Wife has a VERY old (2003) Compaq Presario laptop running Win XP! Today the sound stopped working and the default volume icon in the notifications area disappeared, despite being set to "Always display". Device Manager shows the dreaded '!' in a  round yellow sign indicating that it's not working. It uses the Realtek AC97 driver, so I tried (a) downloading/installing the AC97 driver; (b) uninstalling the Device Manager entry and  downloading and installing the driver again. Neither worked; Device Mgr. still shows it as not working.

My reaction to this is that the sound card is dead. Before I declare it as such, does anyone have any suggestions for things to try to revive it?

 

Try uninstalling the drivers again, then go into Device Manager. Make sure when you uninstall the device from there that you check "Uninstall Driver" there as well. After that reboot.

Also check other ports and settings.

Tarun: Sorry about the long delay in replying, but I did not get an email notification that my post had been responded to. I assume they would be automatic, but now see that you have to check "Notify me of replies". . . which I've now done.

I eventually solved the problem by (a) uninstalling the AC97 driver in Device Mgr., then doing a "backup" thru Windows to the previous driver. After doing that, sound works again.

Thanks for the quick reponse.

Glad to hear you have it fixed, and thank you for posting the solution!