WMPlayer 9: No sound

Hi. My WMPlayer version 9 suddenly stopped playing sound.
I can tell the cd's are being played because the progress
bar is moving etc. However there is no sound coming out
the speakers. Not much has changed, in fact the player has
been updated.
Following the audio troubleshooter's instructions in
Windows 98 help I have tried to find the sound card so I
can un-install it then re-install it, but I am unable to
find it. Where do I look?
However I don't think that the problem is the sound card.
What about the device driver?
The lack of audio is a problem for all the sound programs
on the computer so I think the problem is beyond WMP
specifically.
I am totally cluless as to where to start.
Please help!