Ah - I don't think we originally realised you were doing it remotely.

They can just fail, but it sounds as if they're OK - you can plug them into
anything else that has a suitable headphone socket to check them out! (Turn
the volume to nearly minimum first though!) IME, it's the connectors -
either the plug or, worse, the motherboard socket - that goes, rather than
the amplifiers or actual speakers.
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I suspect a software problem first though. First suspicion is mute or volume
down. Assuming the volume knob on the speakers isn't down: is there a
speaker symbol in the try (bottom right of screen by the clock)? Ask her to
describe the icons that are there, as not everyone would recognise a speaker
symbol. (I think the W98 one is yellow.) If there is, left click on it; a
little window should pop up with a slider in it, and also a mute box; the
slider of course shouldn't be at bottom, nor the mute box ticked.

Second thought - a channels thing: right-click on the speaker icon, and
select Open Volume controls; this will depend on the sound card to some
extent, but making sure all sliders are not at the bottom, no mute boxes are
ticked, and all enable boxes (if any) are ticked, might help.

If there _isn't_ a speaker icon, we have more of a problem. The icon _can_
be turned off by a setting somewhere, or it could be the sound card drivers
are genuinely giving problems.

This is getting more into hazy memory now (my W98 machine is at home), but I
think Start | Settings | Control Panel | multimedia will bring you to a
window where it shuld show what sound hardware is selected for input and
output; if it says something obscure, then that's probably the model of
sound card, if it says no devices selected (or something like that) then we
may have problems (though it's also worth trying the drop-down list of which
"no device selected" is one of the options, and selecting something else, if
it'll let you).

But before that: if she plays a sound file (get her to do a Find - Windows
key plus F - for *.wav; there are some .wav files on almost any Windows PC -
then double-click on a big one), does she get some window that looks as if
sound ought to be playing, even if it isn't, or does she get an error
message?

Thank you for the reply.  I did write an email to my aunt and tried to walk
her through how to find these things.  Wish I were closer to do this myself
because I could probably figure out what is going on.  Hard when it's not
your computer, but am trying to give her some assistance.  Will let you know
when/if she does what I am recommending.