Lost Sound

Can anyone help please I am running XP home but I have now lost all sounds Sytem devices say everything is OK but I have no Volume Control on task bar. When I try to run sndvol32.exe I get a message telling me "There are no active mixer devices avavailable To install mixer devices go to control panel click Printers and other hardware and then click add hardware " I am maybe missing something but there is no "Printers & and Other hardware on my Control Panel and the add hardware section tells me that everthing is OK So I appear to be stuck

Thanks in advance