Fascinating. I think I have to agree that this is probably a driver issue of some kind.
First of all, my apoligies to anyone who initially suggested a driver issue. I didn't (and still don't) understand how it could be a driver issue if sound was working in every other program except CloneDVD. When the Quicken issue appeared I began to expand my search for problems and reluctantly (cuz I didn't think it would matter) I switched to the generic built-in MS driver provided with Vista. That did not fix the problem, proving my point (so I thought) and I switched back to the manufacturer driver. Somewhere in the transition, my sounds are now working. I rebooted a few times to insure they would remain operational, and so far, all is good. I don't know how or why, but they are working and I am not going to experiment to find out why. Many thanks to those who contributed.