Ok. sorry for the late reply. Basically I took it to the Nokia store in NYC. The first tech. said it right away. It was a hardware problem and as they didn't have the speaker in-store I had to send it out.
Then the store manager got involved and told me it was a software issue and a firmware upgrade would solve it. I left my phone and went away. When I returned my firmware worked but the ringer still didn't. I could have sent it in and got a replacement, but I was leaving for a trip and needed my data more than my ringer (it vibrates after all).
As I was leaving the original tech. (whose name I forget but was the best of the lot) told me, and I quote, "when I was in the marines, a well placed bang often did the trick." On my way home, I took his advice. I literally hit my phone and what do you know? It worked.