I would start a new thread, but since this seems to be a related problem, I’ll carry on here for now.
As noted above, I uninstalled IE and installed the latest version, Version 7 I think it is. Also as noted, that did not solve my problem of not being able to write messages in Hotmail. But I use Mozilla now for Hotmail, and that works fine.
However, since installing the new IE, I have no more sound. 
The Audio icon disappeared from the taskbar, and when I go to Sounds and Audio Devices in my Control Panel and click the box that says to put it on the taskbar, I get a message that says it cannot do it because, “The Volume Control program has not been installed.” I went to Microsoft and found some sort of Volume Control to install – volume.exe I believe it was – but when I try to download it, it says it’s no longer available.
Sigh. Any suggestions?
Bumping this up in a last hope that someone can tell me how to find an Audio Control program to install. See post immediately above. The volume.exe link on Microsoft’s page seems to be dead.
[QUOTE=Siam Sam]
Bumping this up in a last hope that someone can tell me how to find an Audio Control program to install.
[/QUOTE]
Any chance you have your WinXP CD about? (I assume it’s XP and I ask since I don’t know if you got an actual copy of the install CD with your computer, or if they just gave you recovery disks.) There’s a file on there that should do the trick (sndvol32.exe): check this article http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q319095 for the gory details.
<< Hit any user to continue. >>
No, we bought our computer fully loaded, and there were no disks. Will check that link out, though, and see what I can do. Thanks!
Double thanks! Just looked at that link, and that describes the problem exactly. I think I can get ahold of someone’s disk.
Thanks again. We’ve got out Audio back! I used my brother-in-law’s WinXP CD to follow the instructons in Nightsong’s link above. Audio is now back, and I can type Hotmail messages using Mozilla as a browser.