# Hp Pavillion dv7-1020ea muffled speaker sound



## Sandyfish (Mar 22, 2009)

Ok this is my first post on any tech help forum so my apologies if i miss out any key information.

Here's the problem, since purchasing my HP Pavillion dv7-1020ea laptop i have had intermittent problems with my speaker sound going muffled, quieter and losing all high tones. This is a continuous problem from the moment the computer starts and doesnt change.

My laptop runs vista 64 with IDT High Definition Audio codec and the drivers are up to date. I have tried enabling and disabling the device, it says it is working fine. Sound from my headphones works fine with none of the muffling. In the IDT control panel, the settings are set correctly, im not attempting to run surround sound or anything.

At first I thought it was a bad connection or something but suddenly the problem disappeared and never happened again for 6 months. But recently I reformatted my PC and as soon as my PC was running again the problem resurfaced. Restarting my PC sometimes fixes it but more often than not it doesn't.

Its very frustrating because I can't pin the source of the problem down. I dont think its a bad connection because it worked fine for 6 months and then when i reformatted it came back. I never experience crackling or jerky sound or short periods of good or bad sound. When i turn my PC on and it wrks, it works fine until my PC is turned off. The problem never just happens as im using my PC, it turns on with the problem, or it turns on without it.

I have all enhancements disabled and the default format is set to 24 bit, 48000 Hz (Studio Quality). Both boxes are checked that say "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" and "give exclusive mode applications priority" but the problem happens with any combination of these boxes being checked. Equally it can run fine with any combination of boxes checked.

I dont own any other speakers and carry my laptop around with me alot so having the built-in speakers not working is very frustrating, i cant listen to music, watch films because its simply so muffled and basey.

I have relatively poor knowledge of computers so sorry if all of what i have said is redundant or i've missed out any key information. Please just let me know what you need.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## JesseC (Apr 23, 2009)

I don't have any advice or solutions, but would just like to say I've had exactly the same problem and exactly the same computer! Although I have not had it as long.

I tried using recovey manager to reinstall the audio driver. So called 'IDT High Definition Audio Codec'. That worked for about 2 days before the problem occured again. 

Situation: Repeat the last paragraph 5 times. Increasing frustration levels!

I also tried downloading the lastest drivers available from HP online. Installation of all 3 versions failed, each with a different error report.

After reading some stuff online it seems a LOT of HP laptop users with vista also have audio problems. Perhaps an intrinsic fault in their computers? I don't know, but I want to, because it was not a cheap laptop.


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## Mikhalkov (Jan 23, 2009)

I know you said you don't own any other speakers, but that would a definitive way to test whether it was the speakers themselves or the laptop. Since both of you are having the same problem with the same PC, I would be willing to guess that it's a problem with HP.


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## Sandyfish (Mar 22, 2009)

I've since invested in a set of speakers because nobody could find a solution. I don't experience any of the muffling while using speakers. Something is going on which makes the PC not use its main speaker. I'm not sure but i think the muffled sound is because the only speaker being used is the bass one on the underside of the laptop.

Still no solutions, still happens to me 90% of the time.


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## JesseC (Apr 23, 2009)

I don't have any external speakers, but the muffling does go away when I plug earphones I use for my iPod in. 

If the computer is still under guaruntee surely HP have an obligation to fix the problem?


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## z1nemo (Aug 9, 2012)

I was experiencing a similar problem with my HP dv-7 4060. After install / reinstall of drivers, flipping through every possible system setting and otherwise just driving myself mad trying to figure out what was going on I happened to visit a web page with an annoying pop-up video. I noticed the sound on the video plugin was turned almost all the way down. I bumped it up to full, and BAM! Louder speakers. I continued doing this with all my audio/video plugins and magically my speakers became significantly louder. It might work for you, it might not, but it's worth a try. Figure out what video and audio programs and plugins you have on the machine and crank those babies up. You can generally find what processes are still lurking in the background and possibly exerting some unseen control on your machine using the task manager. Good luck, I hope that helps.


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

As it's working properly with the headphones, it's likely a hardware issue. Either the audio chipset itself, or the speakers (or their associated circuitry). In most cases, if it were a software/driver/codec issue, the problem would also affect the headphones.


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