Poor sound quality following automatic update (windows 10)

[b584]

My laptop's speakers have had poor sound quality for the past several months--fuzzy/static especially when bass sounds are played.  This only happened through the speakers; headphones had fine sound quality.  I had assumed it was a hardware issue.   But I recently thought to change the quality of the sound (sample rate and bit format in the sound properties dialog), and once I changed it the sound was better.  But only for one use.  If a new video is played, the sound gets bad again.  If I go and change the quality again (to anything, it doesn't matter if it's lower or higher quality), then the sound will be good again. And so on.   It says the driver (realtek high def audio ver: 6.0.1.7944) is up to date, so I had it use the older version of the driver (ver: 6.0.1.7564) which gave the same result, and also tried the basic  driver (high def audio device) which produced a tin-like sound and was not very loud.   

The speakers worked fine prior to what I assume was a windows 10 update that occured sometime in fall 2016. 

I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

[Dvortex · Accepted solution]

Hello, @b584 – Hope you are well 🙂
 

Thanks for posting in HP Support Forums! I would be glad to be of your assistance 🙂

I understand that you are having issues while playing audio on your HP notebook. Greatly appreciate your efforts in troubleshooting! Special thanks for mentioning the driver versions and for trying the default drivers. That would have been my first suggestions as well 😉

I did some digging in the RealTek driver page and found that there is a new driver update released in the Jan 13th 2017. Let’s give it a try.
 

• First, completely uninstall the audio drivers that are currently on your PC.
• Go to device manager – Right-click and uninstall the RealTek audio drivers.
• Make sure to click on the box which says to “Delete the driver software”.
• Now restart the computer.
• Go to http://hp.care/2jjQvKB and then download and install the Windows 10 64 bit drivers. Click on “Global” to download. Check the fig. below for ref.
• There are a couple of drivers available. You can choose the best one as per the results.
• Restart the computer once done.

Please let me know if this resolves the issue, or if you require further assistance.

Have a great day 🙂

Please click "Accepted Solution" on the post that solves your issue to help others find the solution. To show appreciation for my help, please click the "Thumbs Up Icon" below!

[b584]

That seemed to work!  Thank you much!

Just as an FYI for any future people that see this: the link led to a realtek.com.tw site and the download button didn't work.  I found the same options at the realtek.com site and was able to download it there.