Computer Has Lost Sound?!

[The Neoclassic]

My computer's sound has randomly died. Well, almost. If I pump the volume to maximum, I can barely hear it through my headphones (before this happened, that would be an earsplittingly loud level) and I can't hear it at all through my speakers.

So far I've checked to see that all of the parts in the volume mixer are at max and the volume is in fact at max. I've made sure the volume in hulu, iTunes, and youtube are all at maximum (the things I've tried listening to). I've looked through my sound settings, but I can't find anything that looks wrong (plus I haven't touched it recently, so it's not like I probably changed something).

Is it possible I broke some sound chip in my computer or something? Changed some secret setting? I have Windows Vista if that matters.

Thanks for any help in figuring out how to fix this...

[bluewind95]

You can try reinstalling the driver, for one thing.

Is it a laptop? Is there any other way you could check the health of the speakers?

[The Neoclassic]

Yup, it's a laptop.

The sounds of Windows itself are similarly quiet. I did try updating my drivers; it tells me the best ones are already installed.

Will it be easy to reinstall my sound drivers if I uninstall them?

[Keris]

Make sure you get the latest drivers, you should be able to find them online.
If the problem persists, then take your laptop to a local computer store and ask them, as it's likely a hardware issue.

[The Neoclassic]

Thanks for the help!

Eventually I restarted my computer, and amazingly that got rid of the problem. No idea why, but hey, whatever works...