Hello!

Recently I have been experiencing some problems with my sound. I have Windows XP and my sound device is SoundMax Integrated Digital Audio. All of a sudden sound would disappear. When I checked the Device Manager, it told me that all the devices were working properly. Sound would re-appear after I rebooted the computer. Now the sound has disappeared altogether, and again according to the manager there is no problem with the SoundMax. I tried to uninstall and then re-install it, and it didn't help. I am looking forward to any advice!

Have you tried to update to the newest drivers? If you did did it work before you updated the drivers? How old is the computer? Is this a desktop or laptop? You should be able to get a replacement card for fairly cheap for a desktop. What about the speakers. If they are external have you tried them on another computer? If they are internal in a laptop try plugging headphones [that you know work] into the head phone jack.

Get and post a detailed report of all your machines (recognized) hardware;

Either use the D-A-L Hardware Scan (in my signature)
or,
download, install, and run Everest Home Edition on this machine. (Clean FreeWare) Once it's finished loading and running, click on the Report Wizard in the Menu Bar. Save all hardware related pages (the default) to a TEXT file. (It will save it to C:\Program Files\Lavalys\EVEREST Home Edition\Reports by default, unless you redirect it.)

Compress (zip) the Everest Report text file and attach that zipped text document to your next posting. (When posting, click on Advanced, and just below the posting box you'll see "Additional Options", and within that, "Attach Files". Click on "Manage Attachments" and follow the prompts. Browse to the file and choose UPLOAD.)

I have a laptop. I tried to plug in headphones, and it turns out that there is no problem with the sound when the headphones are in. As for the speakers (internal), they keep being erratic, the sound would go off and on. Sometimes the sound would return after I plugged in and out the headphones, then it would disappear again...

It would appear that the problem is a physical one. The jack contacts (or wiring).