sound problem solved - Inspiron 11 3147 - removed VLC

SHORT ANSWER: Uninstall VLC

DISCUSSION: A month ago I got my new Dell laptop and really love it.  As always with a new PC I went to PCDECRAPIFIER.com to remove all the junk, then to NINITE.com and installed my favorite long-trusted, popular, and proven applications. You know, the usual cast of characters ... 7-Zip, Firefox, Chrome, Teamviewer, Teracopy, and (ta da!) VLC video viewer. VLC has long been my best choice for a video viewer, most versatile, and trouble free except for a few glitches along the way.

Then for the next month I fought audio problems. Sound would just quit - using a browser, video viewer, Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, even basic system sounds. Updated, uninstalled, and reinstalled drivers, sure. But I noticed one very unusual condition - the problem would persist across some reboot/power off cycles. I was worried this signaled a hardware problem. But I did a huge Google search and looked through the Dell community forum. 

Yup, the word "VLC" kept showing up. I am good at debugging, and know how to do it. I try and recreate a unique condition that causes a problem to appear, then remove the condition to confirm that the problem disappears. What I found was this: The problem occurred sometime *AFTER* I used VLC video viewer. And the problem only occurred *AFTER* VLC was used, and never occurred otherwise.

So I uninstalled VLC then rebooted. I tried iTunes Player OK, and WMP OK. So now 20+ hours of video/audio use later, with probably 10 reboot cycles, no problem occurs. I consider this resolved to my satisfaction. 

I really love VLC and hope to use it again. But right now I'm just not going to take the time fight a hardware and software vendor problem. Won't. Do. It. 

If you have this persistent and irritating problem, I hope this helps you.

     -Will