To me it sounds like a windows issue. The game gets its sound options FROM windows. If there is nothing available then windows isnt reporting the sound options.
Another thing, years ago I seem to remember Skuzzy saying sound issues can be attributed to connections issues. Sound is on a different setup than the rest of the game. Not sure how it is setup, but sound becomes secondary to the rest of the game when it comes to connection.
As for solutions...... sorry I have nothing. Has your connection changed recently, or when this issue has cropped up? Windows updates are the devil. I never let them automatically update. I wait, and research updates before I let them install. If there are too many reports of issues with an update, I just wont install it. I try not to fix things that are NOT broken.