computer guru's OT

First, make sure the speakers are connected, power is plugged in, turned on, and the volume is turned up.

Then, go in Start->Programs->Accessories->Entertainment and you'll find the Volume Control. Select it and make sure you don't have the sound muted or turned all the way down.

Find your sound card on the list, right click and
on the drop down menu click uninstall.
Reboot the computer and it should reinstall your sound card.

This should work for MS Windows 98, ME and XP.
If you have a yellow exclamation point or question mark beside your sound card
you may need to install the drivers from a cd or download them from the internet.

Old_bc

You don't need the speaker showing on the taskbar to have sound. Sounds like the speaker has been muted in the system. You didn't mention which version of windows (assume you don't have MAC OS), but you can go into "Control Panel", in WIN 2000, click "Start", then "Settings", then "Control Panel", then "Sounds & Multimedia". At the bottom of this area, you'll see where you can select to show volume (speaker) on taskbar. Also, you can click on "Audio" and then under "Sound Playback", you see the volume control bars come up. Three other basic things to check--verify that the speaker wire is plugged into the sound card at the right place, make sure speakers have AC power (if needed on yours) and make sure volume on speaker itself has not been turned down by someone.