Ah ha! The ole Realtek AC97 ..... and I bet you've just downloaded (or
auto update has done it for you) an update for hardware from
Microsoft, eh?
Been there done that. many, many, many times.
Download the latest drivers from the manufacturer and re-install them
over the top of Windows so-called update. And next time Microsoft
Update invites you to update your sound hardware (I think it shows up
as an update for C-Net, or something), you're quite at liberty to
totally and utterly ignore it.
