Hi,
I had this problem after I reinstalled my OS. What you need to do is go to
Sound and Audio devices in the control panel making sure you are logged in as
an administrator and enable windows audio if it is not enabled. When you
reboot your machine the devices start working.

Hope this helps.

"Chris Lanier [MVP]" wrote:

> Error 80040256/00040258 (No audio hardware is available, or the hardware is
> not responding) and C00D11BA (Cannot play the file because there is a
> problem with your sound device) along with most sound card related problems
> can be fixed just reinstalling the drivers for the sound card.
>
> Windows Media Player uses DirectSound to interface with the sound card, so
> sound very well might work in other applications and just not WMP. More
> information and tips can be found at http://tinyurl.com/3455d.
>
> If reinstalling the drivers doesn't fix the problem then the next step you
> should try is updating/reinstalling DirectX. DirectX can be downloaded at
> http://tinyurl.com/97jw.
>
> If you need help locating where to get the latest drivers for your sound
> card try the following. Your Device Manager in Windows "should" supply the
> information assume the sound card has been detected. To access the Device
> Manager right click on My Computer and select the Device Manager tab. In
> Windows XP goto the Hardware Tab and select Device Manager.
>
> If you don't know how to access the Device Manager or it doesn't show your
> card, than the easiest thing to do is download a free utility like Belarc
> Advisor (http://tinyurl.com/5w6o). Run the installer then it will open a
> webpage for you. Under Multimedia it will tell you the sound card or "Audio
> Controller" you have in your PC. You may now goto that companies website
> and download the drivers and reinstall them.
>
> And if that doesn't help you will need to provide all the information you
> can about your system in a reply in the newsgroup. http://tinyurl.com/2o4h9
> will help you supply good information to your peer's to help you out.
>
> --
> Chris Lanier
> Microsoft MVP - Digital Media
> ---
> "Zach" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:22eb501c45e73$bcfb6ae0$a601280a@phx.gbl...
> > I know there have been a few posts about this subject,
> > but I'm just posting anyways. When I click on sound
> > recorder or even Volume Control, it says it has no record
> > or playback ability, and there are no active mixer
> > devices available, then tells me to go to Control Panel,
> > click on Printers And Other Hardware (which isn't an
> > option), and then click on Add Hardware. However, I've
> > installed my sound hardware to no avail. If a mere .drv
> > is the solution, where can I get it and where do I put
> > that file? I want my music back
>
>
>