Mmmm. Well, I did a lot of testing into the early hours of the morning and reinstalled the operating system again and now there is no sound at all. I know one of the speakers is faulty as I tested it on another pc, but I am now using my headphones. Yesterday, both only worked on the left speakers.
The driver cd install didn't complete and got stuck on Install VIA Audio Driver.
Actually the motherboard is brand new and was assembled yesterday, so is it possible that there is a motherboard connection that needs to be made, or is loose, or like you mentioned this is a hardware issue? Could it be a Windows 7 issue too?