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Thread: New laptop came yesterday, already there's fail

  1. #41
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by limitles View Post
    You are one unique dude. There many thousands of podcasts and internet based talk shows.

    Why do we not hear a collective scream from these poor souls who must endure the weak technology of 2020?

    I'll bet it's because the majority aren't cheap fucks
    I didn't say it's not possible to do without stereo mix. I said that it's big and cumbersome, and I don't want to do it this way. The way I've been doing it has worked fine for well over a decade.

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    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BlunderMaker View Post
    The build quality on consumer grade laptops is basically universally terrible. You're better off getting an off lease Latitude/ThinkPad/EliteBook and cleaning it up 95% of the time.
    This is actually true, regarding build quality. Lots of time they are indeed sloppily-constructed, where you have power issues, part breaking off, the keyboard ceasing to work, etc.

    Then the repair process is terrible, because you need to mail it in, wait about 2 weeks, and the morons doing it tend to be really bad at following instructions. If you're unlucky enough to have two problems at once, there's almost zero point zero chance both will get fixed. The morons fixing it can only think about one thing at a time, kind of like an animal. No matter how hard you try to get it across that there's 2 things to fix, only one gets done.

    This has allowed me to Jew free additional warranties when this sort of crap happens, but it's a hassle, and honestly I'd just prefer I get what I pay for and they do it right the first time.

    I hate used electronics, though, so buying off-lease isn't really something I want to do.

    But you're not wrong. Each laptop I've owned has experienced a different issue.

    The one I'm using right now (bought in late 2015) has had a chronic problem with screws popping out, as well as early keyboard problems which finally got fixed after a few tries. It also has a flaky ethernet port (which I fixed by just getting a USB one). This was before the current screen flicker issue which forced my hand to buy a new one.

    The laptop before this one had power problems, where it would abruptly lose power due to poor contact with the battery.

    The laptop before that had major charging problems, where it often wouldn't charge without a pristine-condition adapter. It was some kind of contact issue with the adapter due to poor design.

  3. #43
    100% Organic MumblesBadly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by BlunderMaker View Post
    The build quality on consumer grade laptops is basically universally terrible. You're better off getting an off lease Latitude/ThinkPad/EliteBook and cleaning it up 95% of the time.
    This is actually true, regarding build quality. Lots of time they are indeed sloppily-constructed, where you have power issues, part breaking off, the keyboard ceasing to work, etc.
    Have you thought about get a Mac laptop and install a virtual harddrive on it to run Windows programs? I still have that set up on my old MacBook Pro laptop from 2011. Works great for the few Windows applications I couldn’t port over to run directly on Mac OS.

    _____________________________________________
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    I actually hope this [second impeachment] succeeds, because I want Trump put down politically like a sick, 14-year-old dog. ... I don't want him complicating the 2024 primary season. I just want him done.
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Were Republicans cowardly or unethical not to go along with [convicting Trump in the second impeachment Senate trial]? No. The smart move was to reject it.

  4. #44
    NoFraud Poker Room Manager Belly Buster's Avatar
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    Druff did you try tip #1 in this article: https://appuals.com/how-to-restore-m...on-windows-10/
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    BTW JACKDANIELS is the first one banned from the thread. He is accusing me of being "duped by a middle aged man who dresses like John Cena"
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  5. #45
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Yes, I've tried everything you can easily find on the web about Stereo Mix, even many things not so easily found on the web. I'm pretty sure this either requires a special driver only HP knows how to find, a registry tweak on HP knows, or is impossible to fix.

    I am getting close to giving up and returning it.

    "Escalations" will not call me, and I'm getting tired of dealing with their awful support phone number.

    Any other suggestions for companies to buy?

  6. #46
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Tech support department had a message up today of "over 60 minutes" to speak to someone.

    LOL

    So I tried the sales department to get someone, since I already have a case # and complaint # for escalations.

    First two people I got just slammed me on hold back to tech support.

    Third person finally got me to a supervisor. Seemed very nice. Said he wanted to help me. Asked for entire story.

