why would i lose sound entirely every so often?

[Robert P. J. Day]

  every few days, my gateway laptop will simply stop producing sound.
it will have been functioning perfectly all that time and, suddenly, i
go to watch a youtube video and ... nothing.  not from the speakers,
not from the headphone jack.

  i won't have touched any of the audio settings, nothing's been
muted, everything's at full volume, etc.  a reboot will typically fix
it but, surely, there's a simpler solution.  what can i look for in
terms of diagnostics?  thanks.

rday
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Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

        Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry.

Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
"Kernel Newbie Corner" column @ linux.com:          http://cli.gs/WG6WYX
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