Audio only works for a few minutes

[Brandoaz]

Toshiba laptop, windows 7 home premium. i3 4 gb ram
Recently audio stopped working in the sense that i was getting no sound, but the volume control showed "normal" messed around rebooted it came back, lasted a few days then went out. This time the volume icon was X'd out, couldn't get it to work so i uninstalled audio devices from control panel and rebooted.
Audio device was reinstalled, audio worked. started testing by watching a YouTube video, it worked for about 30 seconds and then the sound disappeared, BUT the audio icon worked and showed "activity" when i opened it..
checked services and redundancies, everything is running ...
rebooted again, system sounds worked, went to youtube, no sound, went to Vimeo, sound worked on first video for about 10 seconds, then stopped, system sounds stopped.
when i reboot, sound returns for a short period of time, then just stops.
what could be happening here?
Any ideas how to resolve this?

 

[fireberd]

First step, do you have the correct sound driver? If you let Windows install and if it has "HD Audio Codec" as the sound driver that normally indicates the generic basic function Windows installed driver and not the correct driver. You can check what is installed in the Device Manager. You may have two entries in the sound section, one for HDMI audio (if you have that) and one for your sound card.

If HD Audio Codec is shown for the sound device, go to Toshiba and download the correct driver for your specific model PC.

 

[Brandoaz]

There are two devices listed as :
High Definition Audio Device
One is location 1 ( internal high definition audio bus)
The second is location 3 ( internal high definition audio bus)
both indicate they are working properly.
right now sound is working after a reboot

 

[fireberd]

I suspect there is a conflict with two High Definiton Audio Devices. Plus, as I originally mentioned that indicates the correct sound driver is not installed. If the correct sound driver were installed you would see the hardware device name, such as RealTek, IDT, etc.

 

[Brandoaz]

ok thanks i will look into getting the correct drivers form Toshiba and see how that helps.
Should i look for separate drivers for each audio devise?
Is there an "easy way" to identify the hardware? I used belarc and it doesn't indicate anything.

Just strange that it worked for so long and then without an apparent changes it starts this behavior.

 

[fireberd]

The generic, basic function, Windows installed HD Audio Codec may not be the problem, but since its not the correct hardware driver, the first step is to get the correct driver.

 

[Brandoaz]

Sorry for the delay in responding had some family in town and this just wasnt a priority.
I downloaded the corretc drive from toshiba as found by model number it installed fine, and in the device driver under sound it now lists:
Conextant smartaudio HD
High Definition Audio Device
Flash also updated to 13.

The symptoms still persist but in the following way, the sound works for a short time then just abruptly stops( im testing on youtube and Vimeo). If the video is playing and i use the cursor to jump forward in the video, the audio stops( video continues), but i i just refresh the page, the audio returns, albeit at the start of the video, if i let it go it will eventually stop, its just hard to pinpoint when, but usually within a minute or two.
I disabled the High Definition Audio Device to see what would happen, symptoms stay the same.
I blew any dust out of the machine with compressed air, slightly dusty but nothing serious.
No clue what could be happening. Also, sysyem sounds seems to work when the sound on video goes out most of the time.
Could this be a codec issue? Ive noticed that they installed something called Uplayer, which they use to watch videos from their home country of Vietnam( think netfilx or hulu)
This is a Toshiba L745-s4210