beats audio bugs: can't disable, bass/treble messed up every reboot + patch to disable beats audio!

[envy17user]

sorry woggles - I didn't clock that it was your patch, anyway, it didn't quite work when I tried it - somehow the driver got blown away completely and it took a few reboots/reinstalls to get it back so I didn't try it again......

BTW - you say you're using a newer version - is it 6.10.6486.0 as noted here

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/675228-fix-workaround-beats-audio-volume-problem-levelin...

?

(I'm currently running 6.10.6454.0)

[AxshunJaxun]

Hello all, 

I don't mean to interrupt, but I would like to suggest installing the latest HP Software Framework. 

HP Software Framework version 4.6.10.1

That version applies to Windows versions XP - 8. Having the latest version helped solve a different issue with Beats software on this thread. The Framework helps tie different pieces of HP software together to work more efficiently. Just a suggestion 🙂

[woggles]

---

@envy17user wrote:

sorry woggles - I didn't clock that it was your patch, anyway, it didn't quite work when I tried it - somehow the driver got blown away completely and it took a few reboots/reinstalls to get it back so I didn't try it again......

BTW - you say you're using a newer version - is it 6.10.6486.0 as noted here

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/675228-fix-workaround-beats-audio-volume-problem-levelin...

?

(I'm currently running 6.10.6454.0)

---

Are you kidding me? This is the safest thing you can install.

You realize it's just a registry patch, that sets a few keys from 1 to 0? LOL. There is nothing in it that would cause a ton of reboots, and I have never seen that problem in adjusting these settings hundreds of times on Windows 7 or Windows 8, on my old Dell, or this new HP. If you truly had this problem, but I suspect you were scared to even try to install it, then it was a problem on your computer in another area. You can even manually adjust these settings in the registry yourself if you're scared of my patch, and because all it does is unload the optional plugins, it shouldn't do a thing. Here is the complete "bull crap" patch remover..

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\DockHpOut\plugins\FFT]
"load"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\DockHpOut\plugins\SpeakerMgr]
"load"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\DockHpOut\plugins\SpeexRef]
"load"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\plugins\Compressor]
"Load"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\plugins\Eq]
"Load"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\plugins\FFT]
"load"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\plugins\HPTone]
"Load"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\plugins\Limiter]
"Load"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\plugins\SpeakerMgr]
"load"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\plugins\SpeexRef]
"load"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\plugins\SysEq]
"Load"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\LFX\DockHpOut\plugins\Placeholder]
"load"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\LFX\LineOut\plugins\SRS]
"load"=dword:00000000

you can download any of those files and open them in notepad to verify what they do, if you're worried about them doing something fishy.

[envy17user]

woggles - sorry if you thought I was having a go or something, seriously - you seem to be the only person (include HP staff) who has been trying to fix this, you get nothing but props from me for that.

Anyway,

I found a fix for the stereo separation issue that had been bugging me, i.e.

• Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
• [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SRS Labs\APO\{7D3858BA-EFF0-4884-B3FC-CD231E332C4E}]
• "{66E88EA2-A239-4e1f-82FF-2F45359AEC94},0"=dword:00000000

00000000 turns the "screw with the balance" feature off, 1 turns it on.

I don't know if the 7D3 GUID will be the same on all systems, but I dug it out of

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\SWD\MMDEVAPI\{0.0.0.00000000}.{7d3858ba-eff0-4884-b3fc-cd231e332c4e}

The FriendlyName for this key is "Speakers / HP (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC)".

The flag will be reset if you use the Beats panel to change from Music to Voice or 3D Movie, but the music settings still work if you want them.

Turning the big "Beats Audio" checkbox from off to on does this

HKLM\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\presets\_Initial\HPTone\Band0\GainDbx1000: 0x00000FA0
HKLM\SOFTWARE\IDT\State\UI\FuncParam0: 0x00000001

HKLM\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\presets\_Initial\HPTone\Band0\GainDbx1000: 0xFFFFD120
HKLM\SOFTWARE\IDT\State\UI\FuncParam0: 0x00000000

GainDbx1000 is the bass control in the main Speaker/HP Properties Tone Controls Panel. Band1 is the treble. This is the "secret sauce" of Beats - i.e. you just turn the bass up to the max. You know how to reset this if you want.

I'm speculating, but the volume level fluctuations may be due to the channel mixing that is on by default - sometimes they'll reinforce each other, sometimes they wont depending on phase. More speculation - the internal speaker do sound a bit weaker with this off, but headphones are as they should be. I'm guessing you just get more power if you syphon a bit of left and mix it with right, and vise versa - assuming the phase dont cancel.

hope this helps....

