Left speaker not working properly

[Thomassod]

Hi, 

Since I bought the laptop a few months ago, the problem (left speaking going silent often) was already existent. I'd like to see if nothing can be done to solve it. This topic has been reported a few times already, like updating the driver in the following link, but following these steps hasn't lead to a succes.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Audio/Spectre-X360-15-2017-Model-left-speaker-not-working/td-...

Are there other possibilities to fix this issue?

Thanks in advance, 

Thomas

[MKazi]

@Thomassod

Let me take a moment to thank you for posting on the HP Support Forums. 

MKazi is at your service. 

I understand that you have an HP Spectre x360 - 15-bl100nb and the left speaker goes silent often. You have already performed the steps from this post (https://hp.care/2kwfg8u) and the issue still persists. You have been fabulous to work with considering your superb technical skills and valuable patience. Kudos to you for that. You have done a remarkable job in troubleshooting this issue. 

Do you have an alternate set of external speakers to check with?

Let me know if you have run the hard test on the speakers. The following steps should hell you recall the hardware test:

• Shutdown the laptop.

• Turn on the computer and immediately press Esc repeatedly, about once every second. When the menu appears, press the F2 key.

• On the main menu, click Component Tests.

Figure : Selecting Component Tests from the main menu

• The Component Tests menu displays.Your Component Tests menu might be different, depending on the components installed on your computer.

Figure : Sample list of Component Tests

• Audio Test - The Audio Playback Test checks your system to make sure the audio device is functioning properly. During the test, a few music notes are played in sequence and then repeated. This test takes 1 minute to complete.

  To run the test, click Audio, and then click Run once. Choose either the speakers or the headphones. When asked, enter the number of notes you heard.

If the issue persists during the hardware test then it confirms a hardware issue. In such a case, you may contact our HP phone support team to check the available service options for your laptop:

HP Support can be reached by clicking on the following link: 

1. Click on this link – https://hp.care/2moMFSc
2. 2) Click on “Continue as guest”.
3. 3) Enter the serial of your device.
4. 4) Select the country from the drop-down.
5. 5) Click on “Show Options”.

Fill the web-form. A case number and phone number will now populate for you.

I hope this information helps. Please feel free to let me know the outcome. I'm always here to assist you.

Take care! 🙂

[Thomassod]

Hi,

I have tested the audio diagnostic successfully, as expected, because the left speaker goes silent often, but not always. Mostly it goes silent on and off, after a few minutes working perfectly. Besides, the right speaker always works, so I will still hear the notes of the audio diagnostic, but still the left speaker is faulty sometimes.

With headphones, the issue does not occur, so the issue is with the left speaker itself.

Installing another driver (like the proposed solution of the post mentioned), made the quality far worse, so i reinstalled the original driver with bad working left speaker.

Regards

Thomas

[Jeet_singh]

@Thomassod,

It looks like you were interacting with @MKazi, but he is out for the day & I'll be glad to help you out, 
I'm the Jeet_Singh & I'm at your service. 

As I understand you have tried running the test on the audio and having issues with the left speakers, this definitely confirms this could be a possible hardware failure with the PC.

HP Support can be reached by clicking on the following link: 

1. Click on this link – www.hp.com/contacthp/
2. 2) Click on “Continue as guest”.
3. 3) Enter the serial of your device.
4. 4) Select the country from the drop-down.
5. 5) Click on “Show Options”.

Fill the web-form. A case number and phone number will now populate for you.

Hope this helps, for any further queries reply to the post and feel free to join us again

Feel free to post your query for any other assistance as well,

It's been a pleasure interacting with you and I hope you have a good day ahead.

If you wish to show appreciation for my efforts, mark my post as Accepted Solution.

And click on the Purple Thumbs up icon at the bottom of my comment.

Regards,

[Thomassod]

Hi,

I think you might have misunderstood. I was saying that the test was completed successfully, the left speaker did work during the audio test. I don't know whether this means that the problem is software or hardware related, as the speaker goes silent on and off, but sometimes works perfectly fine...

And what am I supposed to do in the link you provided? The options given were call someone and go to the online forum?

Regards,

Thomas

[MKazi]

@Thomassod

Thank you for your reply. 

Glad to know that the left speaker work successfully during the audio test. This indicates towards a software/drivers issue and not a hardware issue.

You may perform the following steps from this HP document: https://hp.care/2AXlvw7

• Step 2: Use the troubleshooting tool in Windows.
• Step 4: Set the default audio device.
• Step 5: Restore or update the audio driver
• Step 7: Reset BIOS to defaults.
• Step 9: Update the BIOS.

Hoe this works out. Let me know the outcome.

Good luck! 🙂

[Dougy-Fresh]

I had a similar problem. If the solutions from tech support don't work try this:

1. Shut down and unplug the computer
2. Remove the bottom. 
3. If you look at the speakers there will be a small 2-wire connector about 2 inches above each speaker. 
4. Push each connector to make sure it is all the way in. 
5. Put a small piece of tape across the connector to prevent it from dislodging again.

I had never had the bottom off before, but apparently one of the connectors came loose just by being jostled around in my backpack.

Good luck!

[jimmybon007]

Hi, mind telling what kind of tape you put in between? How can I make sure the tape won't be falling out? I haven't tried removing the bottom yet, but I wanna know ahead what exactly I should do. Thanks

[Dougy-Fresh]

I just used some regular scotch tape to help prevent the connector from coming loose. So far so good!

[andrewlin]

I really don't know if doing something to the connector would help. It seems to me it is a software problem because the left would go silent at the same spots in songs every time. I hope they will fix this in a bios update. However, I cannot install the latest F42 bios because it does not support my motherboard. Can you guys with the same problem see if you can install this bios update? Maybe it's a problem only present on certain model of motherboards.