Audio Popping with External Speakers

[Six2Six]

Laptop: HP ZBook 15u G6 Mobile Workstation

Dock: HP 2013 UltraSlim Docking Station

Speakers: Logitech X-350 5.1

Just picked up a new Zbook Laptop with a Docking Station and having an issue with my Logitech external speakers when they are plugged into the Audio Line-out jack on the dock. 

Sound works fine as long as something is playing through the speakers, no buzzing or anything. But as soon as any audio stops (youtube video, spotify, slack/email notification, etc) 26 seconds later (timed it multiple times) I get an odd audio pop (for lack of a better term) through the speakers.

Appears to just happen when plugged into the dock. Doesn't happen if I plug the speakers directly into the Laptops headphone/audio out port, as well tested with a Lenovo Thinkpad and Thinkpad dock, also no problems there. Just seems to be focused on the HP dock. 

Anything that can be done to stop this? Is it just a bad dock?

[Six2Six]

Noticed some updates on other tickets about the HP Support Assistant so gave it a shot. Installed, scanned for updates, and looks like there was a critical BIOS as well as an Optional Realtek Audio update. Installed, rebooted, and retested and same issue occurs. Getting the popping every 26 seconds after the last audio is played while the speakers are plugged into the audio out on the dock, but works fine when plugged directly into the laptop audio out. 

[RoMo8529]

I have the same issue. However, my lag time is 13 seconds. I was wondering if a firmware update would fix the issue.

[Six2Six]

I've scoured for any kind of possible updates to anything hardware related and done as much as I can at this point, but unless there is some hidden dock firmware somewhere I'm completely out of ideas, nothing has worked yet.

I've resorted to plugging the speakers directly into the laptop audio out at this point and just bypassed the dock. Would be nice to hear back from someone at HP about this on whether it's a bad dock or a known issue with a fix before the warranty on the dock runs out and we're stuck with these. 

[RoMo8529]

Six2Six, I'll let you know what I did, albeit no joy. I tried to update the firmware for the dock, sp79015.exe, and this didn't work for me. I was worried that this might screw up the dock for my old machine which I am replacing (a Win 7 Elitebook 840 which worked fine - no audio issues - this suggests it's not the dock but rather my new machine).

I called support (yesterday @ 9AM) and they asked me to update the audio driver, sp101164.exe. When I ran this the program stalled at 90% completion, but it did jump to "complete" and finished. However, upon reboot, which is normally required for a driver install, the machine (brand new Win 10 Elitebook 850 - the one having problems) couldn't start. It showed "Restarting" for over 1 hour before I performed a hard boot (holding down the power button until it shut-off - upon recommendation of HP support@11AM). However, upon the next restart it seemed to start fine.  However, the audio issue is still there.

My last support call I was instructed to try https://ftp.hp.com/pub/caps-softpaq/cmit/HPIA.html, the HP image assistant, but I haven't tried that yet (my actual job is keeping me busy, not this secondary one of HP/Microsoft repair technician!). If you've tried this option let me know.

[Six2Six]

@RoMo8529, Thanks for the detail! I hadn't tried the HPIA yet so did download and run it. Used my computer image vs the HP image and it did find some software updates. Ran the updates and still no luck, still getting the popping every 26 seconds when plugged into the dock. Super frustrating. 

[Bling26]

I have the exact same issue and have had for a very long time. I have an Elitebook 850 G6. This same thing also happened on my last Elitebook which was a G4. It only seems to happen when connected to a speaker source like external speakers or headphones when using my dock. The same result does NOT happen when plugged into the side of the laptop directly. So it seems that the issue is the dock. Someone had a solution to turn your mic on and turn it's volume down but that is pointless if you are on meetings all the time. I blame the dock but do not have any solution 😞

[RoMo8529]

Hi Bling26, I don't think that it's the dock because I was using this same dock for the prior 6 years with my Windows 7 Elitebook 840 and I never had any such problems.

[Bling26]

Sorry, I did not mean it was my dock in general. I have 3 docks, 1 at the office and 2 at home and I can replicate the failure on any of them. I meant it is when the dock is paired with my laptop and the audio cable is plugged into the dock. All of my docks are the same, HP 2013 Ultra Slim Docking Station. I plug my audio cable into the side of my laptop (docked or not) the popping sound does not happen. Someone else said it is some sort of "feature" of HP that is shutting down the speakers for reasons which is causing the popping sound. Another note, this does NOT happen using the built in laptop speakers at all of course.

[CoMpuHog]

I hooked my 850 G6 up to a dock for the first time today and had the popping issue as well.  So far I have installed the driver found here Driver - HP EliteBook 850 G6 Notebook PC | HP® Customer Support and it seems to have solved my issue.  If anything changes I'll update this post.