Your partner had the right idea with downloading sound codecs - presume he downloaded the right ones? Would recommend you download the K-Lite codec pack if you haven't already. If you need a link, there's one here: Codec Pack Guide: K-Lite Mega Codec Pack In addition, ensure you have done the Vista updates so that the operating system is fully up to date. If these suggestions don't solve the problem, you may need to update the sound driver. User reviews for this Acer laptop are really good - I've got a little Acer Aspire One netbook myself and it's brilliant But if none of the above works, you could always take it back to Comet for repair, or ring Acer to see if it's a known issue? Hope you get it sorted!