Sound spontaneously muting

[BigLar]

My Asus laptop running Vista Home Premium has developed an odd defect. The sound system spontaneously mutes and, maybe 5 minutes later, spontaneously un-mutes. It then cycles like that to and fro, but not all the time.

Any ideas?

 

[VirtualLarry]

short circuit?

 

[BigLar]

Everything else is OK. I'll check the speakers themselves.

 

[Binky]

Is this when you're working on the machine? Maybe playing a game?

Have you considered sound on/off shortcuts? Some games/apps use them, like Alt-S or ctrl-S to turn on/off the sound.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Does your keypad have dual functions? Sometimes I forget and have the alternate menu running on the key pad and if I hit the number '5' the sound mutes.