problem with sound device - no sound at all

whenever i go to play files on my windows media player 9 it comes up with
this error message-
"Windows Media Player cannot play the file because there is a problem with
your sound device. There may not be a sound device installed on your
computer, it may be in use by another program, or it may not be functioning
properly".

when i go into the the control panel then into system properties then device
manager and click on my sound card SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio it says
under driver "no driver files are rquired or have been loaded for this
device. To update the driver files for the device click update driver"

when i do that it goes to windows update and eventually comes up with "to
maintain the reliability of your system. the following driver will not be
installed SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio"

i have looked to see if i can reinstall my sound card drivers but it is not
available on my computer manufacturers website.

HELP!

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 07:56:09 -0700, "brucie1008"
<> wrote:

>whenever i go to play files on my windows media player 9 it comes up with
>this error message-
>"Windows Media Player cannot play the file because there is a problem with
>your sound device. There may not be a sound device installed on your
>computer, it may be in use by another program, or it may not be functioning
>properly".
>
>when i go into the the control panel then into system properties then device
>manager and click on my sound card SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio it says
>under driver "no driver files are rquired or have been loaded for this
>device. To update the driver files for the device click update driver"
>when i do that it goes to windows update and eventually comes up with "to
>maintain the reliability of your system. the following driver will not be
>installed SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio"
>
> i have looked to see if i can reinstall my sound card drivers but it is not
>available on my computer manufacturers website.

You can find those drivers in a lot of places, SoundMax is quote a
common chipset (and relatively standard). It's worth trying regular
vendors first such as HP :

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/fi...oad/18913.html

Probably you also want to make sure your DirectX is up to date too -
go to the Start menu, choose Run and then type in

dxdiag.exe

You should have DirectX 9.0c listed. If not, grab it and install :
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx

Running dxdiag.exe again should get you a sound card test, post again
if the results are off.

HTH
Cheers - Neil