computer sound is not working

hi i reformatted my computer not to long ago and the sound worked just fine for about a week after and then it just stopped. the speakers work just fine. but nothin comes out of em when i play music on my computer. also when i am using msn messenger is does a beep sound when someone sends me a message. the beep sound is exactly what it does when its doing the POST when booting up the computer. i uninstalled the sound drivers and then reinstalled em to see if that was the problem and it didnt fix anything.

when i open volume control it says

" there are no active mixer devices available. to install mixer devices, go to control panel, click printers and other hardware, and then click add hardware.

this program will now close"

i did that and it didnt detect any hardware. im not using a sound card its just a sound port on my mother board. its a asus k8n motherbaord with geforce 3 chipset. thanks

 

Have you updated your drivers? That possibly could be a reason.

 

I suggest you go here http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

Get the latest motherboard updates for your system.

[bold]edit: spelling mistake[/bold]

 

i already did that and it didnt fix anything

 

Did you try the original drivers that are on the motherboard setup disc?

 

yep tried everything with drivers nothing seemed to work

 

Last resort, another format.

 

thats the thing though i just formatted and i have put some files on my computer that are to big to backup onto a disk and i dont want to lose them and have to download them again. is there a way i could make a backup of all my files and transfer it to a dif computer and then format and transfer it back after?

 

To big for a CD or DVD? You could upload them to RapidShare the download them after the format. If two computers are networked, you could also transfer them that way.

 

my two computers are networked. but it wont let me transfer them through the shared folder for some reason. is there a setting i have to change so that they can talk with each other?

 

Make a compressed copy (ie zip/rar) file and then try and transfer that from the Shared Folder.

 

Why does that all sound like a byproduct of some sort of "denial of service" virus.. Not finding mobo hardware and not allowing network file transfer. Sounds like the unidentified thing I was fighting against last week... I think a good virus and malware scan might be in order before transferring/backing anything up.