Last night I was using my laptop to do an MSN voice conversation using the internal soundcard (SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio). A few hours later I turned my laptop on, left it for a while and when I came back it appeared to be in standby, but I could not bring it back. So I powered off, turned it back on and started an MSN voice conversation again, but strangely I could hear my friend, but she could not hear me. Upon further investigation, control panel's Sound and Audio Devices reports no sound devices whatsoever, even when I try my Creative SoundBlaster NX (External). But both devices do show up in device manager. And for some reason, MSN is the only way I can hear any sound - even though MSN, like Winamp, WMP, XP itself all say there is no sound device attatched.

What on earth is going on? Sorry if that was very long and confusing but the upshot is, my soundcard clearly still works (with msn), all soundcards show in device manager under audio devices, but XP will not recognise them to play sound with. I made no changes to my setup, the only other thing of note is the non-returning from standby. If anyone can help I would be very grateful as my soundcard is quite important for my day to day work! Thanks.

Hi welcome to the forum did you try to reinstall the sound card driver best to have the latest ones installed. What brand and model is the laptop I will get the driver for you?