No sound on laptop: "No speakers or headphones are plugged in" - Realtek audio driver "is not connected to the computer"

[Pixelled03]

Hi there,This issue randomly occurred at some point over the past week, potentially triggered by a Windows Update? Classic red X on the speaker icon in the bottom right. I am on a Dell laptop so all speakers are internal.I will list the symptoms and my attempted solutions.Symptoms- No sound: no sound from internal speakers nor from any headphones.- Red x on speaker icon: "No speakers or headphones are plugged in."- Right-clicking on speaker icon: "Speaker Setup: UNKNOWN"- "Playing Audio" troubleshooter only gives:- The speaker, headset or headphone is unplugged - Not fixed- Hardware changes mi

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