Yeah, I don't like ME, but it's the best I have. I tried going back to 98se, but that just resulted in too many issues, and purchasing an upgrade of any kind isn't much of an option currently.
Unfortunately, I overlooked one thing earlier...
Not only had my mouse and display drivers disapeared, by audio ones had too apparently.
So I've essentially got no sound. I reinstalled the motherboard drivers on the cd, downloaded updated drivers and a chipset from asus for my A7N266-VM motherboard, and still have had no succes.
It's seemingly a pretty similar situation to one I had before, which was resolved by upgrading from 98se to ME, which doesn't look like an option considering that's my current os. I'm pretty much getting the response that I have no sound device installed.