volume frozen

when i try to cut the volume up or down the volume pic pops up and shows that the volume is all the way up and then under it shows a circle with a line through it. i can not cut the volume up or down on the keyboard. what the heck is going on??

This I think means that you have your sound output set to go through another source, and the source isn't present (like an optical out or something). Check the Sound pane in your system preferences, and go to the Output tab. Make sure that Built-In Output is selected in the list, and try again.

thanks for the advice, but "no output devices found" was in the system preferences under sound. i'm not sure what has happened. anybody else have an idea?

will

Can you get a screen shot and paste it here? Hit Command-Shift-4 and drag the box across the part of the screen. Take a shot of the output devices prefs pane, so we can make sure you're in the right place.

If you ARE in the right place, it sounds like the system somehow uninstalled its audio driver or device, in which case I believe you'd need to do an archive-install of Mac OS X using the original disks that came with your computer. Fairly easy, just takes a little while.