Vista - Very low sound all of a sudden.

Ok so for the past year or so its been completely fine, no problems at all.

I had a game crash on me, i figure oh well wait a bit and then restart it, but then i realize i cant hear anything, the sound was just barely audible. So i check all my sound settings and everything is the same as before, so i turn everything up to max, still hard to hear. I turn my speakers up to the point where they are hissing, now everything is barely audible.

So i try everything from restarting and reinstalling all audio hardware and software to pulling the card out and putting it back in, all connections are fine and everything is now at max volume everywhere i can find a audio setting, tried changing out cables and putting the card in my spare box, works just fine. Tried different speakers and i get the same problem. Also tried reinstalling my codec packs, the HD Audio Device a C-Media drivers, still nodda.

Next step is reinstalling and id rather just have someone tell me wtf is wrong with this thing, is there some windows setting that got messed up? Anyone else had this problem? Is there something else i should try before i reinstall?

Step back in time.....try to repair Windows using System Restore.

Cheers...