Vista - No audio outputdevice is installed

Today after installing Service Pack 2 for Vista, I noticed an icon in my Notification Area that wasn't there before. It was for SignaTelAudio.

No matter where I checked I could NOT find a way to get rid of it. So, at that point I unchecked it in MSconfig so that the next time I rebooted hopefully it would be gone.

But before I rebooted I was checking on SignaTel in Control Panel trying to figure out what it was all about all of a sudden. In doing that I clicked on something and now I have NO sound and the Volume Control in the Notification Area has a red x in it. I have tried to reverse what I did but can't seem to find the option that was there before. I've tried a couple of things after searching the Internet but with no luck.

In Device Manager, it states things are working.

I know Windows Update did a system restore. Should I try to uninstall the Service Pack 2 or do a System Restore? I tried to play a song in Media Player and got nothing of course.

Can anyone give me some guidance on undoing this mess I've made?

Thanks.

SP2 will reset the audio settings and that may simply be your problem. Just check the regular changes that you made in your audio settings back to the way you had them prior to the update. Chances are that is all it is. For the Creative cards thess were set back to 2 channel and everything else was set back to initial install and factory default settings.

Techymike,

Thanks for the speedy response, but I'm still in the dark. I'm pretty sure that SP2 only put the icon in the sys tray and I am the one that disabled something to create this problem.But I can NOT figure out what I did. I've looked at everything even in Device Mgr. It appears everything is working, but it's not.

Should I try uninstalling the drivers for the sound card and reinstalling? I'm afraid at this point to click on anything.

How in the world do you install an Audio Output device?

Sorry to be so illiterate.

I do not know what sound card you have or exactly what system you have as it is not listed. So I can only guess at what might work.
I would try to completely uninstall the sound card drivers and then reinstall them as you stated you have a sound card.
Just do not reinstall Vista as that would delete your saved memory and files. Even as it saves them in an .old file they still do not work.
AS you say you have a sound card installed I am quite sure that the problem is in the drivers for that sound card. What ever you do make sure that you do a saved restore before trying anything.

Sorry I didn't post any stats.

I have an eMachine and use Vista Home Premium.

I just went to the eMachine site and they have 2 versions of a driver for my machine model. Do I choose the latest one or the version that seems to already be installed on my machine?

Without opening the case how can I tell the name of my sound card? Or is it SigmaTel?

Thanks.

I bit the bullet and uninstalled the sound card drivers, rebooted and I had sound.But I installed the ones I had downloaded from the eMachine site and everything is great.

Thanks.

I'm runnin Vista 32 bit system. telling me i have no audio output device installed. i'v try anything i could think of. i'v downloaded the drivers over again and that didnt cure anything. i'v tryed in device manager i have no disconnected devices all it shows is i have a microphone and line in. And i also have no volume control. can anyone help me?? i'v put like three days into this, It's a clean install of vista too oh and i have an E machine w series 3615