Thanks so much for your help.

I just went down to my landlord's apartment and I was starting to tell her about the standyby mode. She told me "I just phoned Dell and they are sending me someone'. I said "oh, that's good, by the way, did you tell them that you have no sound coming out of your speakers?" and she said: "No I forgot".

So I said "okay, this is important, BEFORE YOU CHANGED THE HARD DRIVE, YOU HAD SOUND, RIGHT?? and she said "right?"

So I then said: 'After the guy put the new hard drive in, did you have sound? and she said "No".

So I said "You need to download new drivers, don't worry it's easy".

She said: "I need to download drivers, what are drivers?"

Sigh.
this is going to get VERY COMPLICATED.

So I think I shall let the guy from Dell come there and do whatever it is the guy from Dell is going to do.

She is exactly where I was 15 years ago, when I got my first PC. I was completely clueless.

Oh well, we have to learn sometime now don't we??

thanks much