Whenever I have music playing in the background and I open Skype, my sound would suddenly cut off.

When I try scrolling in my browser using the middle button (the one between the mouse buttons next to the keyboard), it's...

Figured it out; it was a faulty driver. I noticed that when I reset the driver, my sound starts working again. I basically had to go to the device manager and update the audio driver: Lenovo ThinkPad T500 Troubleshooting

"While sliding the release latch up, pull the battery out."

You don't have to keep the release latch up; you can just slide it all the way and the battery will pop out on its own.