Programs with sound crashing?

Hello all,

Since the afternoon of the 28th when I booted up my Vaio, many programs that heavily rely on sound are crashing upon opening or clicking something - such ones as Ventrilo, Skype, iTunes and World of Warcraft. Reinstalled all of them, and having the same issue. Curiously, when I go to open the Sound category in Control Panel, it doesn't seem to open either, so I can't switch devices etc - the link just doesn't respond. I'm beginning to wonder if this is an issue with my sound card. I'm still getting sound out of my current default device (speakers), because Skype's startup sound plays before the program crashes. Yesterday, everything seemed to start working after restarting my laptop countless times, but obviously this isn't really a fix.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: Did a System Restore to the 26th, and the same problem's happening. Has to be something in the hardware, like the sound card?