Audio Driver Stops Working - System Hangs At Shutdown

For the past few days my laptop, a Windows 8 Samsung model with Intel core i5, has been acting up for the first time since I purchased it last year. I've been away on vacation for three weeks, and have not used it during that period, so when I returned the system naturally installed itself with new updates. But ever since then, my audio driver has not worked whenever I initially booted the computer (i.e. there is no sound); interestingly, YouTube videos also refuse to load. It is only when I restart the computer, or disable then enable the driver manually, that things return to normal. Or, at least, somewhat.

For when I try to shutdown the system, the computer hangs and just doesn't shutdown. It seemingly performs the processes required for it, the screen darkens, but the system does not power off. The first time I had to manually turn off the power, but last night I simply let it continue with the hope that it would shutdown eventually. It did... but only because my laptop battery ran out.

Before System Restore recommended, I tried that route already. No matter which restore point I used, the system told me that each restore was unsuccessful due to the possibility that my C drive was corrupt. I don't know if that's the case - certainly something is wrong - but I'm at a loss as to exactly what to do.