I have the same problem.... I have the standard onboard sound....
all appears well in device manager, but for some strange reason, XP reckons,
the device is working fine, the driver is ok too, but the driver just hasn't
started....
I have tried everything I could think of.... spent days at it too... I just
cannot get the sound to come back....
I am beginning to wonder if one of the XP updates have had something to do
with it....
weeks ago, an update was avail on the MS site, after installing, my sound
went.... I rolled back the driver, my sound came back....all was fine
again...
recently, I powered my speakers, I noticed my sound wasn't working.... I
even tried my original sound driver amongst all other releases, it just wont
come back, I simply cannot get the driver to start.....
All seems lost....
Surely, I shouldn't have to resort to doing a reinstall to recover from
this... bug, or whatever it is...
Note, I do not have a spare pci slot to fit a better sound card....