according to one website (http://www.driverforum.com/bios4/1869.html), it's your soundcard driver. I quote: "ALCXWDM.SYS
Avance Logic®, Inc. is the manufacturer. An updated driver for your device is available that corrects this problem. Microsoft recommends that you install the new driver to improve the stability of your system. To download the updated driver, see the Avance Logic®, Inc. Web site at http://www.avance.com/."

However, apparantly this person had no luck getting a response from advance.com. She was advised to download the driver from here

Windows 98Gold/98se/Me/2000/XP for Driver only
ftp://152.104.125.40/pc/ac97/alc650/wdm_a338.exe

Found at
http://www.avance.com/

...make sure to uninstall your old driver (control panel -> add/remove programs) and then restart before you install the new driver.

Hope this helps!

The link you gave me doesn't seem to work, Gammit..

So what happened now? I did as you said, Gammit, and when I reinstalled my audio device thingie (which is the Avance Logic thing) it said at some point (not literally, but it came down to this):
"This device *(or part of, it was during the installation)* is not suitable for Windows XP, and if you continue to install, Windows XP will become unstable. Windows XP strongly recommends you stop installing, and search for a Windows XP compatable program."

So.. What now? Is this the problem I am facing? My sounddriver thing? Please help me! I feel we're coming close!

Could just be an unsigned driver. M$ are of the opinion that any driver they havent personaly checked out is dodgy. The rest of the world disagree. Admittedly, drivers M$ have certified are garaunteed not to crash your system. At least not under normal circumstances. Go ahead and install in that case, the majority of older hardware dosent have any signed drivers anyway. make sure the driver you are installing is listed as an XP driver though, a 98 driver will not behave properly.

So I figured, and I tried it immediately, but somehow it horribly failed, leaving me without any sound. So I reinstalled it again, waiting for you guys to give me another option.

Basically, what Microsoft is telling you is that you need a new soundcard. I'm guessing your current sound card is a few years old?
The fact that you have no sound, after uninstalling, tells me that XP doesn't have native driver support for your soundcard, but it is possible.
Go to device manager, and open the properties for your soundcard.
Click the driver tab, and try rolling the driver back. That will restore the driver that was unstalled prior to this one. If it can't roll back the driver, or it still doesn't work, you're going to be going soundcard shopping.

Sorry if the link didn't work. I agree with Animal. If you tried to install the driver that I showed, and if WinXP doesn't have a driver that fits it in its own bundle (which sounds like the case), then it looks like you're going soundcard shopping. You don't need anything too expensive, so don't worry about the $ aspect. Just make sure that it will work with WinXP (ask or look on the box).

Seems my whole computer is totally wrecked right now. I seem to be getting error after error. Look what happened yesterday night when I tried to turn the computer off:

Error: 0x0000008E (with the famous blue screen)

And when I started the computer this morning:

Unhandled Exception: c0000005
At address: 100016b8

[img]graemlins/crying.gif[/img] What the hell is going on? I really think maybe formatting my computer is the best option right now, so I won't have any corrupt files on my computer anymore. Maybe that is the only thing that'll work.

Just found out that I do have VIA/AMD Chipset. I was digging through all the stuff that I got with the computer (which contains a floppy for the Mouse, a CD-ROM for the keyboard (Application Software and Drivers), the drivers and utilities CD-ROM for the VIA/AMD chipset, and an Application Pack CD for Norton Antivirus 2001 and Norton Ghost 6.03).
More things: the Software Drivers for my GeForce 2MX, the CD-ROM for my CD-R/RW device, and a tiny little plug (or something like it.. dunno what it is). I also got the CD Creator 5 Basic CD, so I guess I got everything I need, save for Windows XP, and Office 2000. But that's something I can surely get somewhere from a friend or something. Games can be reinstalled, so that shouldn't be a problem either.

BUMP! Wanna hear about your ideas! (and solutions)