HP DV7-3080us Sound issues

[ebturner69]

Hello folks,

I've been experiencing problems with my laptop for MONTHS and cannot get a solution to the problem.  Its now out of warranty and that limits things a bit.  I do not feel its a hardware problem.

There was a software update (window 7 auto-update) that changed, or installed the IDT High Definition Audio software.  Being a windows update, I did it like I do all updates when available.   It was sometime after that update that I started to notice issues with the sound.  Before any sound would be played through the speaker there would be a pop.   It was dominate underneath the laptop and I found that it was from the built-in "sub" woofer/speaker.   The sound also comes from the front speakers, but because its a low frequency sound, its not as intrusive sounding from them.

I checked the HP website and chatted with a tech.  He directed me to new drivers to install for the audio.  Did that.   The pop sound went away.   Instead, I would get a whining sound through the front speakers when I would scroll large amounts of text on the screen, or graphics.   I can open a DOS prompt window and tell the system to list all the files on the laptop and you can here a constant whine until its done scrolling on the screen.   Volume control makes no difference.  Mute makes no difference.   Sledgehammer...would work, but I'm trying to be patient!  lol!

I reflashed the BIOS with the most current version.   Same thing, no changes.

I went to roll back the system to before the Windows update, thinking that had to be what caused it.   Turned out that the default rollback cache size was at 5% (factory setting) and with all the updates I did after trying to get the sound back to normal, I had lost the settings from days prior.

I downloaded a different set of sound drivers, older version, and its back to the pop sound.   To better similate this, picture someone with a bull horn and when they push the button to talk you first get that click/pop sound of the amp turning on...then the annoucement.   I'm getting that similar pop sound with the initial start of any music, mouse click, etc...   I've had to shut off all system sounds.

Also related to the issue, there is a process for the sound driver that keeps sucking up CPU power and memory.

stacsv64.exe   PID 700    Working memory 3,918,372k  -  IDT PC Audio

I have to terminate this program when it gets this large because I get notices from Norton AV system monitor that a process is taking up too many cpu cycles & memory....and it is!

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/5953/memoryrm.jpg

The system itself works great, no issues or other problems.   But the darn audio is driving me nuts.  The NVIDIA display card also seems to have audio drivers.  Conflicts?  Updated that as well.   No change.

The reload set for the system does NOT extract just the original audio files.  I would have to do a complete system restore which I will not do.

I've checked the memory, did a cpu stress test, hd testing, virus scans, everything clean and good.   Because different sound drivers do different things, I think its a matter of something screwed up from an auto-update.

Is there anyone out there with the same laptop model, i7 processor, 64-bit, Q720 1.6ghz setup?   I think this was an exclusive laptop configuration for Staples only, so there may be some variations of the sound/video/cpu out there.

[BobbyD333]

Hi,

I'm having a very similar problemut without the noice. I just joined this forum.

Did you resolve the IDT PC Audio CPU resource suction problem? (stacsv64.exe same issue)

Is there a way for me to see the responses you received to correct the roblem?

BobbyD333