distorted and delayed audio on my laptop

[MariaS04]

Hi there! This is Maria.

I’ve been experiencing a lot of audio problems with my HP Laptop 15s-eq2015ni. I purchased the device in May 2023, and everything was working fine until the issues suddenly started this year in March 2025.

The first issue is that the audio and video go out of sync. I notice this mostly while streaming videos on YouTube. It plays normally at first, but after a few minutes, the audio starts lagging ahead of the video. Pausing and resuming doesn’t help—my only temporary fix is refreshing the page. This also happens when watching videos stored on my hard drive. I’ve tried using different apps, including the default Windows 11 Media Player and VLC, but the problem still occurs. Sometimes VLC also glitches, showing a grey screen, and I end up having to restart my laptop to temporarily resolve it.

The second issue is that, whenever I’m watching videos or playing audio, the screen lags and the audio becomes garbled or distorted. It sounds almost like the sound is breaking apart or being digitally scrambled. This happens randomly and makes it really difficult to watch anything. The only workaround I’ve found so far is restarting my PC but that lasts about a few minutes.

Lastly, my audio playback has a noticeable delay. Whether I’m streaming online or playing local files, the audio sometimes takes a second or two to start after hitting play. This happens consistently.

I’ve been troubleshooting for a while, and here’s what I’ve already tried:

1. Updated all drivers from HP.

2. Updated Windows 11.

3. Ran the “Find and fix audio playback problems” troubleshooter.

4. Disabled all audio enhancements.

Additionally, I took the device to a professional at the store where it was purchased about 8 months ago. They reset the laptop, and the issue disappeared for a while, but it has now returned even after that reset.

I noticed someone in the community had a similar problem, and the recommended solution was to perform a system reset. However, since that was already done earlier this year and the issue has come back, I’d like to know what other permanent fixes or next steps are available.

Thank you so much in advance for your help!

[BeemerBiker]

I have the same problem but it is with "dvd from netflix (or amazon) on samsung blueray players", "direct tv streaming to smart TV", "iphone casting to TV", "mp4 playing from a USB3 flash drive", etc, I kid you not.  They will all get out of sync eventually

For youtube:  use the "stats for nerds" to find the audio and video bit rate.  Your laptop must be able to natively display the video and audio at the bit rate listed and not have to (for example) convert from 1280x768 and 48khz to 640x480 and 44khz or up covert!!!

As far as I know the VLC (and supposedly the windows media player) are the only ones with built in sync that can temporarily fix sync problems.

If "stats for nerds" show opus "codec 251" then look here****  to see what it means.  Avoid video with adjustable vit rate as the audio and video have to work harder to convert.

You can try disabling hardware assisted playback in windows itself and / or the browser (edge firefox etc )

Downloading the MP4 can fix problems caused by network delays.

Consider getting a cloud restore of your laptop and then prevent any update to video or audio.

HP is removing cloud recovery for system over 5 years old.
The actual wording is a limited time after the warranty expires
You may want to get a copy of the cloud recovery before it is too late.
Cloud recovery provides all the custom HP drivers.
Go to the below site and enter your product ID including the 3 characters after the # character
If you have cloud recovery you can restore your system using a 32gb flash.
It may take an hour or more to create the recovery USB.
https://d34z73bbtpzgej.cloudfront.net/
Alternately, download from the MS windows store
Click here for instructions.

Let me know what you find out.

**** I am not allowed to post the link. You will have correct the below text to form the correct URL

https://gist . github.com/AgentOak/34d47c65b1d28829bb17c24c04a0096f#dash-audio