Play button in timeline doesn't work...any workarounds?

My entire department has been dealing with the issue of the SL2 play button in the timeline view being non-operational about 75% of the time for upwards of a year now.  Every single course we create has to be intricately timed to the audio, and we've gotten to the point where I have to mark animation cue points in Audition for every slide so that we don't have to rely on Storyline to time.  Even when it DOES work, it is so incredibly slow, it's borderline unusable, taking minutes to load and work properly.  I've found a number of threads regarding this issue, but none have a reliable solution that works for all of my team members.  This is unacceptable, and what an eLearning development tool should not just do, but do well. I have to find a RELIABLE solution, and better yet, this needs to be FIXED.  Please let me know of any work arounds that are out there!