigy card, got the latest drivers and installed them.

The sound drivers installed ok, but I've got a big PCI yellow icon

with a question mark, probably the game controller or midi which I

could care less about. Still no audio.

 

Remove the soundblaster, re-enable the internal audio, remove it in

xp, reinstall it. Nothing.

 

HELP!!!!!