First, check the speaker system on another PC.
Sounds like a Win98 machine. Use the "sounds" facility in Setup to generate "dings" until you get sound out of the card. (Select "asterisk" and click on the little triangle next to the speaker icon). Also, go to "control panel" "system" "device manager" "sound and video controllers" and click on the entry for the sound card device and see if the device list says it's working properly.
You could also then try reseating the sound card (power off) and look for results. Also try reseating in another socket (may need installation software if change socket, probably ISA socket).
For audio playback check that sound cable from CDRom is going to proper socket on the sound card (4-conductor round, not the ribbon cable).
Also, confirm that the speaker wire is plugged into the correct jack in the sound card. Try to sound the "ding" with the jack in each socket. (It shouldn't hurt anything)
Also, If you dont have the volume control icon on your taskbar do a search for sndvol32.exe and see if the sliders are set properly and the channels enabled.
[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 24 October 2004 at 02:26 PM.]