Windows 7 - HDMI output video, but no audio? Help!!

I have a laptop (details in signature) and am hooking it straight to my Samsung LCD TV via an HDMI cable. The laptop outputs video to the TV, but there is no sound to it. The sound plays on my laptop's speakers instead. I tried switching default device to the Samsung TV (via Control Panel > Sound > Playback tab), but the sound wouldn't switch to HDMI. My setup is similar to this photo. When I play an MP3 or video file, I can see the green bar jumping on the laptop's speakers under the Playback tab.

It is not the HDMI cable or TV. I know for sure because other laptops work just fine, I tried it. Any ideas?

 

I had the same problem and just figured it out ...connect to the tv..and switch to projecter only(press the windows key and P) .go to playback devices and then click on your default speakers..while they ARE THE default DEVICE and then click set as default communication device...then set the hdmi as default device..that did the trick.. now it automatcailly switches audio.

Hope that helps.

 

Josh--thank you for the suggestion. I found out this is related to software, not hardware. Your suggestion is basically fooling the software, which is what it comes to at the end. I realized my music and movie players had the laptop's speakers as the default output. I made sure player's output is set to the HDMI output (or better yet, "default output device", so it switches out automatically). That's it!