I should have stated and forgot, that yes, windows updates for drivers can cause these issues, which is why I say never install Drivers Updates from Windows updates.
Yes, 99.9999999999% of the time, a driver reinstall from the manufactures website will fix the issue.
Not sure if this is the same problem, but when viewing certain tutorial videos on a course membership site I'm part of, if I go away and come back after a while, the video loses its sound and the symptoms are just like you describe. This happened on all three of my PCs; my Windows 7 laptop, my old XP desktop and my new Windows 7 desktop.
With me, it turned out to be a webpage issue, and refreshing the page solved it. Of course it was a pain, because I then had to remember where I was before I left, so I could find my place again when I got back. But at least it wasn't a computer issue.
Hope it's that simple for you too.
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