No Speaker Audio on Spectre x360 13-ae0xx

[PiDrone]

Hello all,

I am sure that a question like this have surfaced many times over my time while using this laptop, but it seems that I cannot find the answer to my problem from the previous posts similar to mine.

I currently own a HP Spectre x360 Convertible 13-ae0xx purchased roughly  two years ago in 2018. I currently have Windows 10 Home, version 1909. The device is no longer covered by any warranty

This problem started roughly 2-3 days ago unexpectedly. The speakers on my laptop seemed to stop working while in use (listening to music, etc.). 

My first attempt to alleviate this problem is to use the audio troubleshooting offered by Windows. The troubleshooter suggested that I should reinstall the audio driver, Realtek HD Audio SST. After restarting the laptop for the first time in this process, the sound does come back for the first ten minutes and then it disappears. I was unable to replicate this intermittent audio in later attempts.

Then, I tried to use the HP support assistant to resolve the issue. I was suggested to perform an audio diagnostic test by HP. Everything seems to be fine after the diagnosis. 

Since there seems to be no progress in solving this, I resorted to restore my laptop, using system restore, to a date when before this problem started. This did do the trick, but not permanently. After a while, say less than 12 hours of laptop use, the audio disappears once again. I tried to do the things mentioned above, but to no avail.

My last resort was to perform a factory reset. I opted to only wipe the apps and personal files, but not the last one (complete wipe, I believe), since it was going to take some time for the last option. This worked for some time, and then the problem persisted again. At this moment, my speakers are not producing any audio.

Other methods that I have tried, based on reading other posts, but to no avail:

Uninstalling and reinstalling the audio driver manually, through HP Recovery Manager, and through Windows troubleshoot.

Downloading and installing the latest audio driver from Realtek's website.

Updating Windows, and any updates suggested by HP Support Assistant before and after updating

Performing an audio test in the Hardware Diagnostics (I am unsure what it is called, but it is accessed upon pressing F2 when booting up.) - Audio works fine during the test

Virus scan via Malwarebytes (this was before the factory reset) - all clear except for one file (it was an adware or PUP).

It seems that the audio is fine if I connect a bluetooth device. Only when I use the internal speakers on the laptop is when I am unable to hear anything.

Any suggestions or feedback would be great. Please let me know if I need to provide more information in regards to this matter.

[PiDrone]

Update:

It seems that the audio comes back after a while of not using the laptop (closing it, but asleep). Upon opening the laptop, the audio comes back normally. However, it eventually "flickers" in the audio, where it turns off and comes back on. This "flickering" becomes more and more frequent until I can no longer hear audio. All this happens, from my most recent experience, within the span of 2-3 minutes. During this time, I am not doing anything on the laptop besides opening up Chrome to play my music. 

The bluetooth audio seems to be fine after this event. Could this be a hardware issue with the internal speakers? At this point, I am unsure on how to further troubleshoot the problem with no audio coming out of the laptop.