WTF is wrong with my laptop?

[V-Dawg]

Alright, here's my situation. Yesterday, I was about to watch a video file and for some reason, the sound wouldn't play. I checked and rechecked the speaker and volume settings - no dice. No sound.

So I thought my laptop deserved a little spyware check. Ran Spybot and cleaned up some crap. Sound still doesn't work. Then I reinstalled the audio driver. Nothing. No fucking sound.

The weird thing is, I know my speakers aren't the problem. When I rebooted, the VAIO sound that plays upon bootup I can hear fine. So yeah, I dunno what the fuck is going on but I need to fix it ASAP. And I REALLY don't want to reformat considering how much shit is installed on this thing. Little help guys?

[Tsi Aileron]

What type of soundcard?

[V-Dawg]

Dunno, integrated or something, I'm guessing. Laptop is a Sony VAIO S360.

[Tsi Aileron]

Is is just that video? Can you still listen to mp3s and such?

[V-Dawg]

No, I get no sound. MP3s, Windows sounds, movies, pornos. All silent. No sound whatsoever.

[Tsi Aileron]

Well, I don't know. I suggest uninstalling your sound drivers and then using this program:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Uninstallers/Driver-Cleaner-Professional.shtml

Then reinstall. I always have trouble with my sound card's drivers, so I end up using these:

http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/index.php?skip=1

[Angelo]

Consider dowloading one of the many programs that can tell you all the codecs required for the video.  The sound might have an obscure (as Windows goes) encoding like AC3.

[V-Dawg]

Angelo - I guess I didn't make it clear in my initial post because I'm a dumbass. It's not a codec problem or anything. Nothing emits any sound - videos, music files, whatever.

Tsi Aleron - Thanks, I'll try the stuff you posted. Not keeping my hopes up, though.

Fuck though, I have a feeling it's malware or some shit.

[V-Dawg]

Alright, I managed to fix it...somehow. The sound is fucking back. Yay.

It's true what they say, you never miss shit until it's gone.