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General discussion

Video/audio problems, glitching etc

Feb 5, 2020 2:02AM PST

Hello,

Dear community members, I have a problem with audio/video glitching on my notebook. Recently I've pulled out my HP DV8 1110sw (specs on the bottom) because I had to return my company notebook. I took it apart, cleaned it, changed the thermal paste, upgraded ram from 4bg do 8gb, and upgraded one of my HDD's to an SSD. I installed Win 10 Pro 64bit, all of the drivers were installed by windows update service. I installed all the newest codecs etc. By then I wanted check if everything is ok, beginning from winamp - the sound of various tracks was fine. So then I went to Netflix and when I pressed play on a first tv show there were weird sounds and cracks coming from the speakers making actors sound like R2D2 while at the same time video was lagging a bit. I've tried different browsers - Opera, Firefox and Chrome, nothing helped. So the I tried reinstalling drivers and codes by hand, flash players, silverlight etc. - didn't help either. I thought that it might be some kind of surge on the power supply unit so I disconnected it, while working on the battery only - still nothing changed. Changed power settings to maximum efficiency. Turned on/off optimizing audio/video. Considering that the notebook was made to work with Win7 i tried to install drivers for Win 7 in compatibility mode but nothing changed. I need some advice what else I can do/check to fix this problem. I paid a lot for this notebook and I really want to make it work correctly.

Specs
hp dv8-1110sw
Screen: full hd 1920x1080p 18"
Chipset: Intel HM55
Processor: Intel i7 720QM
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GT230M
Ram: ddr3 8gb (oryginally 4gb)
Drives: 120SSD, 500gb HDD (oryginally x2 500gb HDD)
System: Windows 10 Pro (oryginally Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit)

Discussion is locked

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"all of the drivers were installed by windows update service
Feb 5, 2020 10:07AM PST

" all of the drivers were installed by windows update service." is your best clue.

Microsoft rarely gets this right. I can't do your driver hunt for you but you did try other drivers.

There is one other clue here. Let's take a closer look at the HDD. If it has high numbers in 01 and 07 it can cause these issues. Here's how to get the report in the forum: https://www.piriform.com/docs/speccy/using-speccy/publishing-a-speccy-profile-to-the-web

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SSD/HDD
Feb 6, 2020 3:53AM PST

I installed Windows on my SDD not HDD, but I don't know if it makes a difference involving this issue.

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If there is a HDD with the known issue.
Feb 6, 2020 8:43AM PST

It does not matter that the OS is not on that drive.

Please don't draw this out. We can spot this in a few minutes of work.
1. You post the Web Speccy report.
2. I check the report for this and other issues.

Easy peasy.

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Speccy url
Feb 6, 2020 11:28AM PST
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Thank you.
Feb 6, 2020 11:33AM PST

I didn't find the usual in the report. Will reply to the top post as this one is relegated to "what would Bob do?" rather than a solid finding.

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Nvidia drivers
Feb 5, 2020 7:18PM PST

I know you said you tried other drivers, but you didn't specify which ones. There are two possible options for you:
1. Go to HP support, enter your serial number, and download the latest graphics drivers for the GT230M. The limitation here is that HP's latest driver will likely be 5 years old or older, and it may not be advanced enough.
2. Go to Nvidia.com, use the dropdown menu to locate Geforce drivers (as opposed to, say, GTX drivers), and select GT230M and Windows 10 64-bit. The graphics driver may also Nvidia audio drivers (it does for a desktop graphics card), and that may resolve your audio problems. Worth a try.

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3. My input.
Feb 5, 2020 7:29PM PST

I would also try the GeForce Experience but I still want the Web Speccy report as I've lost count of HDDs causing this.

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Drivers
Feb 6, 2020 3:50AM PST

HP support doesn't provide drivers for Win 10 for my laptop, only Win 7.
I reinstalled Nvidia drivers to GT230M -> Win 10 64bit downloaded from Nvidia website, also tried Nvidia drivers to GT230M -> Win 7 64bit in compatibility mode. None of there two helped to resolve the problem.

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Speccy was fairly clean.
Feb 6, 2020 11:41AM PST

So I'm left with what I would do.

1. Let me comment about the Codec pack.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/uninstall/3317/K-Lite-Codec-Pack-2.84-Full/ does indicate what it is and if you got it from a good source it's OK but not needed today as what we play is either via a web browser or VLC Player. This means you can possibly introduce problems by adding such.

2. I'm also going with no on the Avast system. System cleaners again tend to create rather than solve problems. Yes, CCLEANER in it's STOCK settings seems fine but we've seen folk change settings or use it's registry cleaner and there goes the farm.

3. The CPU is a little hot but might be just fine for that model i7. I do not suspect it unless it gets 10 or more C hotter.

4. NVIDIA drivers. I'd still want to give Nvidia's GeForce Experience a go but remember we are talking a 230M which is/was fine back then but today, not good enough for today's titles.

Because the speccy was that clean I'd start over with a clean install and go with Windows Defender (don't add another AV) then for drivers try the Nvidia GeForce Experience and finally NO to the CODEC package. Test with this clean system.

If it fails you could try W7 as it was from the factory as well as Linux. This may tell us if the machine has some other hardware issue.

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PS. I'd ask the SSD maker about test results.
Feb 6, 2020 11:52AM PST

The SSD has some values that make me wonder about it's health or compatibility.

Values 01, C3, C9 and CC leave me with an open question. You may have to use their SSD test tool to figure this one out. At the shop we would swap in another make to see what's what.

Another reason to swap are the posts about this drive: https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=OCZ-AGILITY+3+speed+issues

So it's not that fast a drive. But it is among the cheapest out there.

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Conclusions
Feb 6, 2020 12:02PM PST

Thank you for your analysis. I shall try a clean install of Win 10, without installing K-lite codec pack and avast. The SSD was bought about 8 years ago and I used it on my desktop PC untill now and it was just fine. If A clean install and system tweaks won't work I'll try installing OS on a different drive. Anyway I will return with some feedback.

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Final thoughts
Feb 11, 2020 12:01AM PST

I've tried all of the above and here are my final conclusions:

Any type of reinstalling/repairing/configuring didn't help. I finally decided to make a clean install of Win 10, and I didn't install any additional codecs/cleaners or drivers, also I did not install the latest Windows update. The audio now seems fine, no glitching or cracks. Nonetheless I have 2.1 in this laptop and system can only see 2.0 but I think I'm gonna leave it like that cause I' concerned that trying to reinstall drivers may break the sound again. Thanks for your help.