Sound stops working - requires restart/sleep to start again (HP Envy Touchsmart 15-j051nr)

[ENVY15-j051nr]

I have a HP Envy Touchsmart 15-j051nr running windows 8.1 and am having sound issues with it - im not sure if its software or hardware. 

Every now and then the sound will just stop working, through both speakers or headphones, i'll hear a faint beep and then just silence. It starts up again after I restart the pc or put it to sleep and wake it back up. 

I've tried uninstalling the speakers in device manager, updating the drivers, disabling/enabling. Also tried troubleshooting sound. And have reset the PC back to factory settings (but then upgraded to Windows 8.1 and did all the windows updates - not sure if i should have done this or not) but im still having the same sound issue. 

I've also checked windows update for KB2962407 but is not installed. 

Anyone got any advice? I'm all out of ideas. 

[Sparkles1]

Hi @ENVY15-j051nr ,

Thank you for your query, I will do my best to help!

I grasp that you will suddenly lose your sound and you will hear a faint beep and then it goes silent and you will not hear it again until you restart the notebook.

You have tried disabling and re-enabling the speakers, uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers and running the troubleshooter to no avail.

You have verified that the Microsoft  KB2962407 is not installed and did a factory recovery but the issue remained.

Here is a link to No Sound from the Speakers (Windows 7) that may help.

Doing the factory recovery should have eliminated any software issues, so I would  test for hardware failure which the beeping may be signifying.  Testing for Hardware Failures (Windows 7)

Good Luck and have a great weekend!

[Daniel_VSY]

OK, if, as I suspect, you have Reaktek audio, I have the solution to this one.

It was dicovered by a Chinese guy,quite accidentally, but so far the solution has only been published in chinese as far as I know. The problem is in the Realtek driver itslef. So there is no use re-installing this driver, the problem will come back

The trick is to uninstall the Realtek audio driver, which is malfunctionning, and replace it with the Microsoft default

For this:

• (right-click)Computer->Manage->Device Manager->Sound, Video and game controllers
• (Right-cick the Realtek driver)->Uninstall
         ignore the Windows warning because, yes, this is what you want to do
  
         delete the driver files (otherwise the driver may reinstall itself automatically)
  

                  (you can always download it again later if needed)​

reboot Windows while connected to the Internet

Windows will automatically search for an audio driver on-line, and install the default one

     This can take a little while​

You can now check in the Device Manager that you can see "High Definition Audio Device" where the Realtek driver used to show

That's all, the problem is gone for good. You can reinstall Flash Player or reverse any other awkward change that you made in an attempt to solve this painful issue

Be advised, however, that the maximum level of sound delivered by the speakers when using the default driver is lower than the maximum delivered by the default driver -at least it is on my machine

For me, no matter, I'd rather have a lower level sound, than a loud unreliable one !