Missing Volume Control !?!?

I am having trouble with the volume control, and nothing I do to try and fix the problem seems to work. I have reinstalled Windows 98SE several times over the last couple of days, and that is no help either. The system I am having trouble with is an older DELL Latitude Laptop I've had for a while......750Mhz and 256MB of RAM. There is no volume/sound control icon on the taskbar, and when I open the Programs Window>Accessories> Entertainment>Volume Control and attempt to open the Volume
Control, it will not respond at all. I have gone to the Control Panel and opened both the Multimedia icon and the System icon and attempted to remove the devices, but when I reboot and the computer detects the device, it comes up as an unknown device. And, when I attempt to "check" the box directing the Volume Control it remains gray and does not respond either. Also, my keyboard clicks with each depressed key, and the speaker works when I attempt to log online, but once I am online it quits working. Also, I can go to the connection setup and turn the speaker off, that works for the dial-up tone, but nothing else.
PLEASE HELP !!!!!! I am at my wit's end !!!!

Thank you . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brian

 

Sounds like either bad drivers for the sound card or a bad sound card. Update the drivers, if that doesn't help then it's probably the sound card.