I have same problem on a friends computer and an ESS1869 soundcard.

Haven't found a solution yet. I'm currently trying in the following order:

Actually u would have removed the startup exe file of audio, so go to run in the start menu and try to locate ur audio file there and click it and restart ur sys, hope this will rectify ur problem. If it is not try to uninstall all the games and third party video players from ur system.