My biggest problem at the moment is that both speakers and headphones are playing the music at the same time. Apparently that is a common problem here. But concerning my previous problems with my not so old laptop, I'm almost happy to hear something 
Almost... If this problem so many is having here, is about HP updates, I really think they should do something about this and quickly!!!
Everything started with the headphone jack becoming totally useless. Not working at all. The headphones and external speakers worked with other devices, so I thought it was the computer itself (all the settings were correct). I restarted the computer later the same day and realised the problem was now much more severe. The sound coming from the internal speakers was cracking and too low, almost unhearable, and the volume in every possible setting was in maximum. I tried all the instructions seen in this forum and realised that in my sound settings some icons (stereo mix and speakers/headphones had disappeared too). New sound cards didn't make any difference either. But the sound recorder worked perfectly, and when I listened to the speach I had recorded, it was loud and clear (and coming from the speakers, that couldn't play any music).
So I restored the system,(went back two weeks) and got the voice back to my speakers again, but now, if I try to use my headphones, the voice still comes from both the speakers and the headphones at the same time. And even though I got my Stereo mix icon back, still no headphones and speakers icon available to set as a default device.
So now I would like to know, if anyone has any clue what update could have caused this problem. My problem started on 26th June, so where I can find info about the updates that happened that day? So far I've used automatic updates for HP, but not anymore 
I listen to music for hours only at night time with full volume. Poor neighbors...