Audio Driver Not Working

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So, I am a PC gamer, and just recently my laptop finally gave up on me. I tried to get it back, but it was forever stuck in the Windows 8 start-up loop.
My father gave me his old computer, which he used mostly to play WOW, so I thought it would be a good computer. Oh boy, was I wrong.
It runs smooth and all, 4GB of RAM and an old Intel Pentium CPU. However, I came to notice that while talking to a friend that the mic auto muted itself.
It used to do this about once a day, but recently has been very frequent. Recently, as a kind of fix, I put the games I play into windowed mode so I can un-mute my mic quickly.
I just thought it was doing this to my mic plugged into the front mic port, so I bought a Blue Snowball. I came to find that it even mutes USB mics.
The audio driver installed physically into the computer is an ancient 2005 Realtek HD Audio Driver.
I have the money to buy a new one, but I am too sure that that is the problem. I have done several virus scans with the full version of AVG, but no threats come up (except for the occasional java exploit).
Please help if you can.

Pic not of computer, its about as old as it is though...