[habibi]

My sound was working perfectly until about a month ago. I carelessly allowed a guest to use my computer who downloaded some sort of internet telephone service, as well as a chat function, and now my sound doesn't work. I have a VAIO computer and Vista operating system. The sound icon in the bottom right of the screen has a red "x" over it and says "No Audio Output Device is Installed." I checked the control panel sound section and the Playback section states that "No audio devices are installed." Under device manager 2 audio systems show up: ADS Instant HDTV PCI and High Definition Audio Device. I updated the driver software for both and both state that their driver software is updated. The ADS Instant HDTV PCI does have an exclamation point over it, however, and the general information says that "this device cannot start (code 10)."

I have spent hours trying to work through this issue. Please help!