Sandra....

Microsoft has their own Newsgroup styled board on their own site. I doubt
very seriously if any of them ever visit here.

If you will go there and do a search you should find it. There is also a
e-mail addy where you can send em questions.

I've used it before. It's been a long time though, but from what I remember,
they did reply very quickly.

TnT

This newsgroup is for fellow users, you'll have to contact Microsoft
directly if you want an answer from them.  This gives users a way to help
support each other, and Microsoft likes it because it saves them money.  If
people's questions are not being answered, it may be because no one knows a
solution, or it hasn't been long enough since posting for enough people to
see it to come up with an answer.

Usually a sound problem is a configuration issue or drivers needing
reinstalling.

OK...let's see if this helps.
First, you need to identify what sound vendor or what
sound is on your "Motherboard."  You may be able to
identify your sound vendor by looking at the "device
Manager" and clicking on "sound" device.  Once you have
determined the vendor and what device it is, then you can
download or reload that driver.  You may have to go to the
Internet and search for the driver.
Second.  Now you have a new driver or old driver, install
it on your computer.  Generally speaking it will take you
through the steps of installation.
Third.  Go to the Control Panel and double click on
Multimedia.  Next, set the "Playback" & "Recording" to
your newly installed drivers (click on the down arrow next
to each) and be sure and click on the bottom box "Show
volume control on taskbar"  ...Good luck...