Several Issues with N7J81EA#ABU HP 15-af157sa 15.6" Laptop

[kamazotz]

HP 15-af157sa 15.6" Laptop Windows 10 AMD A8-7410 APU 2.2 GHz 2TB HDD 8Gb Ram White Silver

Product number: N7J81EA#ABU

I started having audio issues that were annoying but I chose to ignore. The main issue is that the output audio is distorted in a sporadic way. This was since I purchased the laptop in september 2017. Still to this day the issue persists but more issues have surfaced which are not related to audio. Because the initial issue was with audio I decided to post it here.

The other issues:

I experience the problem that if I try to use the PIN login function, after several days the OS reports there was an error and I must use the full password to login.

I regularly hybernate the laptop instead of shutting it down completely because it takes a considerable time to boot up otherwise.

After coming up the main OS screen, takes a long time to become responsive to enter the password. To compare this, I have a 5 years old laptop with much more modest hardware specs that boots up in a minute and becomes responsive in a few seconds after the main OS screen appears.

The overall performance is super slow. Opening the Windows File explorer takes a considerable amount of time, several minutes sometimes but occasionally is faster.

The Windows task bar becomes unresponsive after several days of using it and then I have to restart it in order to be able to use it at all. Lately becomes unresponsive in one day or less.

I am afraid that the hard disk might malfunction causing a huge data loss!

[DavidSMP · Accepted solution]

Hi @kamazotz,

Good Day! Thank you for visiting the HP Forums! 🙂 I understand that you have several issues with the computer. The audio is distorted and the computer freezes. It will be a genuine pleasure to assist you here. 🙂

Brilliant effort and superb diagnosis of the issue before posting. Kudos to you on that score. 🙂 I am amazed at your technical expertise. 🙂

We greatly value your relationship with HP. You are a valued HP customer and we appreciate you greatly for doing business with HP. I take it as a privilege to share this platform with you.:)

For better clarity, let me gather some information here.

• Have you isolated the sound distortion to the speakers by connecting a headset?
• Did the freezing issues start after a software or windows update?

To isolate the issue to being hardware or software related please run complete system diagnostics on the computer from this link: http://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c03467259

It takes about 2 hours to run. If any component fails it will display failure code. Please make a note of the failure code and contact Hp phone support to get the unit serviced as it is a hardware issue.

Steps to contact HP phone support:

Step 1. Open link: www.hp.com/contacthp/

Step 2. Enter Product number or select to auto detect

Step 3. Scroll down to "Still need help? Complete the form to select your contact options"

Step 4. Scroll down and click: HP contact options - click on Get phone number, Case number and phone number appear.

They will be happy to assist you immediately. If the unit is under warranty repair services is taken care of by the manufacturer’s warranty

If the diagnostics pass, please connect a headset to the audio port of the computer and check for distorted sound. If the sound is clear on the headset, then the speakers are faulty and need to be replaced.

If the sound is distorted on the headset also, then please backup all your files and perform a complete system recovery to factory settings as there are several issues with the computer.

Link for system recovery: http://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c04758961

Please follow the option “Recovery when Windows 10 does not start correctly” and that should do the trick for you.

If recovery does not work, please order recovery media by contacting HP phone support from the above link.

Hope this helps. Let me know how this goes. I genuinely hope the issue gets resolved without hassles and the unit works great. Please reach out for any issues and I'll be there to assist you. 🙂

To simply say thanks, please click the "Thumbs Up" button to give me a Kudos to appreciate my efforts to help.:)

If this helps, please mark this as “Accepted Solution” as it will help several others with the same issue to get it resolved without hassles. 🙂

Take care now and have a splendid week ahead. 🙂

[kamazotz]

I ran the complete system diagnostics test and no issues were found.

Since the audio issue was present with headset and without I  performed a complete system recovery to factory settings.

Hope this will solve it.

Should I close the post or keep it open?

[MKazi]

@kamazotz

Thank you for replying with the results. I appreciate you taking your valuable time to troubleshoot.

Since DavidSMP is out of office, I will reply from here. I read that the complete system diagnostics passed.

I would like to clarify that during the audio test did you hear any distorted audio? If yes, then it is a hardware failure and I suggest you need to contact HP phone support to explore the service options. If you're not sure then re-run the audio test using the following steps:

• Hold the power button for at least five seconds to turn off the computer.

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

• The HP PC Hardware Diagnostics (UEFI) main menu is displayed.

• Select Component tests.

• Run the 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. Click Audio, then click Run once. Choose either the speakers or the headphones. When asked, enter the number of notes you heard.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Cheers! 🙂

[kamazotz]

I ran both audio tests and the result was pass.

I am not sure if the previously reported problems will resurface or not but for now it seems all normal.

Thank you both @DavidSMP And @MKazi

[MKazi]

@kamazotz

You're most welcome. 🙂

I'm glad to know that the issue is fixed as of now. I must say that technical solutions can only be provided by us. But it was you who implemented the steps to perfection. 

Please keep us posted for any help in future. Take care! 🙂