Audio Playback problem

[DaveSangor05]

Hello everyone, of course I'm new here, and I have a large problem..

I have an HP Pavilion a305w Desktop PC, and last July we got a major virus on it, we took it to a friend to fix, but some scuffles happened, and when we got it back, it had NO devices at all, so we took it back, and he restored windows, but it changed from XP Professional Edition, to XP Home Edition. I'm not sure if that has any relevance, or anything, but here's the problem:

I have NO audio Playback devices.. On my Sound and Audio options box in Control panel, it has Realtek AC'97 as an inbound sound source for microphones, and whatnot. but for Playback it just says "No Device Found" and wont let me do anything to change or add a device. I could screen shoot if you need me to.. So I tried goin to HP, and redownloading the full pack for the Audio that was supposed to come with the computer when we bought it, and it's still sayin no device found, though when it finished downloading, the device manager along with a box popped that said "The File is located in C:/HP/Device/Audio or something like that (can't remember completely sorry) followed by "please install this file from the Device Manager" I couldn't find that file anywhere, nor do i know how to install the file through the device manager, but I did notice that in the device manager under the Sound and Audio section, there is both Realtek AC'97, and something called "Legacy Audio Drivers" as well as "Legacy Video Capture Devices"

I know that before the huge virus and the whole situation that we had Realtek AC'97, so is it possible that this Legacy thing is screwin me up somehow? I know that previously there was a little circle with an explamation mark on an "unknown device" which I disabled, and now seems to be gone from device manager...

Anyone have any possible fixes?? I hate not having sound when i want to watch videos.

[pip22]

Windows XP Home and Professional editions can use the same sound drivers so that's not a problem. The 'Unknown Device' you disabled in Device Manager is undoubtedly your sound device, it's driver not currently installed which is why Windows tags it as an 'Unknown Device' (the driver tells Windows what the device is).

Since you've had XP Home installed on the PC from a Microsoft CD instead of the original operating system using the (usually) supplied HP recovery discs, the required file will no longer be on your PC.

What you need to do is contact HP and get a set of original recovery discs for your model. This will install the original OS together with all the necessary device drivers.

See this page: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...cname=bph07143

[DaveSangor05]

Ah... on the Unknown Device, awhile back I had clicked on it, and it said something about conflicting files or something, and then when it did the search for the file, a box popped up sayin something about an unlicensed product that was not recommended for downloading.. so i stopped it..

Second Question: If I do get the disks and redo the windows to the original XP Professional Edition, will it delete all my saved files?? I ask because I have over 3 years of important files, and my cd burner is bein a bit of a hag right now...<_< so until i can get a flash drive.... i dun wanna do anything that will lose those files.