[Jason Warren[_2_]]

In article , says...


You might be able to disable and reenable the device. That will at
least tell you if it's the driver or the firmware/hardware ( unless
a disable/reenable fully resets the hardware, which is Unlikely).

It's an AC97 chipset, right? Might be able to find drivers,
yadda yadda.

My fairly new HP laptop occasionally forgets in the same way after returning from
hibernation. It also loses the built-in speakers sometimes if I just plug in headphones
(and there's no audio from them, either). The same thing occasionally happens when I use
the HDMI connection to my TV.

In every case, I've found that the solution is NOT to fiddle with the Windows (XP)
Control Panel settings. Instead, visit the Device Manager and disable/enable the audio
device. That works almost every time. I think, as others here have said, that it is a
driver issue.