I note again that that screen shot is only for the label - it does not determine if a sound is assigned or not.

I agree, but I've been just checking, if he has two necessary registry entries under:
HKEY_USERS\<UserID>\AppEvents\EventLabels
and
HKEY_USERS\<UserID>\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Defaul t\MailBeep
and what their values are.
If thers e is something wrong with those entries,he'll be missing, either "New Mail Notification" entry in Control Panel, or sound, or both.

yes it does

outlook is my default
i understand that the sound will occur when it is minimized although it used to beep at me when i opened outlook . sounds work for other things
is there any way of copyign my regsiary to show you what i have in it

Sorry, I may have added to some of the confusion here. In spite of their similar names, Outlook and Outlook Express are two completely different email programs. You mentioned in your first post you have Outlook Express.

That does not change what should be found in Control Panel or the registry for notifications, and fortunately, the way to check that OE has new mail notifications enable is similar.

Do you get the new mail icon in the system tray/notification area?

Are you using Trend Micro's PC-cillin AV? I note others have had similar problems with OE notifications when using that program.

You could try changing the entire sound scheme in Control Panel, then give it a try. If it works, you will probably be able to change it back to the defaults. If it does not work, then there are other problems, perhaps with one of those registry settings.

have tried that but still nothing oh well thanks for all your help but think i will leave it now
using avg anti virus

Sorry, perhaps someone else reading will come up with a suggestion.