Crackling sound while playing music in HP SPECTRE X360 Ultrabook

[TedSteel]

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@Technocrazy wrote:
TedSteel
I get the crackling with a USB Ethernet adapter and the wifi turned off.

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Darnit...

[edidduplan]

Hi out there,
I just baught the spectre x360 with windows 10 home three weeks ago. Had the same problem described here and after reading this forum decided to go first for the simplest solution and looked if there was an update for the sound driver. There was and updated it to the Conexant Smart Audio HD ver 8.65.129.0. The crakling sound disappeared almost completely! I suppose it is driver problem and hope that HP will keep on improving it in order to eliminate the noise 100%. Thanks to everyone who posted his problem/solution here for the benefit of the comunity! HP Spectre x360 15-ap002ng

[goldflame09]

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@TedSteel wrote:

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@Technocrazy wrote:
TedSteel
I get the crackling with a USB Ethernet adapter and the wifi turned off.

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Darnit...

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that gets me thinking. maybe it's with any highspeed data transfer. anyone have a high-speed USB? im thinking just must moving the file from the USB to the computer might cause it. not sure why, but just a thought.

[makka64]

PERMANENTLY RESOLVE HP SPEAKER COMPRESSION (HISSING, CRACKLING DISTORTION WHEN PLAYING VIDEO, MUSIC, ETC)

The problem is caused by Bang and Olufsen audio correction compression - you need to change the driver from Realtek,
to the normal high definition device driver. This affects a lot of HP models with B&O sound. The first part disables the
Realtek driver - the second deletes it permanently.

It's simple and takes 2-3 minutes.

CLICK START - GO TO DEVICE MANAGER
IN THE LIST CLICK 'SOUND VIDEO AND GAME CONTROLERS'
RIGHT CLICK 'REALTEK HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO DEVICE' - CHOOSE DISABLE - IGNORE WARNING AND CONTINUE
RIGHT CLICK SAME FILE CHOOSE 'UPDATE DRIVER SOFTWARE' THEN 'BROWSE COMPUTER FOR DEVICE SOFTWARE'
CHOOSE 'LET ME PICK FROM A LIST OF DEVICE DRIVERS ON MY COMPUTER'
HIGHLIGHT 'HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO' (NOT REALTEK) CLICK 'NEXT' AGAIN IGNORE WARNING AND CLICK 'YES' -
RESTART / REBOOT WHEN PROMPTED

PLAY A FILE - YOU NOW HAVE NORMAL LAPTOP SOUND!

***IMPORTANT - THE DRIVER WILL REVERT TO REALTEK THE NEXT TIME YOU REBOOT, UNLESS YOU DO THE SECOND PART BELOW)***

AFTER REBOOT (TO **PERMANENTLY GET RID OF THE PROBLEM**)

CLICK START - GO TO THE CONTROL PANEL - 'UNINSTALL A PROGRAM'
HIGHLIGHT REALTEK HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO DEVICE AND UNINSTALL

IT'S AN IDEA TO CREATE A RESTORE POINT BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS IN CASE YOU MAKE A MISTAKE - IF YOU HAVE AN EARLIER RESTORE POINT YOU CAN SIMPLY ROLL BACK TO THAT. IT IS SIMPLE THOUGH IF YOU FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS. MAKE SURE YOU WANT TO PERMANENTLY GET RID OF B&O BEFORE UNINSTALLING.

[makka64]

PERMANENTLY RESOLVE HP SPEAKER COMPRESSION (HISSING, CRACKLING DISTORTION WHEN PLAYING VIDEO, MUSIC, ETC)

The problem is caused by Bang and Olufsen audio correction compression - you need to change the driver from Realtek,
to the normal high definition device driver. This affects a lot of HP models with B&O sound. The first part disables the
Realtek driver - the second deletes it permanently.

It's simple and takes 2-3 minutes.

CLICK START - GO TO DEVICE MANAGER
IN THE LIST CLICK 'SOUND VIDEO AND GAME CONTROLERS'
RIGHT CLICK 'REALTEK HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO DEVICE' - CHOOSE DISABLE - IGNORE WARNING AND CONTINUE
RIGHT CLICK SAME FILE CHOOSE 'UPDATE DRIVER SOFTWARE' THEN 'BROWSE COMPUTER FOR DEVICE SOFTWARE'
CHOOSE 'LET ME PICK FROM A LIST OF DEVICE DRIVERS ON MY COMPUTER'
HIGHLIGHT 'HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO' (NOT REALTEK) CLICK 'NEXT' AGAIN IGNORE WARNING AND CLICK 'YES' -
RESTART / REBOOT WHEN PROMPTED

PLAY A FILE - YOU NOW HAVE NORMAL LAPTOP SOUND!

***IMPORTANT - THE DRIVER WILL REVERT TO REALTEK THE NEXT TIME YOU REBOOT, UNLESS YOU DO THE SECOND PART BELOW)***

AFTER REBOOT (TO **PERMANENTLY GET RID OF THE PROBLEM**)

CLICK START - GO TO THE CONTROL PANEL - 'UNINSTALL A PROGRAM'
HIGHLIGHT REALTEK HIGH DEFINITION AUDIO DEVICE AND UNINSTALL

IT'S AN IDEA TO CREATE A RESTORE POINT BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS IN CASE YOU MAKE A MISTAKE - IF YOU HAVE AN EARLIER RESTORE POINT YOU CAN SIMPLY ROLL BACK TO THAT. IT IS SIMPLE THOUGH IF YOU FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS. MAKE SURE YOU WANT TO PERMANENTLY GET RID OF B&O BEFORE UNINSTALLING.

[Iamnotpleased]

As if this crackling audio issue weren't ridiculous enough, my machine also suddenly shut down and refused to turn on again. Turns out this is a common problem too:

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/My-hp-spectre-x360-won-t-turn-o...

I sent it back to HP in exchange for a pro-rated refund. I don't want to frighten anybody; I'm just putting out a friendly caution: If you resolve the audio issue it may be that you're still not quite out of the woods.

Good luck, everyone.

P.S.

Back up your files regularly!

[Technocrazy]

Ran into the HP Product advocate at Best Buy last night.  He does not work for HP directly but another company that provides marketing support.  He helped me pick out the Spectre X360.  Told him the problems with the crackling and how great a PC it is except for that.  He is going to go through his channels to see if he can get some better response from HP.

Hopefully it will add more fuel to the fire.  Stopped holding my breath a while back.  LOL.

[Isaid_Archibald]

Hi

This seems to solve my issue, but the quality and volume of the sound has decreased

Thank you anyway

[Isaid_Archibald]

ups, ups, sorry,  I was so anxious to have the issue solved.... 

its still there,  crackling, crackling,

Look at the snapshot of latency test - it directly sais that there is an issue with audio

And, what's most discoureaging - HP technicans said there was no issue at all when I submited my laptop for warranty service.   I cant believe HP employes such engineers or technicans.

HP Estonia sais there is nothing they can help with

[Technocrazy]

TedSteel

Tried a high speed transfer multiple times via USB 3.0 and did not get any cracking. Did it while streaming pandora.  It only crackled when I skipped a song forward but not during data transfer.