Giga Z97X1 mobo - game crashed, restart, no sound!

[Iosion]

Gigabyte Z97X1 Mobo.

New build, all running perfectly for a month.

Happily playing Deus Ex Human Revolution Directors Cut.

Game froze.

Had to kill the game with Task Manager.

Restarted machine.

NO SOUND. What!?

Sound icon has a RED X over it and no longer recognized headphones plugged in to the headphone jack at rear.

Uninstalled and reinstalled audio drivers via Device Manager.

I'm lost.

Please help. What next?

Thank you!

UPDATE:

I plugged in my portable audio amplifier via USB and am getting audio via that just fine.

So... could still be software, hardware... cant find the code chart for the LCD display on the mobo yet, that seems like a place to start.

Bummed.

 

[Iosion]

K here's more.

If I run the CD that came with the board and contains the Creative drivers... it stops because it says it can not find any hardware applicable to the installer.

So... saying the hardware is ON the motherboard, would you agree this is a hardware issue or is there a chance it is still something else?

I find it odd it just happened to fail when a game crashed.

Is there a Creative reaming software. Hmm, have to look for that.

How do I fully reset the board? Any other option on this board besides cmos battery or jumpers?