I hope someone can help me out here! I accidentally downloaded a codec a few weeks ago. Since then, I've had a lot of problems. First, my volume quit working. Not a big deal, but I started trying to find out why. The sound icon had disappeared & my sound properties said I had no sound device.
Then, every time I'd try to open Explorer or Firefox, and some other windows, the computer would lock up. I ran Ewido, AVG, Spybot, Hijack This, and Ad-aware. My sound icon came back and the computer started working great again. However, after starting up again after a shut down, back to the bad stuff.
Here's what happens... When the computer is restarted, I lose my sound icon, Explorer & Firefox both lock up the computer, and "Multi-channel Sound Manager" is missing from the Control Panel.
My temporary fix has been to run Ad-aware. It never finds anything, but after it's done running, everything magically comes back & the computer is like new again. I leave it running all week, but shut down for the weekend. Monday morning, I have to start over again.
Any ideas? Let me know if you need more info.