Ok Arthur,lets see if we can get to the bottom of your problems.
Firstly the Keyboard
After going to Control Panel and selecting Regional and Language Options,select English (United Kngdom) at the top section and United Kingdom at the bottom under Location.
You must click
APPLY then ok for this to take effect,not just OK.
You have to reboot(I think) before it will change it as it will be currently in use,but I think it tells you that after clicking on apply .
Can you tell me/us if you have an onboard sound card or a PCI one,it may be that it isnt enabled in your BIOS but lets find out exactly what you have got first and if you could let me/us know what the motherboard is,then that may be useful too