Audio never works consistently on my Dell XPS

[zachbauer91]

I have a Dell XPS 1340 with a relatively new installation of Linux Mint 14 32-bit. At first, It appeared to be working wonderfully right out of the box, but now I am having the hardest time getting the audio to work consistently.

I've tried using ASLA to unmute the output devices, but to no avail. I've also tried looking for drivers, but i'm having a hard time determining whether I have an nVidia card or a sound-blaster. Note, I had a multitude of issues when trying to get these speakers working in windows 7. Lastly, I've noticed that when I do experience the problems, checking the output devices section reveals nothing, which the drop-down menu reveals a "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo" selection that never seems to work.

The thing is though, it seems to work every now and again when I reboot. As I'm writing this, I'm happily listening to a YouTube video with no troubles.

I'd really like to get this working, as I've very satisfied with Nadia in almost every other aspect. Can anybody help me out?