Loss of System Sound

[taron]

So, last night I played World of Warcraft until about 9:30pm. Then I decided to let Lord of the Rings Online beta download over night. This site http://www.lotro.com/openbeta , recommended uTorrent as a great way (actually, they said fastest) to download the file.

So, I downloaded and installed uTorrent, and started the download. Once it started, I didn't touch my computer until this morning.

This morning around 9:45am, I went to my machine, paused the download (at about 8.9% - it's a huge file), and launched WoW again. Hmm. No sound. That's strange. I restart WoW. Still no sound.

I reboot my machine. No sound.

Check all my speaker connections. Anything on mute? Everything is fine - still no sound.

I play with sound options in WoW, and check other applications which should produce sound, like Napster. Still no sound.

Everything LOOKS like there shouldn't be a problem. Except I'm getting no sound.

The only thing on my computer that changed between the time when I last had sound (around 9:30pm last night, while playing WoW), and this morning at 9:45am (when I realized I have a sound problem), was that I downloaded and installed uTorrent (and managed to d/l a portion of one file with the client).

Anyone else have this problem? I searched the forums briefly but didn't see anything related. Any ideas? I'd really like my sound back, since I mainly use my machine for entertainment (i.e. apps requiring sound to be effective).

[Switeck]

Did you download µTorrent from this website or from a link to somewhere else?

What version of µTorrent are you (attempting to) using?

Did you check Direct X settings?

Has your computer "auto-updated" anything recently...especially at night...that may have "broken" sound compatibility?

10-to-1, µTorrent is just a red herring here. And the cause of your problem, whatever it is, is still unknown.

[taron]

The only other update that downloaded over-night was for Java. However, those updates asked me to install them - they did not install automatically. I did evenutally install them today, but only after I had already experienced the sound issue.

There were no other updates downloaded or installed. I know this because I do not have auto-update enabled. It only auto-downloads, and *I* have to launch the actual installs.

I downloaded uTorrent last night from this address: http://www.utorrent.com/download.php

I selected the "Get µTorrent 1.6.1 Installation Program (646 kB)" download.

The build number indicated on the About uTorrent popup is 1.6.1 (Build 490).

I am checking DirectX settings now - though I am not certain what to look for. First thing I'm checking is that I have the latest version of DirectX.

Incidentally, I don't know if it is relevant or not, but my headphones do produce sound perfectly when plugged into the headphone jack. It's only the speakers that will not produce sound. They are plugged into the speaker port of my sound card, which I believe is a coax connection (for 5.1 channel speakers).

[Switeck]

Does sound work on the speakers for ANYTHING else?

Windows sounds/beeps, AVI/MPG/MP3 files play ok?