G50V - no sound through either speakers or headphones

When I turned on my computer today, I was shocked to find that there was no sound output from either the speakers or the headphone jack. After tinkering with the headphone jack for a while, I discovered a position where I could get a very distorted, soft, and tinny version of the audio.

I went to the ASUS site and updated the audio drivers. After it uninstalled the previous driver, it encountered an error in installing the new driver.

I then used a system restore point to restore it to two days ago (it was working last night).

I then called ASUS, who said it might be a hardware issue. They asked me to send it back, but I would really rather not, since I have a lot of files on this, and I need a working computer, since I'm in the process of applying to colleges.

Any and all ideas/suggestions are welcome, as sending it away is my final resort.

(btw, it's a G50V-X1 from newegg)

 

Have you tried going into the BIOS setup with F2 at startup and setting your startup sound to enabled.. you can turn volume to 0 but the startup sound option has to be on, I think it got fixed in the new BIOS revision but I am not positive, mine is still set that way.

Edit: Also did you try installing the original audio drivers off the driver disc... that might do it

 

Wow. My brother suggested that just now, and it worked perfectly.
I didn't realize that it would have such a large impact on the system, but thanks so much.