Try System Restore. Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore but you may get back stuff you didn't want back. I personally don't use it.
You may want to try uninstalling audio drivers and reinstall. Do you have a drivers CD that came with the puter? If it's old you may want to find new drivers. I had an older version of AC'97 driver and it was buggy with XP.
At Gateway support (
http://support.gateway.com/support/d...=ac%2797&st=kw)
There is a driver:
9528931.exe - Realtek ALC250 2-channel AC’97 Audio Driver Version: 5.10.0.5700
There is a note: This is the Realtek ALC250 2-channel AC’97 audio drivers for the Gateway Profile 5.5 in Windows XP. I do not know what this "Gateway Profile 5.5 in Windows XP" is but it seems that it's the only AC'97 audio driver
At Realtek (
http://www.realtek.com.tw) there is a driver A3.71
If you use this one just get the driver and not the media player (RT rack)
This one requires DirectX 8. Check your version by: Start/Run/dxdiag/Ok
look at the bottom of system information for your loaded version.
Good luck