Vista - No sound from laptop speakers (say headphones are plugged in + other symptoms)

Hey all, I'm new here, very frustrated, and hoping I can get this solved.

My computer is a HP dv7-2185DX in total stock form.

I have no sound coming from my speakers. I don't know of any specific trigger. A friend ejected my iPod and walked off with it, but that's the only action I can think of done on the computer for a while.

Looking in the IDT Audio panel it says the following:

With no headphones in - it shows that I have a pair plugged in my middle jack.
With headphones on the left (mic) jack - it shows a mic plugged in and nothing else
With headphones in the middle - it shows both headphone jacks as filled (the one on the right shows up as filled too)
With headphones on the right - it shows both headphone jacks as filled (the one on the right shows up as filled too)

EDIT: More symptoms:

Now it shows the wrong front panel in the IDT Audio screen. It shows as 2-jack layout with mic (L) / headphone (R)

When I plug in phones in my PC into the jacks on the front, it shows as follows....

R side headphone - shows in screen as the right jack
Middle headphone - shows in screen as the right jack
L Mic - shows in screen as the left side mic

** When my phones are plugged in the Mic jack sound is produced under both situations. **

I'd appreciate any help I can get. I already tried rolling back the IDT Audio CODEC (one of the few things I can think to do in this situation, hoping it will help.) I'm going to re-update it and see if that helps, but anything beyond, I'm clueless.

Thanks a bunch all!

Try the k-lite codec maybe.Its very good and well recognized.If that fails reinstall your sound card driver is all I can think of offhand.

Download K-Lite Codec Pack Full

Chris

First thing I would do is un-install the audio driver, then re-install it.

You can also check to see if there is anything listed for the error in event viewer by typing event viewer in search and going to the windows logs, application tab. Look for errors (red "X" in left column) that relate to the current audio problem

let us know the results

Ken

I have no error logs at all and the drivers are functioning properly, according to the computer. It's all clear. I've only had this thing for a month, making the sound issue more of a pain.

I tried the k-lite pack. Same symptoms. I'm beginning to think it's my sound card...

I'm avoiding HP customer service because on my old laptop an HP Bios update killed it completely and they refused to help because it was 3 days past warranty. After some lengthy and "friendly" conversations, they agreed to fix it. I also have no patience to go through the 3 hours of stupid troubleshooting. "Is the computer on?"

Update: I've spent an hour and 45 minutes on the phone with HP support.

We've done everything from reinstall the BIOS, update drivers, reinstall drivers, past system restore points, etc... No avail. I got told to back up my data and do a full recovery to its initial state.

...Really?

While she was very helpful, they did almost exactly what I did + a little more. I'm really disappointed that I have to wipe my computer so I can *MAYBE* get sound from it. I'm reconsidering my anti-Mac stance after my second HP-PC experience. :/

Hmm have you tried a different set of headphones or speakers ? Maybe the speakers took a crap.

The headphone jack is basically stuck as always on (it thinks something is inserted into the middle one) unless I plug in a mic, in which case the speakers work once again and it shows that nothing but the mic is plugged in. That's the short version. :/

To clarify, I'm referring to the internal speakers this whole time.