The sound on my computer will only work every second time I boot up. There are no error messages and the settings are correct. I am running a Gateway 1 GHz PC with Windows ME and Boston Speakers.

This is quite an interesting problem. I have only seen instances where the sound does not work after a reboot, whereas your problem is the reverse, where the sound only works after a reboot! Firstly, let’s run a test to see if the computer (on the first boot) does recognise the sound card, but just doesn’t output any sound. Boot up your computer in the usual way (ie. it won’t output any audio). Once it has booted, open an audio application and try and play something. One of two things may happen, either, a message appears stating that there is no sound device present or it cannot be accessed, or the audio application plays the sound file but no sound can be heard. Run this test even though you reported that no error messages appear. With the first type of error message I described, the problem seems to be with the sound card itself. Go to the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Settings’ > ‘Control Panel’ and open the ‘System’ control panel. In the window that appears, click the ‘Device Manager’ tab. Double click on the ‘Sound, Video, and Game Controllers’, click on your sound card device (if it is present), and click the ‘Properties’ button and click the ‘General’ tab in the window that appears. Check for any conflicts with other devices. If there are any conflicts, reinstalling one of the two conflicting devices should fix the problem. Also, although this is a long shot, ensure that the device is enabled in this hardware profile (there should be a check box for this option in that window). On the other hand, if the sound card is not present in the device manager, it appears that Windows only recognises your sound card on the second boot. If this is the problem, firstly try to reinstall your sound card drivers with updated drivers to see whether the sound card installs. If so, the problem should hopefully be solved as the sound card has been recognised without rebooting the computer. Conversely, if the sound card does not install, as it cannot find the device, then we are no further advanced with your problem. If the sound card wasn’t working at all, I would say that it is probably not physically installed properly (ie. not seated in the expansion slot correctly). Although, in your case, this is unlikely to be a hardware problem related to the sound card (as it works perfectly well after rebooting). If you have exhausted all of these suggestions, I suggest you contact Gateway technical support (Gateway are still operating their technical support in Australia and their contact details can be found at www.gateway.com.au/support/contact.asp?country=au).

Regarding the second scenario, if the audio application plays the audio file but does not output any sound, the problem may have something to do with the speakers themselves or the sound card speaker output. Assuming that the problem is with the speakers, I have had a look at the Boston website, who provide specific speaker packages to Gateway. The site can be found at www.bostonacoustics.com/gateway.asp. This is of specific interest if your computer has the USB Boston speaker package, as you can find the updated drivers for the speakers (make sure that you read all the instructions before installing!). This is really all I can think of with regard to the speakers themselves, as normal speakers don’t usually require any specialised software. Alternatively, the problem could be with the speaker jack on the sound card. However, I would say that this is unlikely (as with the sound card) to be the problem, since this would not be corrected by rebooting the computer. Please let me know how it goes. This is quite a tricky question!