I am having the same exact problem with my computer except my problem is with my sound and video. I just recently experienced a computer crash ("the blue screen of death"). I don't think I messed with the registry or anything to create this crash. But after the crash, I restarted my PC and upon loading, the sound did not work. I cannot play any local files with audio or anything from the internet, etc.
I wish I could perform a system restore, but I had turned off the system restore a long time ago to free up some disk space. Therefore I don't have any restore points to revert back to.
I don't think that it is a driver problem because I have tried to upgrade my drivers and the error is still there. I have browsed many other forums but I couldn't find any helpful answer to my specific problem.
When I go to Start>Run>services.msc
Then I scroll all the way to the bottom and click on "Windows Audio", there is nothing wrong with it. It is "started" and set to "automatic start". I have also tried to restart the service but nothing happened.
Then I right-clicked on My Computer>Properties>Hardware Tab>Device Manager.
Under the "Sound, video and game controllers" category every subcategory has an alert icon next to it. When I right-click>Properties, there is a message that says:
"Windows successfully loaded the device driver for this hardware but cannot find the hardware device. (Code 41)
Click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter for this device."
Since then I have been searching for solutions for errors with the keyword "code 41". If anyone is able to help me, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.