XP XP2 & XP3

[Ghostlady]

I've found an old XP laptop. I've reinstalled XP. If I am only using it to play games and not visit the internet, do I need to install the service pack 2 & 3?

[draclvr]

I wouldn't think so. It's been so long, I can't remember if they added functionality that would make gaming any better or not. I'd just play some games and see how it goes.

[middletoe]

If I am only using it to play games and not visit the internet, do I need to install the service pack 2 & 3?

Not if you're only going to play games on disc.
If you want to play Big Fish games, you need SP3 for the Big Fish Game Client.

[Ghostlady]

Thank you, good to know!

[Ghostlady]

Back to this laptop. I had a corrupted hard drive. I've replaced the hard drive and was able to install Win XP and the SP2 and SP3.
The problem is though that I have no sound. This was true before the hard drive install. Under Sounds and Audio Devices I show:

• Audio Codecs
  Legacy Audio Drivers
  Media Control Devices
  Legacy Video Capture Devices
  Video Codecs

Under my Audio tab it reads: No Playback Devices

I don't know where to go from here.

[JKEerie]

It may be a driver issue if your laptop has a sound card.

[Ghostlady]

How do I tell if it has a sound card? It’s a laptop from 2007 and it’s a Dell. Weren’t they integrated?

[JKEerie]

Can you check your Device Manager? Do you see any headphone ports or speakers?

[Ghostlady]

The post above was when I was in My Device Manager under the Sounds and Audio Devices.

[draclvr]

This is a laptop, so the sound is integrated into the motherboard. It doesn't appear to be "seeing" a sound card chip. Dell was really bad about providing drivers specific to their devices, so I would also suggest going to the Dell website and see if you can find drivers for that laptop. After XP, Microsoft got a lot better with providing generic driver support, but XP was still kind of useless back then.

[JKEerie]

Even if it's integrated, it should still show a sound device. If it doesn't, it's either disabled or it could be a driver issue.

[JKEerie]

The Dell driver support site might be able to assist.
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us?app=drivers

[Ghostlady]

I’ll check it out this evening when I am off work. Thanks.

[Ghostlady]

The audio driver from Dell did the trick. I had to download 3 of them until I found the right one.
Now I am off to look for an updated video driver.

[JKEerie]

Good for you GL. My first laptop was a Dell and I recall how they made it easy to find the right drivers on their website based on your model and OS. I think I used to enter the serial number and the correct drivers were provided.