    Then after 30 minutes of explaining everything:

    "I can process a return for your computer now, sir."

    I told him, "I don't want a return. I want to fix these issues."

    Turned out all he could do was process returns, and the guy wouldn't admit that off the bat, and wanted to act like he could "help", as is common with foreign outsourced reps. So he put me through a long story just to tell me all he could do was process a return.

    I hung up on him. Guess my only option really is tech support. But I'm honestly very close to just shipping it back. Has that fucked up touchpad and spacebar, too, but I'm about to return instead of replace.


    Seriously, if you have any suggestions for other manufacturers aside from HP, let me know.

    Here's the suggestions I don't want:

    "Get a desktop (or build your own desktop)"

    "Get a Mac"

    "Go to Best Buy or other local retailer and buy one there"

    "Use software solution for stereo mix"

    "Use physical sound board for stereo mix"



    Here's what I am looking for:

    PC laptop
    16GB+ RAM
    17" touch screen
    1TB SSD drive (alternativey 250GB+ SSD drive & 1 TB regular hard drive)
    Medium-high end processor (no i5 bullshit)
    Stereo mix option in sound card

  7. #47
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Here's one problem:

    Laptops are hard to come by right now. Everyone is ordering one for school and work because of COVID, so demand is WAY higher than it used to be.

    The laptop I ordered, while always widely available on hp.com, is currently missing from the site because it's out of stock now! So I think support is slammed, and they are probably building them in rushed fashion.

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    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MumblesBadly View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post

    This is actually true, regarding build quality. Lots of time they are indeed sloppily-constructed, where you have power issues, part breaking off, the keyboard ceasing to work, etc.
    Have you thought about get a Mac laptop and install a virtual harddrive on it to run Windows programs? I still have that set up on my old MacBook Pro laptop from 2011. Works great for the few Windows applications I couldn’t port over to run directly on Mac OS.

    Why would I do this if I don't like Macs?

    That would be like buying a BMW and then having it modified to look and operate like a Toyota. Everyone would ask, "Why didn't you just buy a Toyota then?"

     
    Comments
      
      dwai: he's really stupid isn't he?

  9. #49
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    I haven't bought a consumer brand laptop for years. I've relied on Dell Latitudes which I tend to replace every 4 years or so, not because they break but :whynot

    I'm currently on a faultless 7480 just over 3 years old. Just checked and it has Stereo Mix.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    BTW JACKDANIELS is the first one banned from the thread. He is accusing me of being "duped by a middle aged man who dresses like John Cena"
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    Diamond dwai's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Belly Buster View Post
    I haven't bought a consumer brand laptop for years. I've relied on Dell Latitudes which I tend to replace every 4 years or so, not because they break but :whynot

    I'm currently on a faultless 7480 just over 3 years old. Just checked and it has Stereo Mix.

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    STEREO MIX IS GOD

  11. #51
    Gold Forum Wars's Avatar
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    OK, Druff

    Hope you didn't return the laptop yet.

    I don't really have a need for stereo mix, but I am on a secondary laptop and this WORKED for me, where I did not have it before and now do.

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    I suspected that you need the Realtek high quality audio codecs and this is what I searched for. They are from, like, 2017, haven't found them like newer than that...they are found on the Realtek Taiwan site:

    https://www.realtek.com/zh-tw/compon...odecs-software

    I chose the third file down:

    64bits Vista, Windows7, Windows8, Windows8.1, Windows10 Driver only (Executable file)..



    After it said it would take 4 hours to download, I determined the same file

    0009-64bit_win7_win8_win81_win10_r282.exe

    was avail. on Download.cnet.com (https://download.cnet.com/Realtek-Hi...-77507761.html)

    and it took about 20-30 seconds to download.




    Ran the executable and voila...I have stereo mix (I am sure I did not have it before, this laptop is a 2019 machine)

    Hopefully this helps...

  12. #52
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Forum Wars View Post
    OK, Druff

    Hope you didn't return the laptop yet.

