All right, so here's the deal...

PC Profile:
Dell Inspiron 700m laptop
Windows XP

SP3
Sigma Tel C-Major Audio Sound Card

Wireless Internet Connection

The Case Specs:

So, the sound on our computer seems to have stopped working, but only only the laptop's internal speakers.  When speakers are hooked into the headphone jack on the computer, sound works fine.  The odd things is, every once in a blue moon the start up or shut down music will play from the internal speakers (Of course, when external speakers are not attached).

We've looked over the sound specs in the Volume Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices window in the Control Panel, and the Sigma Tel settings in the Device manager.  Everything seems to be in order here.  Nothing muted, no errors.

I've heard that the inspiron 700 has a weird wiring design. The speakers are situated in the screen portion of the laptop and the wires running to them can GET pinched by the joints in the laptop.  If open your laptop screen too far it can pinch/cut the wires so that your sound won't work.  I don't THINK we've done that, but it MAY be an issue.  Although, I've heard that doing so will generally only cut out one side of your speakers, and then the other.  This seems to be the whole shebang; and, once again, sometimes some sound will play, and that comes through both sides of the speaker.

The MRS. suspects that there may be a software problem.  Inasmuch as Windows stopped officially supporting XP in April, the rumor is that the automatic updates these DAYS may have several bugs in them.  Apparently one of her friends has a very similar problem which may have been caused by an Automatic Update.

Anyway, I thought I'd see if anyone else had any insight.  Thoughts, Comments, Questions, Complaints?

Thanks a ton.

-Aedo