Question : Problem: Sound card problems

Lost the sound on a NEC MS-6786 motherboard (Realtec 97 audio on board), tried updating drivers , still not working. Checked in device manager & sound devices working ok. Went to sound in control panel no audio devices showing. Tried installing a Pci Trust 5.1 sound card after uninstalling on board sound. Same problem device & device drivers shown in device manager as working ok, but no audio device showing in sound on control panel. Reinstalled drivers with no av, fwall etc, still same. Suspect its the pci bus, but how come device manger shows mixer working ok, but in fact it is not?

Answer : Problem: Sound card problems

You could try resetting the BIOS back to default settings.

And grab a copy of the Knoppix Live CD http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

Boot from that - it doesn't overwrite your hard disk - and see if the sound works.  If it doesn't it's your hardware.