i did something to my laptop's audio setting and therefore my playback devices are just gone and not even in the list of disabled or disconnected devices.
Check in hidden devices. If not there, check for a newer BIOS and run that, and download and run the audio driver setup from the laptop vendor support site.
Check in hidden devices. If not there, check for a newer BIOS and run that, and download and run the audio driver setup from the laptop vendor support site.