Intel Audio Stops Working Randomly

[Microsoft Windows]

I have an intel based Alienware M15 R7 and when the system starts the sound (over hdmi to the monitor with speakers) works, however after some time, the audio just stops working from all apps (spotify, any games i'm playing, etc). If I look around at the audio settings, mixers, etc, everything is behaving as though the audio is working fine (spotify thinks its playing, games do their thing, there are no errors that I can see).Dell's site suggests that the audio devices is a Realtek ALC3254 or ALC3204.Temporarily, I've turned optimus off in the bios so now audio is forced through the nvidia chi

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