Crackling sound while playing music in HP SPECTRE X360 Ultrabook

[Technocrazy]

I agree with the Windows battery saver mode.  I get 7-9 hours of life with music streaming and mixed use of Office, some light CAD.  I have the i7 Spectre.

To anyone at HP Capable of Hearing.  This is a fantastic computer.  Keyboard touch is great.  Performance is fantastic.  You did a nice job one-upping Apple.  However, the crackling sound is lame.  JUST ACKNOWLEDGE THE PROBLEM and let us know you are working on it. Like you did with the backlight button.  That was a great response.  Do the same here. Or you will get my laptop back near the end of warranty.  Or refund my money.  A $1400 premium ultrabook should have the requisite premium sound quality.

1. Acknowledge the problem

2. Fix the problem

3. Apologize

4. Listen to our grateful thank you's.

Path seems fairly straightforward.

[Technocrazy]

BinaryJay

I tried it in Airplane mode and it still crackles.  So I switched off the DTS enhancements while in Airplane Mode and it pops/clicks when you turn DTS on and off. 

I originally thought that the computer was overdriving the speakers but it happens even at level 12-25 volume.  Plus if it is not crackling you can actually crank it up pretty loud and it still sounds great (for the given speaker constraints in a laptop).  So much for my overdriven theory...

Now if HP would go into overdrive to fix it...

[Xypleth]

I have some popping when audio cuts out, and when the laptop cuts off power to audio jack/speakers.

But what's the most annoying thing is that DTS audio enchantments get turned ON every time the laptop goes to sleep or is restarted, and the audio sound just disgusting with it on, and it won't stay off, you have to re-check the setting every time you open up the laptop, what the hell is this?!?!

[RottenApple]

Thanks to everyone for the Windows 10 battery saving tip and I will check but I believe we already have the feature enabled.

For the audio issues, we changed settings and drivers one at a time.  Turning off the DTS audio enhancements did not help.  When we followed the HP troubleshooting steps of removing the factory driver and then installing the default driver; the DTS enhancement control panel was automatically removed and was not re-installed.

The default  driver is from the same supplier and is the same version but the DTS options are no longer present.  Unfortunately, the low audio volume and "crackling" are still present.

[BinaryJay]

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@RottenApple wrote:

Thanks to everyone for the Windows 10 battery saving tip and I will check but I believe we already have the feature enabled.

For the audio issues, we changed settings and drivers one at a time.  Turning off the DTS audio enhancements did not help.  When we followed the HP troubleshooting steps and installed the default driver, the DTS enhancement control panel was automatically removed and was not re-installed.

The default  driver is from the same supplier and is the same version but the DTS options are no longer present.  Unfortunately, the low audio volume and "crackling" are still present.

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Thanks for verifying my finding that the whole DTS thing is not the root cause of the crackling.

[parkgt]

How noticeable is the crackling?  I have a one week old i7 skylake with the B&O label and no DTS running on Conexant drivers and I don't notice an issue with or without headphones.  and it does have seperate headphone volume control when they are plugged in.

[TedSteel]

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@parkgt wrote:

How noticeable is the crackling?  I have a one week old i7 skylake with the B&O label and no DTS running on Conexant drivers and I don't notice an issue with or without headphones.  and it does have seperate headphone volume control when they are plugged in.

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It's extremely noticeable. You would know if you had an issue. It sounds like a mix between a poorly tuned FM radio station and a cell phone that's low on signal strength. The popping sound is just that - a pop from the left channel at the end of an audio file.

[sempi601]

Hello, I've been also fighting with this stupid sound issue. It's driving me crazy. I cannot even watch a simple movie, or listen to music without hearing the cracking.
Currently I'm on Windows 10, and was planning to go back to 8.1 if that would solve the issue.
Is this also happening on 8.1, because then I won't waste my time going back?

Thanks

[TedSteel]

sempi601 - reverting back should solve the issue. What machine do you have? A Spectre 360 or other?

[sempi601]

Yes, I have a Spectre x360 with Intel i5 8GB Ram and 256 GB SSD.
I how reverting would solve the issue. I'll try it this weekend.