Envy 17 Crackling Sound problem..help?!

Hi all..

I'm new to these forums.

I've had an Envy 17 for about 5 months now...ive had no problems with it until now and have been more than happy with the performance..

A couple of days ago I noticed the sound was crackling and skipping during all playback, Skype calls, music, games movies and so on..I'm at a loss as to what could be causing this??

CPU usage seems to be no more than normal.

Has anyone come across this? Any possible solutions??

 

This happened with my old Envy after I installed the software that came with my Seagate external. It would appear and disappear as I installed or removed the software. So, I ended up going without it. I haven't tried installing it on my new Envy yet, but I may.

I would do a system restore to a point before I heard the crackling.

 

If only it was that simple.. System Restore isn't an option.. My best guess for the problem is that I had issues installing windows 7 SP1. (I know there were sound issues with Vista SP1)

SP1 failed to instal 5 times, due to a router related Internet problem. I isolated and fixed the router problem after some investigation an finally installed SP1.

The problem with restore is that the sound issue started during those failed installs.. Now, all restore points prior to the successful SP1 install are gone!!

If I were to use the restore option I'd have to use the recovery mirror on a partition of the hard drive.. I don't mind doing this however it's a hassle to reinstall everything and it might not work.. Therefore, I was wondering if anyone else had suggestions prior to me trying that.

 

Although i'm not an envy 17 owner, I would still suggest that you open up the Beats Audio Control Panel and disable all power saving features under the preferences tab. What's to lose?