sound card and cd drive

gman44's Avatar
I got a used laptop from amazon.com for $50 and it works great but it won't read any cds(installation cd for my cricket modem) even though the cd drive is entact. Luckily the laptop came with a wifi card so I can use that to get on the internet and save 40 bucks a month. I also can't get any sound to my windows media player or online videos and the windows volume says there is no mixer device installed. For the cd drive and sound card problem I tried unistalling and letting plug&play find and install but they're asking for cds which takes me around in circles so I tried downloading the drivers. Like almost everything that I downloaded, they scan for free and to fix cost money.

The guy who sent me the laptop I have been conversating with and he gave me a 50% refund.

Can anyone help me get the sound card and cd drive readable?
I have windowsxp
Mokoa's Avatar
  • Mokoa
  • 06-20-2010, 07:03 PM
What is the brand and model number of the laptop?

It has been my experience that these sort of problems can usually be fixed with the right drivers for the specific brand and model. An intact CD drive can still be inoperable. You may want to get a replacement. They are not expensive. As for the sound, that could also be a driver problem or hardware.
gman44's Avatar
Dell Latitude CPX Notebook (650-MHz Pentium III, 128 MB RAM, 12 GB hard drive

00003-919-613-265





I assume that's it


Tex9401's Avatar
First, locate the service tag number. Then, get on Dell website, and you can get the drivers off there.

Dell Latitude CPX Notebook (650-MHz Pentium III, 128 MB RAM, 12 GB hard drive

00003-919-613-265





I assume that's it


Originally Posted by geniusman
Mokoa's Avatar
  • Mokoa
  • 06-20-2010, 11:39 PM
Dell Latitude CPX Notebook (650-MHz Pentium III, 128 MB RAM, 12 GB hard drive

00003-919-613-265

I assume that's it
Originally Posted by geniusman
Let do some research and I will get back to you. I have fixed quite a few Dell laptops in the past few months.
gman44's Avatar
I have gotten the sound card to work and I did what Tex said I went to the Dell webite and entered my service tag. Downloaded, restarted and its there now
Tex9401's Avatar
I am glad that worked out for you. The service tag links all the drivers for that specific machine. It saves time looking over the website. Suggestion, use either external DVD or use external HD and make yourself a ghost image before a HD crash.



I have gotten the sound card to work and I did what Tex said I went to the Dell webite and entered my service tag. Downloaded, restarted and its there now Originally Posted by geniusman
Mokoa's Avatar
  • Mokoa
  • 06-27-2010, 06:01 PM
GM...

I am glad to read that you were able to resolve your issues.

Yes, having the Service Tag number will make things a lot easier when searching for drivers.
Honestly, I see issues just like this A LOT. I believe that laptop was shipping with Windows 2000 at the time. The previous owner may have wiped the drive, and put XP on it, and not known that specific drivers needed to be installed for the system to work correctly.