Question : Sound card "no audio device" error - no sound

I'm working on a Gateway desktop system with an OEM Sound Blaster Audigy audio board (WinXP Home SP2). About two months ago the audio stopped working.

I removed the device from the device manager, rebooted and reinstalled the drivers (yes, Windows detected the card on reboot). Still no sound, but looking at the details in the device manager, everything should be working fine. It shows the drivers are installed and that the device is enabled and working properly. The only indication of a problem I have found is that if you go into Sounds and Audio Devices in the Control Panel, all options are grayed out (unselectable) and "no audio device" is displayed where it should identify the card.

Having never seen this before, I assumed the card was bad, so I changed it out with a cheap replacement, I installed it in a different PCI slot, Windows detected it and successfully installed the drivers. Same problem. All refererences to the card show it should be working except the same greyed out box in Audio Devices.

I also tried to do a system restore, but it fails to complete every time. Reinstalling the OS is not something I want to do with this system - I want to know how to fix it.

Thanks.

Answer : Sound card "no audio device" error - no sound

try running sfc /scannow from the run box first, uninstall and reinstall the card again.
It also can be a motherboard problem, maybe this can help you determine something :

burnintest :

http://www.passmark.com/download/index.htm