No Audio Device

[prlevy]

My X41 tablet running XP SP3 seems to have "lost" it's audio device.

Nothing plays through the speakers or even headphones. The Sounds and Audio Devices screen from Control Panel shows "No Audio Device".

This seems to have occurred subsequent to a particularly nasty spyware infection.

I have searched high and low for a solution and have attempted numerous techniques to restore the sound with no success. These efforts have included reloading and updating the sound drivers, system restore, updating to SP3, etc.

The only solution that seems to be left is to reload the chipset. Before I do this, however, I would appreciate any insight as to what horrible things this might do to my thinkpad - and possibly how to avoid this. Or some view that it is relatively risk free.

I have downloaded the Chiputil.exe from Intel after having hopefully identified the correct version.

Your assistance would be most appreciated.