No, Mute's not on but thanks for mentioning it. Here's what I know so far
In Control Panel > Sounds where you can preview the sounds for events I can select a sound (like Windows XP Startup.wav) but the arrow to play the sound is grayed out.
I try to play a MP3 file and get the message: "windows media player cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound device. there might not be a sound device installed on your computer, it might be in use by another program or it might not be functioning properly"
I know in testing modems we used to use AT commands at a command prompt.. sending strings to the com port.. but I can't remember if there are equivalent commands for testing sounds at a C:>. I'm trying to figure out if it's the Windows drivers.
Device Manager doesn't show any problems. There's no actual sound card.. it's onboard the Asus motherboard