Hi dj - not an expert here BUT this is what worked for me after researching and trying other things for 2 days.
1. Go to “Control Panel - Hardware and Sound – Sound”.
2. In the Sound window, switch to Recording tab, right-click on the box listing the current devices and select Show Disabled Devices.
3. Check if your sound card is disabled. If so, please enable it.
(I got this from a microsoft forum.)
I wasn't going to install W7 on my granddaughter's new laptops because it affected my webcam, sound recording, etc. but this did the trick.