    I don't really have a need for stereo mix, but I am on a secondary laptop and this WORKED for me, where I did not have it before and now do.

    Name:  sm.jpg
Views: 300
Size:  21.4 KB


    I suspected that you need the Realtek high quality audio codecs and this is what I searched for. They are from, like, 2017, haven't found them like newer than that...they are found on the Realtek Taiwan site:

    https://www.realtek.com/zh-tw/compon...odecs-software

    I chose the third file down:

    64bits Vista, Windows7, Windows8, Windows8.1, Windows10 Driver only (Executable file)..



    After it said it would take 4 hours to download, I determined the same file

    0009-64bit_win7_win8_win81_win10_r282.exe

    was avail. on Download.cnet.com (https://download.cnet.com/Realtek-Hi...-77507761.html)

    and it took about 20-30 seconds to download.




    Ran the executable and voila...I have stereo mix (I am sure I did not have it before, this laptop is a 2019 machine)

    Hopefully this helps...
    I tried that before making this thread, but it didn't work.

    Like you, I was most hopeful about this solution. I also believed that I was simply lacking the proper CODECs, and that upon installing them, it would work.

    Unfortunately, this failed, and in fact it screwed up the existing sound card drivers to where sound didn't work at all. I even tried removing the existing sound card drivers and installing this, and that didn't help either.

    But this is kinda what I'm hoping HP has somewhere. Maybe they have some hidden drivers or CODECs which will fix the problem.

  13. #53
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    The HP case manager called me today but I missed the call. He is supposedly calling back tomorrow. The first case manager was apparently kicked off my case because she never called me, and I called to bitch about this yesterday.

    The new guy at least called. Hopefully he's helpful if and when he reaches me tomorrow.

    If the guy refuses to allow me to speak to software support without paying, I'm packing it up and putting it on the next Fed Ex truck outta here. No way I'm accepting that.

    There's also the possibility that this has no fix, or that HP doesn't have anyone working there who knows how to do it. If that's the case, there's a good chance I'll still ship it back.

  14. #54
    NoFraud Poker Room Manager Belly Buster's Avatar
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    To find out the actual hardware used, go to Device Manager, Sound, video and game controllers, properties, events, then look the VEN (vendor) and DEV (device) codes, then do a google on these codes which should hopefully lead to some (better) generic drivers rather than the OEM ones.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    BTW JACKDANIELS is the first one banned from the thread. He is accusing me of being "duped by a middle aged man who dresses like John Cena"
    #FREEJACK #NEVERFORGET

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    Gold Forum Wars's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Forum Wars View Post
    OK, Druff

    Hope you didn't return the laptop yet.

    I don't really have a need for stereo mix, but I am on a secondary laptop and this WORKED for me, where I did not have it before and now do.

    Name:  sm.jpg
Views: 300
Size:  21.4 KB


    I suspected that you need the Realtek high quality audio codecs and this is what I searched for. They are from, like, 2017, haven't found them like newer than that...they are found on the Realtek Taiwan site:

    https://www.realtek.com/zh-tw/compon...odecs-software

    I chose the third file down:

    64bits Vista, Windows7, Windows8, Windows8.1, Windows10 Driver only (Executable file)..



    After it said it would take 4 hours to download, I determined the same file

    0009-64bit_win7_win8_win81_win10_r282.exe

    was avail. on Download.cnet.com (https://download.cnet.com/Realtek-Hi...-77507761.html)

    and it took about 20-30 seconds to download.




    Ran the executable and voila...I have stereo mix (I am sure I did not have it before, this laptop is a 2019 machine)

    Hopefully this helps...
    I tried that before making this thread, but it didn't work.

    Like you, I was most hopeful about this solution. I also believed that I was simply lacking the proper CODECs, and that upon installing them, it would work.

    Unfortunately, this failed, and in fact it screwed up the existing sound card drivers to where sound didn't work at all. I even tried removing the existing sound card drivers and installing this, and that didn't help either.

