Videos taking forever to start

So recently (around a week ago), my computer started taking forever to load YouTube videos. The videos buffer—sometimes fully—and still don't play. This also happens with Webms on any website.

If it's related, I also updated my (IDT) audio drivers around the same time this started happening. Any help/ideas?

Edit: This only happens some of the time (with no relation to the length of the video).

Edit #2: I just discovered this only happens when I'm using Skype (or any other voice chat).

Edit #3: This is still happening even when not using Skype. It's getting really annoying. Also, if a video doesn't play and I load up a bunch of videos at the same time, they don't play either. But then a few seconds/minutes later, they all randomly start playing at the same time. It's really weird.

Edit #4: Sorry for all the edits but I have done a bunch of tests (by loading up a bunch of videos) and apparently this is caused by Shockwave Flash. ALL of my audio stops working randomly, and on Google Chrome, when I got a prompt to stop Shockwave Flash (because it was not responding), I clicked "stop," and as soon as I did so all my audio resumed working and the videos started. This is really odd.

Edit #5: Apparently it's not Flash because Spotify is doing basically the same thing with my browser closed.

Edit #6: Apparently I'm also going to make edits all day. I'll keep updating everything I find out. So right now what I forgot to mention is that whenever I click the volume changing little button, it's supposed to make a sound immediately right? For me, voice mixer stops responding for 10-20 seconds, then 10 seconds later it plays a sound. This is really weird. Should I reinstall/remove my audio drivers or what? I'll take and try any tip! Thank you.

Edit #7: I now remember that the old audio drivers I had were RealTek High Definition Audio drivers. I updated them to IDT through the HP website with this exact model. I know I got the right drivers for this model, but this is horrible, all the bugs and general-unworkability of this.

What about IE, it has built in Flash ?
Did you try to turn on and of "Hardware Acceleration" ?
Flash up to date ?
Tried an older version ?

CountMike said:

What about IE, it has built in Flash ?
Did you try to turn on and of "Hardware Acceleration" ?
Flash up to date ?
Tried an older version ?

Click to expand...

Apparently it's not Flash crashing the audio drivers but the other way around.