Sporadic loss of sound & No Audio Device Found Message

My audio has come and gone for no discernable reason over the past few months. I only notice it when I attempt to play games (Alpha Centauri today) and the sound is absent.

In Control Panel, under Sound Controllers I have the "No Audio Device" message.

My audio has worked most of the past three years, except ocassionally over the last three or four months.

I haven't added a sound card or updating any drivers, unless otherwise prompted by Windows update. I have a three year old Sony Viao, with whatever sound card/chip it came with. I did add a Raedon video card to try and help with Sim City 4 being so slow.

A friend at work said he had the same problem. He thought it was because Real Player had auto-updated itself, and had become the default audio program. This resulted in the conflict that gave the "No Audio Device" message.

I used his solution of putting a CD in the tray and selecting "Media Player" from the list of programs when prompted, and sound returned to my computer. That was about 2 months ago, and the sound has come and gone a few times in that interval.

Today, I have been unable to get the same dialogue box to appear (nothing happens when I put an audio CD in today). I've uninstalled Real Player and rebooted to no avail.

I see in some other threads that people have re-installed audio drivers.

I could risk re-installing my audio drivers since I have the original disks. But it seems like my problem isn't driver related since audio has spontaneously returned before, as well as the one time I tried my friends solution. What is the correct way to troubleshoot this?

If I need to install audio drivers from the original disks, will I be prompted in such a way that I won't wipe all the existing hard disk information out? (Though I did install the video card with a friend watching, I'm a bit gunshy regarding system-level tinkering as my previous attempt to deal with a Direct X problem 5 years ago on my last computer resulted in a domino effect of me making things worse and worse, eventually resulting in the purchase of the Sony computer!)

You should be able to update the drivers w/o any problems, certainly w/o data loss or anything like that. If it helps, I'd have that friend keep an eye on things, but a simple audio driver shouldn't pose any major problems.

Well, the oddest thing is that, today, before I could reload the audio drivers as was suggested, while watching TV and idly checking my e-mail, I played a moveon.org video clip. Viola! Sound has returned. This is the befuddling part of it.

I guess my question now is, do you think re-installing my drivers, which have miraculously returned and currently function, is still warranted?

And, if the problem persists, is there a way to tell Windows to NEVER reprioritize whatever heirarchy it uses for audio devices, or is that barking up the wrong ivory tower?

...or do I need a Sony Viao excorcist?

I subscribe to the age old philosophy "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". If the sound goes out again, note what you did last, to see if you can start to find a pattern. Then try reinstalling drivers, etc. Until then, as long as its working, don't mess with it