Why must I reinstall sound driver after shutdown/restart?

I have a thinkpad a31 with a dead battery and use it only with AC adapter/charger. Installed is win2k sp4. After overcoming a serious boot problem, I had to reinstall the sound and printer drivers and all works well until the machine is shutdown or restarted. Then I must again reinstall the drivers. Why must I keep reinstalling the drivers? Could it be "dead battery" related? My system clock does read correctly...

Please help!!!