Sound just stops working on any application after a random amount of time in windows 8

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I have kind of an odd problem and I've tried googling it but have found nobody with a similar problem to me. I recently upgraded from windows 7 to windows 8, and when I was running windows 7 I had no audio problems. However, now, after having upgraded to windows 8, I do have a problem. The problem is that when I'm using any application, no matter which application it is, the sound unfailingly cuts out after a random amount of time no matter what. I could be using chrome, foobar 2000, minecraft, garry's mod... no matter what it is, after a random amount of time the sound always cuts out and I have to restart it. It's becoming a really annoying problem. Every time the sound cuts out I get the "hardware insert" sound ([url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqHm1jpHS6E#t=25s[/url]). Also, when the sound cuts out in one application it still works on all of the others, but it fails universally in each application after a random amount of time. I haven't the slightest idea what the issue is and I haven't found anyone with this issue but I've tried solutions for similar issues and none of them have worked. What do I do?

[editline]30th December 2012[/editline]

Can I please get some help with this, it's fucking ridiculous and I can't find any way to solve it and now when watching youtube videos the sound is cutting out then when I try to refresh the page google chrome crashes.

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Is there anybody who can help me with this? It's becoming gradually more frequent and its incredibly annoying.