I am in quite a bit of bother and would relish some/any help!

My friend was on my laptop earlier and told me he'd be able to free up a lot of space and delete a load of 'unnecessary' things, of which I trusted he could do, and obliged.

However, since then, and after rebooting my laptop my sound, nor my microphone appear to work. I have re-downloaded the driver again after seeing loads of websites giving nothing but that advice but have no clue as to what else I should be doing. My friend 'isn't sure what he deleted' *useless*. I've attached a few pics to summarise the problem if that helps.

I should add that after rebooting my web cam also originally wasn't working either. But I downloaded the driver for that and that has since come back to normal.

Any help would be hugely appreciated.

The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1525, running Windows Vista 32bit. Both the microphone and web cam are integrated into the laptop, yet I see the message that my microphone 'isn't plugged in'?? I've never had this problem before and can assume it's only because of some deleted file.






This is from Skype...



Let me know if there is any other info I can provide.

You could try restoring your system to a point prior to when your friend deleted files.
I think (using German Windows) it's under accessories>system programs>system restore.

You could try using the repair function of your Windows installation CD. This will make sure all the system files are ok.

Going over your screen shots, it looks like there is a problem with your sound card. This doesn't really sound software related to be honest. Reinstalling the driver won't do anything as long as there is no device being found. I also presume you have no dedicated sound card, so it's not like you could just remove it and plug it back in and see if recognizes it.
You could try putting Ubuntu on a thumb drive and starting into Ubuntu or just install it in Windows and start Ubuntu from Windows and see if the sound works there. That way you could see if the hardware is still functioning. It's like a 600MB download so shouldn't take too long. This is the download page: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

Thanks or replying.

I tried system restore, but there are no restore points that are saved which is weird.

The only reason I assume it is a software problem is because it seems far too coincidental that it stops working as soon as my friend deletes a bunch of stuff. My webcam was also not working afterwards, but was fine as soon as I reinstalled that driver. I assumed the same would happen to the audio but to no success .

I'm on some crappy Cambodian internet ATM, and a 600mb file would take days to D/L, heh, but will try if there are no other possible solutions.

I really appreciate you replying btw. If anyone else has any suggestions then that would be great.

Cheers

Yea, I mean I agree that it seems likely that it has to do with whatever your friend did on your computer. It's just weird for your computer not to recognize your sound card. You could try manually searching for new hardware. Go to control panel>hardware and sound>devices and printers>add device and see if it finds a asound card, then manually add it. For the interim if you really need sound you can also use a USB sound card. Like this one for example: http://www.amazon.com/Syba-SD-CM-UAU...usb+sound+card
I would also reinstall/install the drivers of your motherboard.