Windows 7 problems

Hi everyone, this is my first time on this forum - I have been having so problems with windows 7 on my laptop, so I figured that this was the right place to ask.

Before I begin, I would like to apologise in advance if i have posted this in the wrong area or have broken any forum rules - like I said I am new to this so please bear with me.

anyway...

-Problem no 1.
I appear to have lost all sound from my laptop. When I first booted it up, the sound worked fine, but I briefly muted the speakers from the icon on the bottom left, and now I can not get any sound out of it. When I go to control panel and click on the hardware and sound section and open, say ajust system sounds, the window opens but freezes and when I try to close it, it says that it has stopped responding.
Possibly linked to this is the fact that whenever I try to log off, the system asks if I want to force logoff, because the system is still trying to play the logoff sound?! Its seems insane.

-Problen no 2.
Nothing that I install seems to want to run. I installed Itunes, and whenever i click on the icon it does nothing. It worked the first time i downloaded it, but now nothing happens. Games happen the same way. I installed 'James Bond Nightfire' last night, and I let the game open after the instalation process. I played the first level (so dont tell me this game isnt compatable!) last night, but now whenever I click on the icon, the screen goes dark like its about to play, but refuses to do any thing else - I have a curser, but thats it. It doesnt change at all as far as I can see - I left it for half an hour and there was still no response. The only way I get out of this is to ctrl-alt-delete ang force a logoff.
More seriously, I have adobe photoshop cs4 wont even run the disk. This is a real problem, as I do graphic design and I need this program to run my work.

Can you help me with eiter of the problems? I booted the laptop up yesterday (its a dell studio), everything seemed to be working then, but now things are starting to go wrong.
Do you have any ansyers to my problem(s)?

Did the laptop come with Windows 7 installed or did you do an upgrade install?

What version of Windows 7 is it? What is the model number? Do you have all the correct sound drivers installed?

From what you are saying, it sounds like you did an upgrade install rather than the recommended clean or custom install, as Windows 7 calls it. A lot of upgrade installs work fine at first, then start having problems after a couple of days or sooner.

iTunes is a piece of junk! You don't need to use it at all, even if you have an iPod.

I would highly recommend using the free version of Media Monkey. It's compatible with iPod players and doesn't take over the entire computer like iTunes does.
http://www.mediamonkey.com/

Helium Music Manager is another good iPod compatible music software. They have a free version too.
http://www.helium-music-manager.com/download/

As Nibiru said, a clean or "custom" install produces better results. Too, after the successful installation, you need to visit the manufacturer's site (Dell, HP, whoever) and get the latest drivers for your computer. Windows Update may provide some of them, but by no means, not all. Take a deep breath and start over. Your problem has happened to you, me and countless others. Also, should you not find all of the latest drivers that you need, visit Driver Max. The scan is free, and should you have only a couple of outdated drivers, you can download and install them for free (two free drivers per day). And by the way, Welcome to the fourms, warpspider! I hope that you will find our site useful and there's plenty of help here, should you need it.

It was installed already onto the laptop. Its a dell studio laptop, and it had windows 7 as part of the deal. I will look on the website right now and see what I can find.

Thanks for the help guys!

Just dowloaded a few drivers - it solved all the problems. I cant thank you enough.

Sorry, warpspider, Nibiru and I thought that you had upgraded to Windows 7. However, I'm happy that your problem was solved. Come back and keep us posted on how things turn out for you. The majority of Windows 7 users are happy campers. We hope you will be, too.

That's great! Usually installing the latest drivers can be a major help.

Still I would stay away from iTunes though. It has Steve Jobs evil juju loaded in it!

The problems happened again - I presume this is because some of my drivers have become outdated? How regurlaly will I have to update them?