Hi there guys! I am in desperate need of help as I am currently having a problem with my onboard sound (I think it is most likely related to that but I am open to suggestions as to what else it could be). The problem that I am experiencing is that my sound to all applications and Windows is cutting off after anywhere from 5-20min of playing games or watching YouTube videos. When the sound crash occurs, no error POPS up, no sounds are made and there are no sorts of notifications as to tell what had went wrong. Also affected is any sort of video that is being played in Google Chrome (My Default Browser), example on YouTube ETC, the video will start to "lag" and play at half its normal speed.
 
I have tried to install the sound drivers (Realtek) that came with my motherboard CD, I have tried to install the latest sound drivers for my motherboard, I have tried to use the drivers that Windows installs by default if I do not install any drivers, I have tried re-installing Windows on 3 occasions now.
 
When I restart my computer, the problem is resolved but the cycle starts again and the sound only lasts for 5-20mins.
 
Things that I do for the problem to occur:
-Play games such as: Dota 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (basically any game I play triggers this sound crash)
-Watch YouTube videos
-Steam is running
-Teamspeak is running at times (but sound still crashed whilst this was uninstalled)
 
Things that I do that do not trigger the sound crash:
-Play audio (music only) using VLC Media Player and/or Windows Media Player
-Leave my PC on for EXTENDED amounts of time without doing anything with it (to check whether it is a time issue or not)
 
My motherboard: Intel DP55WB (Using onboard sound)
 
My speakers: Creative 5.1 Surround Sound speakers (can't remember the model)
 
My current sound drivers: Realtek AC'97 Drivers that came on my motherboard CD.
 
My current graphics drivers (not sure if this helps but it does seem to install the HD Audio Drivers (which I recently chose to not install when installing the graphic drivers), but sound still crashes with the NVidia HD Audio Drivers both installed and uninstalled): NVidia 310.70 Drivers
 
My current Direct X Version: 11
 
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit
 
Processor: Intel Core i7 860 (2.86GHz)
 
Graphics Card: Geforce GTX 560Ti
 
Harddrives: 64GB SSD (ADATA brand) and 3TB Seagate internal HDD
 
RAM: 4GB+4GB+2GB Ram sticks (Tried testing if the RAM was failing, but sound still crashes even when all RAM Sticks are individually inserted)
 
PSU: 720W Gigabyte Odin Power Supply Unit
 
Any Additional Information: I previously had this issue on my old 500GB hard drive but cannot remember how the problem was resolved (I think it gradually worked over time??? not 100% sure...) Then I bought my SSD and my 3TB internal HDD and installed Windows on the SSD and transferred all my data to my 3TB internal HDD. The problem has been occurring over since.
 
I have tried to be as thorough as possible in outlining my specs and any occurrences or error messages (lack thereof) and also what I have tried and failed with.
 
Please help me! This is quite an irritating problem and I have turned to every open door and failed to sort out this problem and I am also not sure purchasing a sound card would resolve this problem or not...
 
PS: This is my first time posting on CHF! Please let me know if I had made any errors in conduct (or have posted this in the incorrect place) or lack of detail and I will ATTEMPT to fix them as promptly and as best as I can. Thanks again guys!Welcome to the CH forums and i want to compliment you on your 1st post.It is very thorough in all respects.Given that you say this problem arose when "Then I bought my SSD and my 3TB internal HDD and installed Windows on the SSD and transferred all my data to my 3TB internal HDD. The problem has been occurring over since." would LEAD one to suspect that something was omitted when you set this new format up. This type of issue can involve a slow ISP rate but given that it only occurs after a significant time interval i see that not being likely.I see the problem likely being some driver not having been installed at the time of your creating your current configuration. Are you displaying any warning symbols in your device manager?truenorthHello there TrueNorth, thanks for the welcome and especially for the reply (I have been struggling with this problem for quite an irritating while now ). As far as I can see, I see no warning signals at all in Device Manager. I had previously encountered this problem on my previous harddrive (a 500gb HDD) which after some time (and I'm not sure how) the problem had been resolved (Honestly can't remember how ). However, I had recently re-installed this 500gb HDD and booted off it. The problem does NOT occur at all on this HDD and now only occurs on my Solid State Drive. This leads me to think that it has nothing at all to do with hardware, and, as you said, it may be software / driver related. However, I went back to my old HDD and looked at the installed driver versions for both my sound and graphics and any settings that could be different to those of my current setup on my SSD. I further went on and changed all the settings and installed all drivers to the "working" versions of those on my 500GB HDD. To no avail .

I would like to thank you very much for your reply as you are the first person in I think 2 months to reply to my issue Thanks for taking the time out to read about my problem and I hope we (and the community) can come up with a solution to this irritating problem.

- subz3ro999

PS: The sound takes much longer (maybe about an hour more or so) to crash in games like League of Legends and Warcraft III. [Not sure if that helps at all]