I have two sound output devices, a soundbar using digital optical S/PDIF (motherboard rear panel) and a pair of headphones using a 3.5mm phonejack.
I was recently having trouble getting a piece of software to output to the headphones instead of the speaker. But when I tried disabling my soundbar from Control Panel > Sound > Playback (also accessable from the tray icon) it completely removed the S/PDIF HD digital audio device from the list of playback devices and now my computer no longer recognizes it at all.
I have looked all through the Sound menu in Control Panel, the Realtek HD Audio Manager, and device manager and I can't find any sign of a connected digital audio device anywhere. Realtek Manager recognizes my optical port but doesn't show that anything is plugged in.
So how can I re-add an audio device I have disabled?