Windows 10: New Beats Audio Realtek driver, Same Terrible Sound Leveing/Fluctiation

[lbrou87]

I thought that once Windows 10 would come about, the Realtek drivers would be updated to not only accomodate W10, but fix the problem that has been plauging HP's Beats Audio laptops for years: the sound leveling/fluctuation issue. I guess I was hoping for too much; the sound still  fluctuates when trying to "level out" the volume when internal speakers are plugged into the audio jack.  This makes audio--music, videos, movies, ect.--impossible to listen to.  The internal laptop speakers, however, still sound good with the two subwoofers.  This is the exact same issue that I was having in W8.1.

I've rolled back to Microsoft's HD audio driver like last time.  Finally this driver was updated for W10 as well.  Now the laptop speakers are horrible as expected.  These steps were done to remedy the problem for me in W8.1.  I was also able to uninstall HP's audio driver, get rid of Beats Audio control panel, and replaced it with Realtek's own generic drivers in W8.1.  This allowed me to be able to have an equalizer to control the sound.  This driver also made the laptop speakers horrible, but I was able to take control of my external speaker sound, which is used 95% of the time.  I can't do this, however, in W10; it won't allow me to get rid of Beats Audio control panel no matter what. 

This is and will continue to be an issue unless HP decides to supply an update to their Realtek drivers that will eliminate this sound fluctiation.  But given HP's track record (this has been going on since 2012 with Beats Audio according to the forums), there will NEVER be a fix.  I regret buying this laptop; this issue makes an excellent piece of machinery a  very terrible buy, especially for a music listener and media consumer.  Had I known this issue existed 5 months ago, I would have purchase a laptop from another manufacturer. 

And before anyone asks: I've uninstalled and reinstaled HP's W10 Realtek drivers, I've did a fresh install of W10, and went through the troubleshooting tips as well.  I have also sent this laptop to the Repair Center for this issue along with a wifi card issue and was supposedly fixed (this process, which took THREE repair CSOs because each "repair" introduced a new set of problems created by the Repair Center, is another looooooooong story in itself).  It's definitely not a hardware problem; it's a software problem. 

Hopefully a mod can come across this post and get this information to the appropriate people to  release a driver that correct this terrible sound fluctuation.

[lbrou87]

Well, since I haven't gotten a single reply from HP's mods, I actually found a way to stop Microsoft from automatically downloading the HP Beats Audio/Realtek audio driver to my W10 device. The KB update, KB3073930, is a standalone tool that allows hiding of pesky and arwy updates.  If you want to keep using the Microsof HD audio driver,  follow these instructions:

1.  Download the KB update tool here:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3073930

2.  Uninstall the HP Beats Audio/Realtek audio driver and restart computer (it tells you to do so after uninstall)

3.  After restart, open the tool and follow the steps.  It's pretty self-explanatory.

Albeit a temporary solution, it's a breath of fresh air to not hear distorted, fluctiating, and compressed sound out of my external speakers when I play any media.  Now, If I can only use the generic Realtek drivers without it being overridden by Beats Audio's atrocious control panel...probably has something to do with the registry.  I, however, shouldn't have to go through these lengths to get clear, crisp sound out of my laptop. 

[ham123]

lbrou87, Your correct about HP, MS, Realtec and Beats audio being screwed up for years! These companies are not on the same page let alone the same planet. They have managed to screw up simple audio functions. It seems they are more interested in patienting audio than making it work for customers. Or perhaps to cheap to hire a "dsp" engineer! Ham123 ps: good luck with your audio issues and the above corp's!

[ShonkaiDJ]

And that IS a shame for a laptop sold to me as an entertainment notebook I'd like to add.

I have a very weird thing happening to me since I've upgraded my Pavillion DV8 to the latest W10. If I connect my bluetooth speaker I get a big red 'B' from Beats Audio showing for a few seconds. And I thought I had removed everything. I am a media IT guy so believe me if I say removed. registry keys, common files, program data etc.

Anyway, I am posting this because I want my much better sounding Beats Audio back on my now W10 laptop. Please get it to work again. it was sooo much better entertainment (actually, it's annoytainment at the moment) back when I could still control the BA part of my audio device.