[woggles]

For those who check into this topic - I TOTALLY NOW RECOMMEND JUST UNINSTALLING THE IDT DRIVER SOFTWARE ENTIRELY.

Even with killbeatsaudiobullcrapentirely, the driver is still enabling tons of crappy audio effects, impacting the quality of the sound. The volume ramping problem and sound leveling is one of the worst, and you will notice it most when listening to music. It ramps up, then down, gettings quieter when loud sounds occur, etc.

I am not doing any further work to correct this in any patch, but the patch is still good to resolve other issues. .

Results of uninstalling IDT audio driver from HP:

1. Defaults to Windows provided stock High Definition Audio Driver device software. Audio hardware works fine with this.

2. Sound volume is louder and more powerful.

3. No issues with SRS or other crap sound effects messing with the sound quality.

4. Recording and playback will work better with less hassle.

[BK-201]

my life is way much easier since i discovered this thread
i love HP, but hate having all this Beats bulcrap in my PC

[Madpiercing]

Hello, thanks for this topic, im an audiophile and i don't want all that crap running... I mean a compressor and a limiter before the output? Come on... On my system they even mess with ms equing..

Aniway, i uninstalled the idt driver and installed the standard high definition driver that comes with windows. However, it seems half the speakers of my pc don't work with this driver. I have 4 speakers and two sub (envy 15 j104el) and now only two speaker work. Any idea on how to solve this?

Does a vanilla idt driver without the beat crap and hp personalizations exist? I've searched for it, but i haven't found anything...

[envy17user]

Hi - I also found that the standard driver only drives two speakers, as far as I could tell the Beats enabled IDT driver is the only way to get all the speakers working. 

FYI - I'd started another similar thread

http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-PC-Sound-and-Audio/envy-17-headphones-in-mono-not-stereo/m-p/3...

If you haven't seen it already it shows how to disable some of the beats stuff and still drive all the speakers....

good luck working around beats.....

[Alezis]

The registry patch did work pretty good for me. I've been looking at it in a text editor before and I did compare this to the actual registry keys and everything matches so I applied it (meaning not adding new stuff at the wrong place).

I'm running windows 8.1 on a HP M7-J178CA. If I only knew that beats audio what such a crap, I would have never bought that laptop. I got cought by the spec of the machine instead...

Anyway, now the sound is much better as I do not get the crazy compression and volume gain changing by itself.

I think the stereo separation is still bad (way too wide) but it's a lot better than it was before.

I did try also to remove the hp driver and use the windows one. That one is the "cleanest" of all indeed but I miss the EQ. I just need to touch a little bit the equing on my headphone and I miss that when I run the windows driver.

I wish that there could be a "universal" console control panel for the IDT driver that could handle all the controls found on IDT chipset. That way we could enable or disable all the feature we want or not.

In my old DV7 (also IDT but NOT beatsaudio), I could control the SRS portion thus be able to remove compression, stereo enhencements and other BS. I was able to run only the EQ and microphone enhencements and it was perfect.

So thanks for the "fix" and posting this, I hope settings will stay like this.

By the way, all the expansion and bass boost slider section is now greyed out in the beatsaudio control panel.

[Yona]

Woggles, thanks very much for your post. It led me to find other registry entries that I can adjust, such as the compressor, limiter, bass/trebble, etc. If one understands how to edit these registry entries under [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\] then one has full control of these parameters.  Especially the initial presets.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\presets\_Initial]

The following are the subs for presets\_Initial settings.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\presets\_Initial\Compressor]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\presets\_Initial\EQ] (Eq bands 0-9)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\presets\_Initial\HPTone\Band0] (Bass)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\presets\_Initial\HPTone\Band1] (Trebble)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\presets\_Initial\Limiter]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\presets\_Initial\SpeexRef]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IDT\Apo\GFX\LineOut\presets\_Initial\SysEq] (System Eq bands 0-9)

This is what the compressor presets limits looks like. Most audiophiles should understand what these settings means, and be able to adjust them. What is also nice is that you can actually bypass by setting the bypass DWORD value to 0, as I have in the image below.

(I STRONGLY advise that you do an export of any entry you intend to adjust before doing so. This will allow you to restore the original settings if you wish to. To do this, righ click on the entry and click on export, save to your desktop or wherever you wish.) You can restore by simply clicking on the saved file.

I hope this will help to lessen your pain as it did for me.

P.S. Does anyone know how to write an app with a GUI that can adjust these values in the registry? It should not be too much of a challenge for any programmer.