Keyboard and sound faulty with no damage after 9 months. Can I fix this?

[Charleym28]

I bought the product through ao.com in mid-January 2017. During the 9 months I have owned this laptop, I have had a couple issues that until now, I have managed to deal with due to the touchscreen keyboard. However the first is occurring more frequently and seems to be getting worse and the second seems to have become a permanent fault which severely hinders my ability to use the laptop.

1. It's hard to describe but the sound will randomly go juddery, before cutting out the original sound as the speakers produce a loud constant buzz. Right after this, the laptop will crash and restart. It is roughly 50/50 whether the sound drivers will be detected once it has restarted.

I have tried troubleshooting and it seems to reset the speakers or something but a couple hours later, the same thing will happen. This issue can occur between once a day to multiple times in an hour.

Until now, I have just been putting up with restarting my laptop, assuming this was just an issue I would have to live with as looking through the forums, this looks like a common issue. However, after trying every option provided to fix this over the last 9 months and seeing that it is getting worse, something has to be done as it is becoming extremely frustrating.

Recently after one of the crashes and restart, the speakers now have a fuzz in the background whenever producing any sound.

This has been happening from about a month after purchase.

2. Multiple keys on the keyboard do not work 90% of the time. these are 'T', 'Y', 'CTRL', mute, 'TAB' and increase brightness as far as I'm aware but there may be others. 

The keys will never work straight away and will require tapping them quickly for a few moments to work. In the last 2 months, this has stopped making them work and now it's rare that they do but if they do work, it will be completely random. They will then stop working again if the keyboard isn't used for a couple of minutes.

Again, this started 1-2 months after purchase but was a lot less frequent or severe then. Since then, it has become harder to get the keys working and it will now just stop working randomly after working for a couple of minutes. I have also been managing due to the touchscreen keyboard. However, I am a uni student about to start my second year and cannot type out essays on a touchscreen pad.

Also, I have been on the forum before and tried troubleshooting and using the command prompt but neither have helped me find a solution for this. It is a big stress as I cannot afford a new laptop but it is absolutely essential for my studies and life that I have a working laptop so would much appreciate any help.

It also tends to overheat very quickly which is a concern.

There has been no damage to the laptop to my knowledge and it spends most of its time on a desk or transported in a cushioned bag. I also have 4 months left on my warranty with HP.

Can anyone help?

Thank you  🙂

[DavidSMP]

Hi @Charleym28,

Good Day. Thank you for taking an interest in the HP community. I understand that you require assistance with multiple issues on your computer. The speakers buzzing, keyboard and overheating issues. I will be really glad to assist you here. 🙂

Fabulous description and superb diagnosis of the issue before posting. Kudos to you for that. )

For better clarity and to assist you better I would require more information regarding this:

• Did this happen after a power outage or surge?
• Did you try a headset an check to isolate the issue?
• Did you uninstall the keyboard drivers and check after restarting the computer?
• Please let me know the complete model# of the computer to assist you better.

For now please try these steps:

Please connect an external headset to the audio port of the computer and check if the headset has a buzzing noise. If it does not then the speakers are faulty and need to be replaced and the computer sent in for repair by contacting HP phone support.

If there is buzzing from the headset, then please perform these steps:

• Right-Click on start button> click device manager> expand sound video and game controllers>then select the sound drivers and right-click on it and uninstall the audio drivers. Then check the box delete the software for this device.
• Then restart the computer and update the bios, chipset and audio drivers from this link: http://hp.care/2syreDe and follow the on-screen instructions.
• Then check if the situation has been corrected.

For keyboard issues:

• Uninstall the keyboard drivers from device manager and restart the computer and check if the issue gets resolved.
• For overheating issues update the bios from the same HP support site as stated in the link above.

After this, if the problem persists, please perform a system recovery to factory settings after backing up your important data. Follow this link: http://hp.care/2xdT5LF

This should fix the issue if there are no hardware issues. If the problems continue please contact HP phone support to get the computer serviced.

HP Technical Support can be reached by clicking on the following link: http://hp.care/2r9wSvP

• Once the support page opens please select the country in which you're located. Next, enter your HP model number on the right.
• Next, choose the 'Contact Support' tab at the top and scroll down to the bottom of the 'HP Support- Contact' page to fill out the form provided with your contact information.
• Once completed click the 'Show Options' icon on the bottom right.
• Lastly, scroll down to the bottom of the page and select 'Get phone number.' A case number and phone number will now populate for you.

They will be happy to assist you immediately.

If the unit is under warranty, the manufacturer’s warranty should take care of it for you.

Please perform all these steps patiently as it is critical to resolving the issue. The trick is to remain patient, Going by your technical expertise and competence I am sure you will be able to perform these steps without breaking a sweat. 🙂

Hope this helps. Let me know how this goes. I genuinely hope the issue gets resolved without hassles and the unit works great.

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 superb week ahead. 🙂