Windows 7: Audio devices suddenly "not installed"

Ok, this is going to be a long post, but I'm having a common problem with uncommon issues.

Two days ago, my desktop audio worked fine through USB headphones, onboard, HDMI, whatever. I move my computer back to my apartment and suddenly, I have no audio or audio devices. I'm not new to the dance of fixing problems on the computer, but this seems to be extremely troubling.

Basically, Windows reports that I have no available playback or recording devices (even with the "show disabled devices" option enabled); it only says "No audio devices are installed" along with the more general "No Audio Output Device is installed". However, Device Manager reports them being operational just fine. I have done the whole dance with uninstall, reboot, disable, reenable, scan for hardware changes, and still, I have nothing. I have double checked the services for audio/power, and everything seems to be working dandy. SFC reports no integrity violations. Dxdiag reports that there are no sound cards present even though clearly, the device manager seems to report them fine.



I had the correct driver for onboard installed, but when I uninstalled the driver for testing purposes, it went away. I don't think that should be the primary concern here.

Here's some screenshots:






If anyone can provide some suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you all.

Have you tried a System Restore, back to a date when it all worked OK? If not give that a shot.

As I was scratching my head, I decided to do this before you posted as a last ditch effort. You know what? It actually worked.

For most my teenage/adult life, I have hated the system restore functionality and cast it off as a waste of space if you know what you are doing. Somehow, it pulled through this time. Thank goodness I decided not to turn it off on my install when I put in an SSD.

It turns out that by plugging in my USB headphones into my front USB ports (ones routed through the motherboard), I caused some system glitch that gets rid of all audio devices except for some onboard audio digital outputs. I compounded the problem by uninstalling/reinstalling drivers via device manager.

However, plugging the headphones into the rear USB ports cause no problems.

I think I need to verify that the front USB's are plugged in well to the mobo and then check if there is dirt/dust in the port itself causing communication issues. Otherwise, this is done a deal.

At the end of the day then, why didn't SFC catch anything? Why did system restore work but not SFC? So strange... Anyway, thank you good sir.

SFC (System File Checker) and System Restore are two different functions and serve different purposes.

I keep System Restore always on. Its saved my butt many times and also made me look like "supertech" when I use it and fix client PC's.