Earbuds only work after restart

I'm having a wierd problem with my laptop not recognizing when I plug my earbuds into the jack unless I restart first. If the computer is already turned on when I plug them in, nothing happens - sound plays through the laptop speaker. If I plug the earbuds in and restart, then they will work. If I unplug them after restarting and plug them back in, they don't work. Everything I have read online tells me to check what devices are enabled in the sound settings, but unless I restart, the earbuds don't show up even after looking for devices. After restarting, they are selected like they should be.

Question by TheIncrediblyStupidOne on Super User, licensed CC BY-SA. We show a short excerpt and link to the original thread as credit.