Windows 7 - No sound, yet windows says the sound card is fine?

Hey, I need a bit of help

I'm running a Dell inspiron laptop, if this helps, but I recently had what I believe was a virus on here, my internet security (McAfee and Windows Defender) were both being turned off from time to time and I had to manually turn them back on.
Then my laptop started slowing down so much it took 3 hours to complete 12% of a scan with only that running. I decided to do a system restore to about 2 weeks ago, hoping to fix the problem.

After 4 hours of it saying the same thing whilst trying to complete the restore (Windows is repairing the registry), I decided it was time for some intervention as it seemed to be stuck in some never ending loop.
I got the recovery CD and then turned my laptop off mid-restore, which it didn't like. Upon turning it back on I only got a blue screen and mouse, but I got it to boot from the CD and did a boot recovery and Disk Check. All is working fine, apart from I am left now with no sound.
(On a side note, the boot start isn't the same as before and it says that the Autochk is missing, Skipping Autocheck)

I've checked the device manager, which is telling me everything is working fine, apart from in sounds it cannot play a test sound.
I've run a Dell Support Center check, which told me everything was running fine apart from a PCI Family Bus Port 5 - 2495, which failed to run the test, but windows again was saying that this is working fine.
Apart from the fact that my laptop now has no sound, the only other thing pointing towards a Sound card problem is Skype. When turning it on and checking the call settings, this is the only software on my laptop that can seeming not pick up the Sound card. Personally, that's a bit strange, but hopefully it is of some use

Please, if anyone can help me with this then it would be greatly appreciated

Boot in safe mode with networking
Safe Mode

Download install and let the following program update and scan.
Malwarebytes : Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a free download that removes viruses and malware from your computer
Next run a secure file check (this can be done while still in safe mode as well)
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker
Okay once that is done and we know the source of your problems is gone.

we need to see if you really got rid of the problem files first.

Once you've done that post back with the exact model of your inspiron

Hey, thanks, I've run both now

I am now thinking that it might be an OS problem, as not only is autocheck not there, but i cannot access add or remove programs at all, nothing comes up. Also, trying to access "turn windows features on or off", i get the error message "The program cannot start as the computer is missing appwiz.cpl", and trying to access "view installed updates" leads to a registry error pop up, saying the name isn't typed properly.

I've tried both chkdsk /R C: and chkdsk C: /f, but /f just seemed to delete and replace many entries and /R didn't really do much at all and never were able to leave a log.
I'm on an inspiron 1545 by the way

im having difficulty understanding the exact problem. can you clearly re-explain it, sorry.

of what i understood, I can say is:

you have no sound? boot into normal mode?
also can you update the drivers for your soundcard?

good luck

Depending on what you did (or didn't do), it may be better to do a reinstall. I do a lot of support on the Dell users forum and sound issues can get tricky. You must use the Dell sound drivers as non-Dell, in most cases, either will not work or not work correctly.

To restore the PC with the Dell "PC Restore" (Recovery Partition on the hard drive) access this by F8 at POST (Power On Self Test). This does not require any discs. If you manually reinstall there is a specific install sequence that MUST be followed (1) Install Windows (2) Install Dell Laptop Support Software (3) Install Motherboard Chipset Drivers (4) Install Device Drivers including Video, Dell Sound Drivers, Ethernet, etc.

Dell PC Restore procedure

The re-install seems to be the only option at the moment, although I would much rather leave that as a last resort.

Assassin4, the problem is that my laptop has no sound at all, although both windows and the dell support center is saying that the sound card is working perfectly fine.
I'm booting my laptop in normal mode, and i have tried update the drivers, rolling them back, deleting them all together and then reinstalling them, but nothing works.
Though more recently it has come to my attention that not only am i lacking sound, some programs are missing, pieces of registry are missing and so are a few windows things.

Would doing a Dell PC restore fix this?
And i'm assuming this means it's back to factory settings, including all the windows stuff?