[Bob in St. Louis]

Here's a direct question:
On a compact case Dell PC, I've got the typical little green stereo mini-plug (3/32" ?), but no dedicated sound card. How can I get sound?

A little more information:
This PC is for a little girl and does not need quality audio, just a simple set of speakers. The PC is used, but "clean" as far as extraneous software. However, when I try to load her childrens software on it, I get a message saying the program will not work due to no sound card. There is no PCI sound card, but it still has the 3/32" green female PCB mounted jack that goes right to the motherboard. This is all I need isn't it? Do I need to get this PC online to download a driver from Microsoft?
Please tell me I don't have to buy a sound card. 

Thanks in advance fellas. 
Bob

[BradJudy]

You probably just need to download the sound driver from Dell.  go to http://support.dell.com and download drivers based on either your model number of support tag number. 

[mgalusha]

In addition to Brad's suggestion you might be sure it's enabled in the bios. I believe F2 is the bios key on most Dells. Be sure not to change anything else in there unless you know what you're doing. Don't go in there unless installing the sound driver for the machine doesn't work, which it probably will.

[ted_b]

Here's my stab at it:
If it has a green audio jack then it has sound capabilities.  If it's not a sound card (i.e if the green jack is not part of a card that has it's own slot) then it's off the motherboard (i.e internal or onboard audio).  Sounds like the internal audio has been disabled (in the bios) probably when the previous owner had a sound card and disabled the lesser
"internal audio."  So...try this: startup the pc and hit f2 when the Dell logo shows up (i.e get into the setup menu of the bios).  One of the menu headers should be either audio or external devices or something.  It's there where you need to re-enable onboard audio.  My $.02.

Edit:Mike beat me to it....

[Bob in St. Louis]

Well, after messing with it for quite a while, I reinstalled the Windows disk. Then went to [add printers and other hardware], then chose [audio codecs], and at random happened to pick a choice (from the Windows CD) that loaded what I needed to have audio.

So....it works perfectly now..... 

Brad, Mike and Ted, thank you very much for the shockingly fast replies. You guy are amazing. 
Thank you very much. I'm now able to hear the Windows default sounds, which I wasn't able to before.
I grabbed the first CD I could find, now I'm listening to The Eagles "Hotel California". 

Now my little girl can have all her software. Cool stuff.
Sorry for the false alarm.
I had spent enough time troubleshooting, that I thought I had run out of options, and reached the end of my abilities.
But one last "stab in the dark" did the trick.

Thank you guys again. 
Bob