    But this is kinda what I'm hoping HP has somewhere. Maybe they have some hidden drivers or CODECs which will fix the problem.
    Yup. Maybe you just need the right flavor of driver from Realtek for the sound card you have.

    I will add, since I added this as shown above, my pc has gotten approximately 50% louder. Gotta be some real undisclosed reason PC manufacturers don't want this stereo mix from Realtek available anymore.

  16. #56
    100% Organic MumblesBadly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by MumblesBadly View Post

    Have you thought about get a Mac laptop and install a virtual harddrive on it to run Windows programs? I still have that set up on my old MacBook Pro laptop from 2011. Works great for the few Windows applications I couldn’t port over to run directly on Mac OS.

    Why would I do this if I don't like Macs?

    That would be like buying a BMW and then having it modified to look and operate like a Toyota. Everyone would ask, "Why didn't you just buy a Toyota then?"
    Because you wouldn’t experience the ridiculous and unnecessary hardware and service fails you mention in this thread.
    _____________________________________________
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    I actually hope this [second impeachment] succeeds, because I want Trump put down politically like a sick, 14-year-old dog. ... I don't want him complicating the 2024 primary season. I just want him done.
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Were Republicans cowardly or unethical not to go along with [convicting Trump in the second impeachment Senate trial]? No. The smart move was to reject it.

  17. #57
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Here's the updates:

    Escalations guy reached me yesterday morning. The first portion of the call went well. He offered to send a replacement computer before I return the other one (at no extra cost), and while he first denied me any compensation for the numerous points of fail that occurred (which he admitted were big time fails), he agreed fairly quickly to an extra year of warranty for free. I accepted.

    But there was still the Stereo Mix issue. It seemed promising when he claimed he was a tech support specialist himself, and could help me get it working. But as it wore on, I started to get more and more skeptical. He was putting me through idiotic and generic steps such as going into the system's onboard test to see if the sound card worked, uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, etc. None of this shit was likely to work if you understand Stereo Mix and its frequent missing status from modern computers.

    I tried to explain this to him but it fell on deaf ears, and he basically gave me a polite but arrogant "I'm the expert here, follow my lead" type speech, which was laughable. But I played along, hoping that the better stuff would follow.

    When all of this predictably failed, he said, "Okay, now we are going to wipe and restore Windows...."

    I interrupted, "Wait, this is a new computer. Why would we do that?"

    "Stereo Mix is a Windows feature, and it's missing, so this is obviously corruption", he replied.



    Talk about a complete lack of understanding. I kept trying to explain to him that either Stereo Mix support is missing from the driver, or it was disabled in the driver, or I am missing a CODEC, and that I need him to direct me to how to rectify that.

    He kept telling me he's "sure" it's Windows corruption.

    I then explained to him that my girlfriend's computer, which is also an HP ENVY 17, also has the same issue, but we never complained because she doesn't use Stereo Mix. I asked him to explain how we both have the identical "corruption" with no other symptoms, especially given that my computer is brand new.

    "As I said, I need you to restore Windows and am very confident this will fix it."

    At this point I was about to put my foot down and refuse, but I thought perhaps he might be pulling a Vanessa Williams and saving the best for last.

    I asked, "Okay, and if that fails, what's next?"

    "Then you need to send it in for repair," he replied.



    I told him repair wasn't going to solve this.

    He said, "Well, you mentioned that your touchpad wasn't working well, so maybe this is related. You don't know. It could be."




    What a fucking monkey.

    I politely told him that it's clear to me that he doesn't understand the Stereo Mix feature or why it is sometimes missing, and that solving this requires a sound card drivers expert, or at least someone who has access to information uncovered by such an expert.

    He sat there like a dummy and didn't know what to say.

    I got off the call and told him I'll get back to him shortly via e-mail.

    Anyway, if you can think of a solution, let me know. I'm about to give up.

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    Update on this?

  19. #59
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    Quote Originally Posted by dmndkutr View Post
    Update on this?

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