i'm currently using an older computer my brother gave me before going to college, and for as long as i can remember its had problems with sound

right now, i have none at all. the volume is not muted, everything seems to be fine under my control panel, etc. the weird part is that the sound used to work fine, i usually used headphones and had no problems, but then all of a sudden it would just stop working completely (it wasn't the headphones, i've tested them on other things and they're good). this has happened at least 3 times in just as many years

i just got a new hard drive installed since the old one burnt out, could it be that i'm missing a driver somewhere? i have all of the start up discs, and i've tried them but nothing seems to fix the problem. if it does sound like a driver problem, is there somewhere online i can find a solution? thanks in advance