Laptop sound?

Sound on my laptop is dead.  The speaker volume control in the bottom right hand corner has disappeared and when I access it thru Control Panel it says 'No Device Found'.  I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the sound drivers w/ no success.  The sound for this laptop is on embedded on the motherboard.  Replacing the motherboard seems a bit costly just for sound.

Anyone have any tips for me try?

Anyone ever try one of those usb sound devices that you can attach headphones or speakers to?

T.I.A.

weird.. upon bootup this mornng, I hear the sound of Windows and the sound works. Not sure how it'll be when I boot up tomorrow since it hadn't worked in about 4 days.

yeah, Lipps not quite what the problem is/was... sound is working properly for the 2nd day in a row.  The driver I downloaded was directly from the CPQ site for this specific laptop... will see how it is again tomorrow a.m.

I ran the malware program that you posted in another link recently and deleted a few things -- could there be a link?