Random stuttering/popping and audio dropouts

[KevinMP7]

Oh, that was my mistake, sorry about that, wrong laptop version.

HP Pavilion 15-au030wm

That's the one I'm asking about. I've updated to the latest driver on that page, but what I've noticed that the stuttering/dropouts mainly impact my bluetooth headset the most.

Edit: As of late the stuttering/dropout audio returned, but I don't think its an audio driver, it may be the video driver, I've used a variety of versions ranging from 4380, 4390 and 4454 but all 3 have the same issue. I've been using programs that monitor dpc latency and discovered a few system files with high latency.

Note: I'm on "High Performance" via power setting.

Edit 2: Installed 20.19.15.4352 since it says it fixed the "flickering" issue with 6th Gen CPU's with Intel HD 520. *Fingers crossed*

Edit 3: newly installed video driver stopped the flickering but the audio still stutters and drops out.

Any idea what may be causing it?

[A4Apollo]

Hi! @KevinMP7, thanks for the response.

Thanks for trying out the steps.

Please try updating the video drivers using this link. And check if it helps.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Cheers! 🙂

[KevinMP7]

That driver is for Nvidia GPU's where this has Intel HD 520 and I already addressed the flickering and fixed it with an older driver, "20.19.15.4352" which addressed the flickering issue in 6th Gen CPU's with Intel HD 520. I just need help in finding out why my audio stutters and drops out.

According to the screen shot I provided, ACPI.sys and ndis.sys are the main culprits.

Any idea why its still happening?

I'm using a "HP Pavilion 15-au030wm"

[A4Apollo]

@KevinMP7, thanks for the response.

This issue sounds to be a problem chipset driver and please update chipset driver and check if that works.

Please try updating the chipset driver from this link.

I'll watch your reply! 🙂

[KevinMP7]

I installed the driver but it caused my internet browsers to stop connecting to the internet, FireFox and Microsoft Edge couldn't connect to any website so I used the HP Recovery program and reinstalled the other chipset driver and just to clarify that the drivers presented are for
"HP Pavilion 15-au030wm".

[A4Apollo]

Hi! @KevinMP7, thanks for the reply.

Thanks for trying out the steps.

As you mentioned that the issue still persists. Please try performing a system restore and check if that helps.

Refer this article to know how to perform a system restore.

If the issue still persists please try performing a system recovery and check if it works.

Link how to perform a system recovery.

Let me know if this works!

Have a beautiful weekend ahead! 🙂

[KevinMP7]

I was able to just reinstall the other chipset driver and connectivity was restored, but the audio stuttering and dropouts still continue.  It really baffles me why its happening in the first place right out of the box. The video driver  I'm using now stopped the flickering but its a driver that was released back in December of 2015.

Name                                                   Version                  Date released
BIOS                                                     F.09 Rev A               July 2016

Realtek High Definition Audio   6.0.1.7801              4/19/2016
Intel HD 520                                     20.19.15.4352      12/15/2015

Intel Wireless Bluetooth              19.11.1639.649   9/29/2016
Intel Dual Band Wireless             19.20.3.4                 10/31/2016

That video driver stops the flickering but I noticed that the games I play crash when they didn't before, its just I can't upgrade to the latest driver or risk the flickering screen to return, I have the latest BIOS version. But after observing the stuttering and dropouts, its very random, sometimes it wont do it for a long while and sometimes it will do it often. So if you want to know more driver versions, I'm all open to stop it completely.

[A4Apollo]

@KevinMP7, thanks for the response.

Thanks for trying out the steps.

As you mentioned the issue still persists after troubleshooting.

It could be a hardware issue, please contact HP for service options.

Link to contact HP.

Happy weekend! 🙂

[KevinMP7]

It's not hardware related because I  ran a UEFI hardware diagnostic test and everything passed. So in the end of it all, its still a driver issue, either video, wlan, audio, power or a combination of the two. Resetting back to factory doesn't solve it because the drivers included in the factory installation cause the issue from the get go like I said when I first booted this thing up and ran music right out of the box, skipping, stuttering and dropout audio. Thanks nonetheless.

[A4Apollo]

@KevinMP7, thanks for the response.

Thanks for trying out the steps.

As you mentioned after performing the troubleshooting steps the issue still persists.

I have checked the records there is a update for Intel graphics driver. Please update the driver and check if this solves the issue.

Link to update the Intel graphics driver. Version (20.19.15.4454 )

Hope this helps!