strange sound problem... (sorry)

[missmissy7]

this seems like a weird one.. i need help from you clever folk-
i recently had to perform a system restore on my sony vaio (model PCV-RS504 apparently, although this doesn't seem to exist on vaio link or sony.com), god knows why my computer went nuts, but these things happen. anyway... it's been up and running for a few days with sound and everything working, but today refuses to make any sound whatsoever. i had this problem yesterday so i merely restarted which seemed to fix it.
i've now lost count of the restarts and still no sound- for no obvious reason and without any error messages to give me a clue...
i checked the speaker cables over and over again, and tried my speakers on a PC that i knew to be working properly, and they're not the problem. the device manager says that my 'SoundMAX integrated digital audio' is working properly. there's no conflicting devices, none of the system sounds work, everything seems totally in order.
it seems there's no problem whatsoever, but there's still just no sound at all. i've done all the audio wizards, looked through endless FAQs and Troubleshooting pages, but nothing.
should i install a new driver and see what happens? and if so... could you tell me where one may be...?
i have also had start-up problems-slower than usual, and with lots of error messages (but really can't be more specific- hard disk errors- i know nothing about all this! forgive me)
i'm at my wit's end

and no, it's not just on 'mute' (oh how i wish it was)

please help! i need music!

[Alexei]

I'm no computer expert at all, but try checking your device manager to see if any of your audio drivers have an ! or ? on top of them. This could possibly be the problem but I really don't know.

[Phippy]

Originally Posted by missmissy7

(but really can't be more specific- hard disk errors- i know nothing about all this! forgive me)

That's probably the most important information you gave, relevant to your problem. Try going to the command prompt, Start -> Run -> then type in "cmd".

At the prompt, type "chkdsk /f c:" (don't type the quotes and there if a space between the /f and c: ). It will probably tell you it can't access the disk and ask if you want to run it on the next reboot. Say Yes.

I would seriously think about saving your data and getting another hard drive, assuming the error messages are related to the drive itself. You're explanation isn't very clear.

[missmissy7]

hey- thanks for your help, but running the chkdsk didn't work, and there are no question marks next to the soundcard in the device manager. my computer's very slow, so i think i'm gonna shout at sony now. if you have any other ideas it would be great... but i think it's just screwed. cheers! x