It happens recently (about a week ago)
Suddenly my windows xp theme reverts back to Classic Style in about 2-3 seconds before it reverts back to normal theme.
I thought it's not something important and my winamp is still playing the sounds like usual, so i didnt notice it until i open wmp. The video runs fine but i cant hear the audio. After that i close my winamp, and when i re-open it back and try to play a song, it gives me "there are no mixer device available. To install mixer device go to contorl panel .... etc ".
After i restarted the computer, the sound is back. But it will happen again in 20-40 minutes after that.


managed to start back the Window Audio Services in Administrative Tools but the problem will occur back after that so it's a loop.

My Spec :
Windows XP Professional, SP 3
Mobo : Gigabyte G31
Realtek High Definition Audio [Onboard ]

That is a pretty weird one and I'm not sure that I have an easy answer.

Effectively Windows appears to be losing its settings across both the Windows desktop and sound. What worries me particularly is that it corrects when you reboot. That doesn't sound like a Windows corruption. I'd expect it to remain through the reboot if it was.

It sounds more like a developing hardware problem. And since it covers graphics and sound, it smacks of being the motherboard.

The other possibility I suppose is that it is some software conflict which only kicks in some time after a boot.

But really without stripping the PC down and testing it, it is hard to say. And you'd probably have to go through the step of reinstalling Windows to eliminate the software possibilities. If it is of recent date, you could try a system restore but I doubt that it will make a difference.

In short, it sounds worrying and the first thing that I'd do is back up my data.

Best of luck.