Sometimes, for no reason that I can discern* I'll discover that, despite my speaker icon in the system tray showing, say 80% volume, and my speakers being on, there is no sound. Then I freak out and ...

I've got an older PC here, Asus A8N-E, Athlon 4200+ dual core, 4gb ram, wondering if I should install the realtek sound manager software. I've got the latest driver for the onboard sound, but ...