elderberry

Hello. I have a sound problem. I have windowsXP and use the 'Avance AC97 Audio'. Basically the volume controls don't work, wherever I put the slider, or even 'mute all', the sound still plays at this fixed volume. Quite often I just want to use one set of speakers, but because of this broken volume control I can't switch the balance to the desired speaker. Any help/suggestions would be appreciated