Technical Type Help with Half Life 2

[WesMont22]

I'm just bought Half-Life 2, on recommendation by my friend a couple days ago. Though there's a small problem. Every time there's a character on a screen during the game, I cant hear them. Is it sound driver thing or what? Note that my computer is a piece of crap. Are there any suggestions?

[The_Canadian]

"my computer is a piece of crap"
there you go

EDIT: Ok, I felt like really helping you. In the audio options, is the speech volume turned on?