Help!..Lost audio on my laptop!

Hi. I'm betting there are so many electronics geniuses out there that you'll solve my problem !! It is this :
The volume is set high on both my HP Chromebook 14 pavilion and turned up on any and all videos. I lost audio about 3 days ago. There is no slash mark across my volume control icon and the earbuds I have work fine on my Walkman radio. Somewhere I heard I should do a 'powerwash' to set computer back to factory default settings. I have not yet done this as I am afraid of possibly deleting things from the 'shelf' such as Tboard and other forums, emails (inbox/sent), stored 'notepad' data. and other files or folders. I do have a few off-line documents stored in Google Docs. Is this the only thing to consider and thus need to store these on a flash-drive before a powerwash, that else remain safely stored in the 'cloud' ?...Is there another move I'm forgetting which will restore audio, other than the above mentioned ? I truly doubt it's a hard wire problem such as female outlet onboard being damaged or has broken lead. Much thanks, Mark

 

Mike, thanks so very much for that info. It's da' bomb !! Its being so user-friendly and clearly put is one big A+...!! Please though, do read my post above. My OP was entered before my friend did the good deed..So, was too late to stop your well meant reply..which still is a goody anyway !...
.........train 4 has a red aspect untill train 3 clears the switch: train4> 0 0 G <train3 has a green aspect to take passing siding....

M

 

Mike, I completely left out that "my friend who did the 'good deed' " is a computer repairman who simply did a 'reset' and/or was perhaps something he'd done in my 'settings' window which corrected the problem. Also, I say "please read my post above" which too was wrong. I believe I was trying to say to "please read my post in the "the Fake Geek" which you'd referred me to. Sorry, my posts, I realize, are botched up in several ways (go figure !).
In any event, thanks again,... Mark