"The Audio Service is not running"

I have a Dell laptop which is running on Windows Vista. I am getting this error message "The Audio Service is not running" when I hold the pointer over the volume symbol in the quick launch area. After clicking on the symbol, the volume mixer is not available and if I click on other options such as the recording devices, playback devices, sound, etc; I am getting a pop-up window that is telling me to enable the Windows Audio Service. I check for this things again and if i go in the sound windows, then it says that the speakers and mic are working fine, but I am not able to hear anything and there is also an 'X' mark on the volume symbol. After opening task manager, it says that the 'AudioEndpointBuilder' and 'Audiosrv' services has stopped and if i try to start the same service then it gives me an error. Can anyone help me out?

You can try to rollback the Audio driver and see if that helps you out:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel
2. Click System and Maintenance
3. Under Device Manager, click View hardware and devices
   If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue
4. Expand Sound, video and game controllers
5. Right-click your Audio Controller, and click Properties
6. Select the Driver tab
7. Click the Roll Back Driver button

The solution to this problem is to ensure that the Multimedia Class Scheduler and Windows Audio services have the Status of Started and the Startup Type is not disabled. Follow these instructions to check the status of these two services:

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Click on the Administrative Tools icon, and click on Services.
3. If prompted, click on Continue in the UAC prompt, or provide the administrator password to approve.
4. Look for Multimedia Class Scheduler in the list, and verify that the Status and Startup Type should be Started and Automatic respectively.
5. If not, right-click on the highlighted service and click on Properties.
6. Changed the Startup type to Automatic and click the Start button under Service Status.
7. Click Apply then click OK.
8. To verify Windows Audio service, do the same steps as stated above except to look for Windows Audio in the list.