Loss in sound quality

[scooter]

I suppose I'll inaugurate this board with something for the general amusement...

Did a reinstall of Win 10 on this machine (HP ProBook 6570). All went well with one exception: the sound became very subdued and tinny. The new driver is a generic MS one; I don't have a clear idea what was used before, but I've attempted to replace it with a Realtek, but the machine is saying no dice due to incompatible hardware. (Really?)

Through a bit of finagling on the settings, I've managed to get a somewhat acceptable sound in terms of quality, but the volume is still an issue - it's basically inaudible under 30% and still tinnier than I would like it.

Somewhere around here I have a decent Bluetooth speaker (FoxL 2) which I will hook up to test the results.

In the meantime, anyone else encounter this? Any clues on how to force a driver swap on this system?

[Random American]

Was the Realtek downloaded from the HP website? I know HP has a section on their website where drivers specific for a device can be downloaded.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/se ... pc/5212927

[scooter]

Was the Realtek downloaded from the HP website? I know HP has a section on their website where drivers specific for a device can be downloaded.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/se ... pc/5212927

Yes, it was. The version of Win 10 I'm using came from a developer disk, however.

[Broadcastre]

You should probably use the disk if possible

[Random American]

You should probably use the disk if possible

I think the problem is that doesn't really have the driver he wants, and for some reason his version of Windows 10 is not accepting the drivers from HP that he wants.

[Broadcastre]

:/

[Random American]

:/

Yea, I'm confused as well. I'm trying to think of a solution. I installed drivers before and never had that issue.

[Broadcastre]

Did the computer come with a recovery partition?

[scooter]

:/

Yea, I'm confused as well. I'm trying to think of a solution. I installed drivers before and never had that issue.

It's pretty much exactly that; I'm kind of flailing, trying to find the right combination. One interesting thing is that the hardware button above the keyboard (on this HP ProBook) for mute is lit up, as if the sound has been toggled off. The button still does mute the sound, but remains lit even when sound is (nominally) on.

Checking with HP's site reveals that audio drivers are almost certainly to blame, both for audio degradation and the mute button being lit, but fixing it is another matter. HP suggests reinstalling the driver for IDT Audio; checking the Device Manager reveals no IDT Audio component at all. (I can't remember whether it was there before the reinstall.) I went to HP to pull down the installer for IDT and ran it - it quit halfway saying that the hardware did not support it.

Again, I'm getting sound - but it's much softer and more tinny than it was previously.

[scooter]

Did the computer come with a recovery partition?

No.