random audio device problems

[Jim Shaffer]

Anybody ever have something like this happen? Several times since installing my Z77 Extreme4, I've started my system and found a red "X" on the volume control icon in the system tray. The first few times, the problem was that some Windows service hadn't started. I started the service manually and it worked fine. Tonight, however, was different -- the system claimed that there was no audio device! I looked in Device Manager and sure enough, no audio devices of any kind were to be found, and scanning for new devices didn't locate any. I restarted the system and it's working normally again.

[synack]

Sounds to me like your audio chip is about to fail. I would look into getting the MB repaired or replaced.