Sound gone after trying to install IE 6

[Ducati]

i have a Dell Inspiron 8000, WinMe, 10gb, 192 MB.
tried installing an update to IE6...didn't work...said i needed something else...shut down, went to sleep, woke up the next day....then tried using winamp after reboot...didn't work...

i no longer have the sound icon (the horn) in the systray...
called dell techsupport...
tried restoring the registry with january 19...nothing
removed, reinstalled sound card driver (ESS PCI Audio)...nothing
Device Manager says the device is working properly...
removed, reinstalled Multimedia portion of Windows in Add/Remove program....nothing
Windows Media Player does not play...anything...no CDS, mpeg, nothing
Winamp neither....
checked hardware...it's all fine
VOlume Control in start menu does nothing...

other than reformatting, anything else???

 

[Wolfsraider]

in the software for volume control is it muted?

 

[Ducati]

i don't even have the volume control in windows...no icon....nothing is muted or unmuted...damn this sucks...i have to reformat and i don't know what to do with all of my data...mostly mp3's that i DON'T want to redownload...damn it...

 

[Storm]

When you use winamp for example, do you get the graphics from the visualization plugins of the skin when you play an mp3? The vertical bars that go up and down?

 

[Upham]

maybe when u went to sleep a small computer monster removed all your sound icon and reprogrammed windows not to play sound? It happend back in 83 and then again in 92 so u never know....

 

[Ducati]

winamp freezes when i try to play a song...the slider doesn't move, no graphics...nothing happens....as if there was no song....

 

[Storm]

Are you still under warranty? if so give Dell support a call. It sounds like you might have to reinstall windows...
But maybe someone else will have an idea.

 

[911paramedic]

I think I read everything, but I did not see where you went into the control panel->>sounds. From there check the volume/mute settings, make sure to check the advanced settings there too.

I have seen several problems just like this, something in the setup/install will mute some of the settings.