no sound from computer

[That Guy]

if your really "serious" about sound, you'd get an RME card and $4000 worth of powered pro monitor speakers (events or mackies)... you hear all kinds of stuff on CDs you never noticed before, though unless audio is your job, I seriously doubt its worth the cost.

your onboard sound should be fine, I use an audigy, but SB cards are tied to their driver CDs, so don't lose them.

I'd guess the SB live 5.1 (what i believe you have) may have had some kind of software conflict and its also possible a power surge or various other cause flipped a bit or two on the hard drive in the wrong place... kinda hard to tell from hundreds or miles away though.