Windows 7 - Audio output dies randomly

[Rageous]

Here's the problem guys...

I typically run any number of online games and Ventrilo. There seems to be a direct connection between my ventrilo use and the complete loss of all system sounds. My outbound is fine but I can receive nothing incoming. Upon a full restart, the sound works fine... and then randomly cuts out after anywhere from 5 minutes to X hours.

What I've done:
1) RealTek drivers are up to date. (I've tried 3 separate versions, so I think I can safely rule out this driver issue.)
2) Run the Microsoft sound troubleshooter from the MS website. It recognizes RealTek and a Turtle Beach COD4 headset that isn't plugged in. I've tried to location the drivers/something for this goddamn headset but to no avail.
3) I thought it could be a port issue, so I swapped my audio line to a different port and nothing changed.
4) Hours upon hours on the internets trying to find a fix.
5) Lots of /facepalm and sadness.
6) Last night I thought maybe, just maybe, this was a priority issue causing a conflict between the applications so I adjusted both Ventrilo and League of Legends (Yes, I'm on that kick for now.)

I'm an electronic tech by trade. I have found that when you press "restart" and something works again, it is very likely not a hardware problem.

halp pls =(

4/23 Update: I found some guidance on a possible memory leak associated with the audiodg.exe in Windows 7 but the process never exceeds about 21MB of RAM. I am convinced this issue is somehow related DIRECTLY to Ventrilo, but I could be wrong.

4/25 Update: Ever persistent, I found a reference to a BIOS update designed for this exact problem. While it was not a Ventrilo specific issue, it was exasperated by it and specific to the EVGA P55 chipset.

RESOLUTION: UPDATE YOUR GODDAMN BIOS. I do not understand how my PC was fine for 18 months and then suddenly began to shit the (audio) bed. Regardless, after playing about five premade matches using Vent, which would’ve normally cost me at least six reboots, the problem appears to be gone.