Crackling sound while playing music in HP SPECTRE X360 Ultrabook

[daxliniere]

Hi Bill,

Finally. That's great news and we all wait with anticipation. Many of us here would be willing to beta test what your team comes up with.

[andrewiam_com]

IT'S HAPPENING!!!

But seriously, thank you for finally acknowledging our issues, and we hope to see updates soon.  Hopefully this can alleviate Conexant envy from us realy adopters with Realtek chips!  I, like other users, would be glad to test betas.  Since it takes a lot of work to make a driver, I doubt the engineering teams are willing to add extra features, but I'll put a wish list here anyway in case adding any of these are convenient. 

1) Enable headphone jack detection for separate speaker/headphone volumes.

2) Enable Intel Smart Sound Voice Wake (so we can say "Hey Cortana" when the x360 is asleep).

3) Enable detection of the pause and volume down/up buttons on headphones.  (A note of warning: If HP does this, they can only enable detection of volume buttons for non-Apple headphones like Xiaomi Pistons and Samsung headphones.  Apple-compatible headphones like Beats and EarPods use a different wiring scheme that is heavily protected by patents.  However, the microphone and pause button from Apple headphones would still work.)

4) Provide a special "light" version of the driver with as few services as possible and no DTS Control Panel or enhancements.

[daxliniere]

I agree that they are all great feature requests, but if I had to pick only one, it would be your first point about remembering headphone/speaker volumes separately.

This is a pretty rudimentary feature that most devices have. Plus we already know that headphone-connection-detection is possible as that's what currently triggers the annoying DTS to re-enable.

[TedSteel]

Hi Bill,

Just reiterating what already has been said by others, but this is great news. Thanks for chiming in here and letting us know HP is looking into this. It's a huge relief.

I too wouldn't be opposed to being part of a beta tester program of sorts. I think you have a fairly good mix of willing and capable assistants here.

Ted

[kevpa990]

I've been following this thread for awhile now as my BRAND NEW spectre had a problem which really was upsetting. I'm glad to hear that something is being done I am however curious on a time table? anyone have any random guesses on a turn around time here?

[Technocrazy]

Thanks Bill from HP!!

Updated Windows 10 last weekend to the 1511 version ( Windows Key +R) then type in winver.

So far today I have not heard the significant crackling that has been occuring.  An rare pop when something is switching. I have DTS Audio Control enabled.

Also got a call back from HP support again and they again acknowledged the problem and were waiting for a driver update from Microsoft.  They are going to follow up again on Friday 11/20/15.

I will continue to stream from Pandora and see if it stays away.  Will keep the board posted. 

[TedSteel]

I upgraded to 1511/Threshold 2, then updated the Intel drivers. I haven't done a ton of internet streaming or pure audio listening (via NAS) today, but I haven't heard any of the pops or crackles while I have done either of those.

Laptop sounds pretty darn good listening to this:

http://youtu.be/5qanlirrRWs

...for example. But that's only if you like V8's, donuts and Jane's Addiction.

Actually, the laptop sounds great at all reasonable volume levels. I'd say this is the longest I've gone without the noises.

I haven't definitively tested the DTS Audio stuff yet. But I'm fairly certain it's still staying enabled on restart, even though it's deselected. More to come when I get a chance to recycle the machine...

Ted

[daxliniere]

Intel drivers for what?

[TedSteel]

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@daxliniere wrote:

Intel drivers for what?

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For Bluetooth and wifi.

Hoping this may help others too, you have three methods:

1) Use HP Support Assistant if you have it on your machine still. It will find the drivers requiring update after updating to Threshold 2, or before updating for that matter - I chose to update to Threshold 2 first.

2) Use HP's product support page for your model Spectre x360. Mine is here:

http://support.hp.com/us-en/product/HP-Spectre-13-4000-x360-Convertible-PC/7527520/model/7791774

Both of the drivers requiring update are under the "Driver-Network" section.

3) Go to Intel's driver update site directly:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/

I installed the driver update utility, though you could search for the drivers manually.

Somewhere in researching this, I noticed Intel suggests "going to your manufacturer" for the drivers. However, I did option 3 first (update via Intel's site) and figured as a fallback I could then reinstall using the HP drivers. I haven't had to so far.

Lastly... myself and others have updated their BIOS to version F.2C. Under option 2 above, this shows as "F.2C Rev.A" in the BIOS section, specifically:

File name: sp73339.exe

Release details

Released: Oct 26, 2015

Version F.2C Rev.A

[BinaryJay]

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@TedSteel wrote:

I upgraded to 1511/Threshold 2, then updated the Intel drivers. I haven't done a ton of internet streaming or pure audio listening (via NAS) today, but I haven't heard any of the pops or crackles while I have done either of those.

Laptop sounds pretty darn good listening to this:

http://youtu.be/5qanlirrRWs

...for example. But that's only if you like V8's, donuts and Jane's Addiction.

Actually, the laptop sounds great at all reasonable volume levels. I'd say this is the longest I've gone without the noises.

I haven't definitively tested the DTS Audio stuff yet. But I'm fairly certain it's still staying enabled on restart, even though it's deselected. More to come when I get a chance to recycle the machine...

Ted

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I'm glad my post about the new intel bt and wifi drivers seems to be working for someone other than me.  Though I haven't really used the PC since I posted that up and with my luck it will start misbehaving the next time I use it again.

My first rule of device drivers is always go directly to the manufacturer of the device, pretty much all of the drivers that HP has available for it's machines online are way out of date.  I don't have any HP software installed on mine there is little point.   That's part of what bugs me about the audio system here is that they use some obscure audio system that I just can't find drivers for anywhere other than HP's support site.  Oh well...