I've had my computer since May 2012 and I've had problems with the sound card almost as long. The problem happens most often when I plug in or unplug headphones from either headphone jack. I can often prevent the problem by only plugging in the headphones when my computer is closed, but that isn't guarentied to prevent the problem. The only way to regain use of my sound card is to restart my computer. This problem has gotten progressively worse over the life of the computer until I now have to restart my computer multiple times a day. I have searched the internet and found no solution other than restarting the machine.
Is there a more perminant solution I could try?
[edit: I'm running Win 7.]