Sound in vista isn't working!

Yay! I just got Windows Vista, and it’s great so far. But one tiny little problem. My sound thing doesn’t work and vista says I don’t have any sound device installed. How do I fix this, since I’m just using my standart on-board audio port?

And also, how do you get rid of that really anoying notification thing? That bugs me to press CONTINUE while fading my screen to black and stops me from doing anything for those few moments… blah!

Thanks.