[GrrrHP]

User of a Hp Envy 15-K048ND (Windows Home 10 64 bit) laptop here, with the same complaints.
A while back i already used a similar solution people above also found, but i did not remove the Realtek driver (HP seems to have adapted both IDT as well as Realtek chipsets for Beats). I just changed the driver through Device Management to the standard Microsoft driver and that works fine if one doesn't care about the inbuild speakers a lot.  That method hopefully alleviates me from potential future updates overwriting my manual driver change, without using an update-blocking method.

That said, it is completely ridiculous that users are still complaining about this issue and that it hasn't been permanently fixed yet. The Realtek drivers i have tried have gotten better with each update, but there is still no mechanism to totally circumvent the Beats filters that still exert too much annoying influence (volume fluttering) on the audio driver. Now maybe these filters have been tightly integrated into the Realtek only drivers, but that should not mean that this a reasonable course of action.
There might be some contractual nonsense behind all this, but how hard can it be for HP to let consumers actually decide form themselves if they like Beats audio (or any kind of other filters) or not. All HP has to do is commission from Realtek either: A) A Beats driver and a non-Beats driver; B) A choice option for Beats or non-Beats during the installation procedure; C) A option mechanism within the Windows API interface for audio to shut off any kind of filters.
The changes should be minimal and i believe many users would be very welcoming of such possibilities.

I also noticed that using the Realtek Beats driver can lead to unexpected behavior using Microsoft Groove. In my case it was just an icon that indates which song is playing in the playlist didn't change anymore when switching songs, so there is that as an added bonus.

Come on HP, deliver some decent support here and make many users happy again.

[lbrou87]

Glad to see that I'm not the only one with these terrible issues with the Beats Audio Realtek drivers in W10.  It's a shame that HP hasn't attempted to do anything about this, and I think they never will.  Like I've mentioned before, this issue has been going on since 2012 with their laptops in Windows 7.  You would imagine after numerous forum mentions, and downright complaints that it would be done already. 

After this experience to get decent sound of my Envy 15 and the way they bumbled my repairs, they can forget about me ever purchasing an HP product again.  I guarantee it!

[ShonkaiDJ]

Yep. A big fail on the part of HP. I'll be looking out for a more sustainable laptop vendor too. The 'working driver' from Windows update has nothing to do with the failing Beats Audio & 'Home cinema' sound options this 'Entertainment note book' promisses. I do realize my perfectly well working laptop is kind of old and out of warranty, but drivers should not be running out of support so fast.

An honest story please HP. Tell us that since Mac bought BA you cannot support my sound chip anymore or something. And what happened to the bluetooth 'intergrated module'? No bluetooth audio on my Entertainment laptop? Failfailfail.

I asume the consumer HP company is going to be for sale real soon now.

[ham123]

lbrou87,

You are 100% correct;  even the split up of HP will not fix this company. The only thing that companies understand is "bankrupt" chapter 11 and then 7. I had the same experience in earyl 2014 and will never buy an HP product.

Sorry to say this is the only thing they understand!

Ham123

[Sceprent]

That's so awesome. Remind me to never buy HP again. So my $900 laptop with all these great specs cannot do simple recordings with Pro Tools because of all the audio errors since disabling Beatsaudio. With Beatsaudio enabled... you can't record leveling issues, really terrible sounding auto EQ's auto bass compression, then you disable it and the speakers sound terrible, and the audio jack has hissing problems. Lose/lose either way. If it says Beatsaudio on the label and you're looking to record... don't buy it. I hate the "autoleveling" feature. If you're listening to a song with a clean intro and then drums and distortion kick in it starts off reaaaaaaallly quiet then SUPER DEAFENINGLY LOUD and makes it useless for music. Funny... isn't the point of Beats... to hear the music... properly? Yet it does the exact oppostie... huh.  

[teamtech]

This seemed to make things a lot better for me... Open Beats Audio control panel. Choose “listening experience” tab. Move “center” and “space” sliders right to the top (100), and “focus” to the bottom (0).  (Though uninstalling is still better.)