i've searched and looked and can't find my problem anywhere ... hope there's help here

well i have a sound icon in the tray and it does raise and lower the sound .. however, instead of hearing the level as the lever is raised or lowered, i only hear an internal beep in the tower ... programs have sound .. media plays well in all formats .. it's just driving me nuts that i can't hear that windows default beep louder and softer as i raise and lower the volume control lever! LOL
oh! ... yes, there are just a couple things that do not have sound that used to and the odd thing is that when i go into the sounds from control panel, they play there fine lol ... one thing is the recycle bin has no sound when i empty it, though it does in the sounds section and my mailwasher has no sound when new mail comes in and also does when checking in the CP sounds section ... so please PUT on your thinking caps and help the old lady out lol .. please and thanks!
i have win xp, a gig of ram and 2.4ghz dell dimension 4600Go to Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices and click on the Sounds tab. Is your Sound Scheme set to Windows Default? If not, what is it set to?

Also, you could try going to Start > RUN > sfc /scannnow. You'll need your Windows CD for this.yep ... went to windows default ... same problem ... sound is everywhere EXCEPT a few programs and the recycle bin sound .. all play in CP sound fine ... but moving the lever up or down doesn't permit me to hear the raising or lowering of sound level, merely a beep inside the tower ... so i have no way of knowing how LOUD the sound will be till i go back to the application ... a real pain in the neck :-( ... there's gotta be SOMEONE out there that can fix this short of a reformat! LOL
thanks for your time!

also spoke to (I THINK) Calum online today and was given a couple url's to check out about repairing windows xp .. but the browser crashed and by the time i got back, the chat was unavailable ... didn't want him to think i just left without thanks and i would actually like the urls again .... *just my luck, yanno? * *UGH*! LOL Yes, it was me you spoke to earlier.
Here is a link to a Microsoft article on performing a repair install.
Here is a link to a more informative article.
Nice suggestions CBMatt, we already went through setting the sound scheme to default as well as changing the default sound devices to the right one.
marywel, try CBMatt's other suggestion, sfc.
Note the space between sfc and the /scannow, it's not a typo.
I think that may be worth a shot before attempting a repair installation.