Recording... tried and failed...

So I had Saturday night to myself. I decided I would take off all of the recording software, move a lot of files to my external hard drive, and defrag my system to see if it would be more efficient. I even went so far as to disable certain start up menu items that might be eating away at my CPU while I tried to record. But it was all to no avail. I can't seem to get my computer sound to play through the MOTU 828. I get the Windows start up music, but no applications. I figure that once I get that working, I can probably record, but still nothing. Ponch recomended that I just reinstall Windows. I'm nearly there. Just wipe the system clean, re-install all the software, and see if that works out. I just don't have that kind of time right now tho. I just really want to start recording and do the little bits as often as possible. Ugh. Very Frustrating.