Crazy Behavior - RuneScape? (Freezes, no audio)

[EchoLynx]

Just yesterday I decided to log on to RuneScape for old times sake. Everything was working fine, but some time into playing the applet froze. Firefox was fine, but the applet was nonresponsive.

So I killed Firefox and started over. A little while later, same problem. Some time through this cycle of crashes and kills, my audio stopped working. I had thought it was just RuneScape, but turns out it's ALL audio.

I have no idea what's going on at this point. I can't play any audio, and it seems like my once detected integrated audio chip is now only half-detected (input-only).

This is way out of my league, so any advice would be helpful. Also, my system is configured so I can do a complete reinstall of any OS at any time, so if you want I can start over if that becomes necessary.

Thanks for your help,
Ian

PS- I am running Linux Mint Helena, upgraded from RC1.

[EchoLynx]

I reinstalled LM8 from the final edition, not the release candidate, and now my audio works. So there is something in upgrade process that must have broken.

-Ian