Girlfriend's sound has ceased to work

She's on XP Pro SP1 on a:

Asus A7V8X
Sempron 2400+
256MB DDR333
FX5200

The sound is onboard Realtek AC97, I installed the drivers for it before the summer and it worked fine, it was then not used for around 4 months whilst we were home from uni. Now we're back, she's tried plugging her speakers (working fine - tried connecting to TV and no probs) and no sound seems to come from the machine. I've looked in volume control and nothing's muted, I've tried more than one sound-producing application and I am out of ideas. I've looked in device manager and there are no yellow (!) anywhere.

Sound isn't my area so I'm not sure what else I should try. Could anyone help please?

Double check that they are plugged into the correct port is where i would start with this. I know it sounds kinda stupid, but we need to eliminate possibilities...

btw when i read the title i thought you where calling your computer your gf .

I have plugged them into all available ports there, none of which do anything.

I would try updating the Realtek drivers.

FTR, I'm having the same problem with my A8V and have not hit upon a solution yet (other than to just get a new soundcard)

try using the restore feature from a time that it you know it worked. fixed the same problem with my sister's computer.

along the lines of what Dreamstalker suggested, you can also try reinstalling the sound drivers and software