I got my hands on this new machine (HP envy 15 k062no) less than a week ago and have had audio problems with headphones from the start. There seems to be two problems:
- Headphones jack has issues
- Sound fluctuation problems similar to what has been reported on other models here
The combined headphone and microphone jack seems like second grade. On normal connectors - both with microphone and without - the balance is heavily to the left. A suitable balance seems to be 1x to left and 2x to the right, which at my current volume levels makes 6 to left and 12 to right. I've never had to set master balance for any other computer. Also, the sound is sometimes grainy and some notes break very randomly, not really connected to their pitch. I noticed that with a slightly bent connector the balance is ok but decided that it's better to use a straight one.
Then the fluctuation. According sources from the web - including the link above - this is more or less connected to the Beats audio. I have tried at least the following solutions:
- Update BIOS
- Update audio drivers - HP didn't have newer so used Realtek's bulk ones. When manually fetching drivers HP doesn't offer anything to k06xxxx series.
- Setting the white sliders off at the Beats control panel. This is no solution, since that way audio won't play. I have no idea how someone got that to work
- Set the Beats enhancements off. According to the other sources this does nothing with them either. Well, it does change the audio landscape a bit but the fluctuation stays
So, any suggestions on these issues?