I've been having problems with my sound device disappearing regularly from my laptop. I've usually been able to retrieve it by following the trouble shoot advice via the device manager. This time there was no device on the drop down list. I have no idea what to do now. Any advice?

Try using the "add new hardware" in the control panel and let it search for the sound device. See if it can locate it. Restart your s/m and try this out. Is it an external card or inbuilt on motherboard?

Thanks for that. It worked. In my panic and despair it didn't occur to me.

Glad it worked! You are welcome.