I've never had a problem with sound on my 4-year-old computer, then it just QUIT ...

1) no storms recently

2) only new thing added recently was a screensaver, which I uninstalled and then restarted my computer ... still no sound

3) went through troubleshooter routine ... still no sound

4) had a chat session with Dell ... he checked all the audio settings (which were OK), had me check the speakers on another computer (they worked), installed new drivers, and finally did a system restore to just before I added the screensaver  ... still no sound ... he said the motherboard sound ports MAY be bad and that I needed to take my computer into a shop

Is there anything else I can do from home to restore sound short of taking my computer into a shop? Maybe it's entirely coincidental, but I still think the screensaver may have had something to do with this. The screensaver was a series of videos of waterfalls with an audio button, which I had turned on. It worked fine for a couple of days, then all of a sudden the audio part of the screensaver quit working. Though I didn't REALIZE I didn't have any sound at all on my computer until a few days later, it COULD have been that I lost all sound about the same time I had no sound on the screensaver.

Thanks for your help!

BillRe install driver, check in device manager and see what it shows at sound?It lloks like on-board sound is dead. Your best option probably is to buy real sound card. If you don't need anything fancy, they're pretty cheap.Do sound CARDS just up and die like that, without warning?Yep...barely anything on computer gives you any warnings.