no sound on Dell Vostro 1500

[Louise Ebbelaar Kerr]

I have been reading for the past 6 hours, I have uninstalled , reinstalled....nothing (well, I do still get the beep when you get an error msg) Could my sound card be dead? Would/could a USB sound card help? Could someone give me an idea of what to do next other than trash this thing? Oh and in my device manager, the items under "other devices/base system device are marked with a yellow question mark AND an exclamation point!

 

[Emerald]

is the sound card listed under Sound, Video and Game controllers?

what are the item listed under Other Devices?

 

[Louise Ebbelaar Kerr]

Under sound, video and game controllers is shows Sigmatel High Definition Audio CODEC (I think that is it) and under Other Devices it just shows Base System Device 3 times with a yellow question mark and an exclamation point.

 

[Emerald]

it seems the drivers are installed

also check the sound settings in the Control Panel

 

[Louise Ebbelaar Kerr]

it seems the drivers are installed

also check the sound settings in the Control Panel

How can I send a jpg of my sound settings?
I am beginning to think I am missing something. Perhaps my sound card is bad? So I purchased a Soundblaster X-fi GO Pro USB sound card but I will be darned if I can make that work. I am going to uninstall it and try again. The other option is to reinstall my OS but I will need help with that for sure.