Audio drivers not working

hello!! i have a few problems going on with my laptop right now, but my major problem is my sound driver.

in the middle of listening to a song on spotify yeserday, the audio suddenly cut off and i got an error message on spotify saying "there is a problem with your sound card. spotify can't play music." and upon trying to listen to music on youtube and itunes, there was also no sound.

however, when i change the volume on my screen or turn on/off stickykeys, the sound works. the volume buttons on my laptop do not work.

i tried uninstalling my driver, and it has said (multiple times) that the driver is still installed, even after rebooting. when i try to reinstall, i get the error message 5006, with no error details. the driver is listed in my device manager, and it says it is functioning properly.

i have an hp 2000-365dx and realtek hd audio drivers.

i've tried reading tons of threads on tons of forums, but no one seems to have the same problem as me. please help, so i can get help fixing my other problems also. thanks everyone!!