Linux Mint Forums

Do you have multiple sound cards?
Go to Menu -> Sound & Video -> Pulse Audio Volume Control -> Playback then make sure whatever isn't playing sound is trying to play sound, find it under the playback list, click the triangle in the upper right, goto move stream and select the correct device.

The USB headset is a separate sound device with its own internal sound card. A sound stream can only play on one device at a time, the issues you are having are probably related to the wrong device being selected. Removing pulseaudio was probably a bad idea because now it will be harder to select the proper devices.