This is strange …
It reads like you have moved beyond the initial problem of the “audio driver not initializing after every boot up” and now are investigating a problem with processes started at the same time as vlc seizing the audio driver.
How confident are you that this .avi file is built properly? What are its characteristics? ie output of:
ffmpeg -i thisone.avi
or if tovid is installed
idvid thisone.avi
or if mediainfo is installed
mediainfo thisone.avi
Did you create this avi file your self?