Notebook Audio

I've had this laptop for two weeks.  This week, during Zoom and Messenger calls, the other participants started reporting that they couldn't hear me, and I could not hear them either. The first time, I could still control the volume slider and click the audio icons in the taskbar. I couldn't re-enable my audio, and Zoom crashed. After restarting, everything worked properly for about five minutes and then the both the microphone and the speakers became disabled again. This time, some Windows Explorer features froze as well and I wasn't able to access any audio related settings. The third time this happened, one of the participants was speaking and when the audio crashed the speakers kept producing a loud buzzing noise (like a snippet of noise repeating itself ad nauseam), and my whole desktop froze, forcing me to restart the system. This keeps happening at least three times a day whenever I am in any type of call. I already researched everywhere, reinstalled drivers, updated the OS, and followed every other initial recommendations. My whole livelihood depends on these meetings and I would really appreciate to receive some guidance to make sure I can solve this quickly.  Thanks in advance for anyone who can relate or provide some help!

Update: Following all of the suggestions and updating the drivers has not been an effective solution to this problem. The only solution that has worked for me is using an external Yeti USB microphone which is NOT a real fix. I'm really loving everything else that this laptop is able to do since I can work seamlessly whenever audio problems are out of the way and I can also use Adobe Fresco with it. I am still completely desperate about this and continue to ask for any practical support. I know this is a very common issue from what I've heard, but I feel disheartened to notice that the only solution for many is to return the laptop and buy another model.