Audio stopped working

My computer's onboard audio recently stopped working. The Realtek High Definition Audio Speakers suddenly show as "Not plugged in" in the Playback devices dialog.

Coinciding with this, five new devices, all "Speakers," all showing as "Ready" or one of the defaults, have appeared: WsAudio_DeviceS(1) through WsAudio_DeviceS(5).

None of these WsAudio_DeviceS produce any audio when tested; I have tried this with both my speakers and some headphones.

The Realtek Digital Output still appears as "Ready," which isn't useful, given that I don't have any S/PDIF devices.

I have tried connecting some wireless headphones with a Bluetooth dongle I had lying around, but I couldn't get them to work very well (nor could I back when my speakers were working). Recording with a USB microphone works fine, but I haven't tried it through the onboard audio Line In jack.

Looking at other, similar problems on forums, I found many people who were able to resolve this problem by changing the settings in the Realtek HD Audio Manager, which I don't have for my MSI PH61A-P35 motherboard. The only effect that reinstalling the audio drivers had for me was uninstalling the drivers for my USB keyboard for no reason.

Does anybody have any ideas about how I can get audio to work? I haven't been able to find my old PCI soundcard, but I'll try that if I find it.

No; for some reason, there are no restore points from before yesterday.

I am fully prepared to blame by cat for this (he had been hiding behind my computer the day this occurred).

Go to Device Manager > Sound, Video and game controllers>High Definition Audio Device
Right click on High Definition Audio Device, disable. Then enable it and it will be back on line.
Only a work-around until someone figure out what keeps taking it off-line.