Are they internal or external speakers? In any case, either the speakers have ended their lifetime, or there has been an update of some sort, cutting them off. You might try a restore / recover point, Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Backup and Restore. Take your system to a point where you know it was working.
No one else has been messing with your computer?
Are they internal or external speakers? In any case, either the speakers have ended their lifetime, or there has been an update of some sort, cutting them off. You might try a restore / recover point, Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Backup and Restore. Take your system to a point where you know it was working.
No one else has been messing with your computer?
Have you checked the "little" things such as making sure the sound output isn't muted or the volume turned down? What happens when you plug in headphones?
Right-click on the speaker icon in the System Tray and select "Playback Devices", are the speakers selected? Check Device Manager to see if it reports any issue with your sound driver.
More really good ideas, thanks. No headphones available (gasp) but tried all else, checked all. Ran full scan w/MS Security Essentials, ran bitclean, will reboot but no change in spkr status yet, will system restore to point a few days ago later...
Yes, my suggestion of trying the "little" things should have included rebooting as well. Glad you got it working.