Sound completely dead suddenly

My audio quit on me a couple of days ago. Was working fine then suddenly nothing! I checked in device manager, shows all sound devices working OK , no yellow tick. Realtek audio manager opened OK and speaker test seemed to be working - green bar went up and down, but no sound. nothing out of front or rear socket. Thinking it might be an iffy connection, I replugged the 3.5jack. Realtek saw it but again, test seemed OK but no sound. Updated driver, installed OK but still nothing! In frustration I uninstalled Realtek completely, reloaded the original version from my MB install disc. Showed on taskbar but nothing. Re-updated driver to latest version for Win7. Again, says installed OK but nowt.No Realtek icon in taskbar. Just original volume control icon. Head is about to hit brick wall!! Does it look like my sound chip is kaput? All controls say volume at 100% etc, nothing muted.

Hi

had something like this the other week, see here
W7, No sound at all. Task Bar 'speaker at 100% and not muted'.

Thanks for the advice. I eventually gave up and ordered PCI soundcard from China. All back working again so can only surmise the audio amplifier chip on the motherboard HAD given up the ghost! Again, thanks for the help.