OpenALException: Invalid Device during app intialization on Windows

I recently began seeing this crash with software/hardware that used to work. I suspect it's caused by misconfiguration and/or failing hardware on my Window 7 system. Last time I fixed it by changing the default audio device. This time, I want to document the stack trace:

AL lib: (EE) DoReset: Failed to initialize audio client: 0x887c0032
Jul 25, 2019 8:31:18 PM com.jme3.app.LegacyApplication handleError
SEVERE: Uncaught exception thrown in Thread[jME3 Main,5,main]
org.lwjgl.openal.OpenALException: Invalid Device
	at org.lwjgl.openal.Util.checkALCError(Util.java:55)
	at org.lwjgl.openal.ALC10.alcCreateContext(ALC10.java:251)
	at org.lwjgl.openal.AL.init(AL.java:173)
	at org.lwjgl.openal.AL.create(AL.java:143)
	at org.lwjgl.openal.AL.create(AL.java:102)
	at org.lwjgl.openal.AL.create(AL.java:206)
	at com.jme3.audio.lwjgl.LwjglALC.createALC(LwjglALC.java:15)
	at com.jme3.audio.openal.ALAudioRenderer.initOpenAL(ALAudioRenderer.java:95)
	at com.jme3.audio.openal.ALAudioRenderer.initialize(ALAudioRenderer.java:225)
	at com.jme3.app.LegacyApplication.initAudio(LegacyApplication.java:283)
	at com.jme3.app.LegacyApplication.initialize(LegacyApplication.java:602)
	at com.jme3.app.SimpleApplication.initialize(SimpleApplication.java:178)
	at com.jme3.system.lwjgl.LwjglAbstractDisplay.initInThread(LwjglAbstractDisplay.java:130)
	at com.jme3.system.lwjgl.LwjglAbstractDisplay.run(LwjglAbstractDisplay.java:211)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)

Start with com.jme3.audio.lwjgl.LwjglALC.createALC and com.jme3.audio.openal.ALAudioRenderer.initOpenAL, following the stack trace into the OpenAL initialization path. Investigate reproduction on the reported Windows 7 setup, but the issue does not define a requested fix or acceptance condition.