Somewhere in a large-scale salvage operation on my PC (found several viruses, adware and lots of spyware), my soundcard went dead. I reinstalled all the software for the PC except the OS (Windows 2000), all the drivers and so forth, and could barely get a sound out of my speakers. I checked the speakers with another source and they work, and I even get a short sound from them on only two functions (I think it's when I close an option box and something else). And yes, those sounds are NOT from the little speaker in my computer case.

I checked in CONTROL Panel under Sounds and Multimedia, and several things are listed as normal sounds for different functions, but none of them make any noise. I can't even play them in the little dialogue box that has a play button.

I tried several different drivers, and finally found (what is supposed to be) the correct one for this Motherboard (sound is onboard the MSI-6380E mobo). Downloaded the latest version from the MSI site and installed it (after uninstalling any other audio drivers that were in there) and still nothing.

No sound from CD player or DVD player, or stored MP3's or WAV's either. Should I send the PC to that monestary with the vow of silence or what?

FYI: The audio driver is for a VIA AC'97 Enhanced Audio Controller (WDM) and shows a version number 6.14.1.3870, provided by Sensauro Ltd., file version 4.12.01.2002
That probably means something in Greek, but not to me. I don't even really understand what an "audio controller" is. Is that the actual chip on the mobo that says "VIA" on it? And the driver is the software that TELLS the mobo what to do with it?

No conflicts showing in Device Manger or ANYWHERE else.
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/download/dld/spt_dld_detail.php?UID=320&kind=1

is the MSI webpage that shows my mobo and lists the driver for audio. It's the VIA AC97 PCI Sound Driver. By the way, MS-6380E is the PCB (printed circuit board) name, which is used with various chipsets to produce the final motherboard.
K7T266 Pro2-A is the chipset used in my motherboard.

More specifically, here's what I'm running on, according to this nice little Belarc Advisor program that I downloaded from somewhere:
Board: MSI MS-6380E 1.0
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 07.00T 04/02/01
1150 megahertz AMD Athlon XP
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Windows 2000 Professional Service PACK 4 (BUILD 2195)
768 Megabytes Installed Memory

I do get sound - in only 2 obscure situations - which indicates:
a. the speakers work
b. the onboard sound still works
c. some driver, at least, works some of the time
I don't know didley about codecs or those other things I saw in the "Sounds and Multimedia" folder, but something is working some of the time.

The question is: Why do I only get these 2 obscure sounds (a beep and some other oddball sound) in these 2 obscure situations, and nothing else?I have a sound card error messgae, I have windows 98 and the sound was fine until now it just stopped working and comes up with an error saying that there is no sound card, but that is impossible as the sound only stopped a week ago, please help !!!!!