Solved Bass output range (though 3.5mm audio jack) suddenly gone

[racie]

Hey guys, I just had this happen to me and I am very frustrated. Nothing like this has ever happened before, so I don't know how to go about fixing it. I love listening to music and watching videos on my laptop, but a few days ago, everything started to sound like total crap. I realized that it's because nothing had any bass to it anymore. I've tried plugging in various headphones and speakers, but they all have the same problem. Note that all of these headphones and speakers work perfectly when plugged into other devices/computers.

I used this YouTube video to test my audio and I could not hear anything below 80Hz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nklzAUrXSuM

Other info:
Laptop model number: HP ENVY 14t-2000 CTO
Product number: LR198AV
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Warranty: expired
Audio driver: IDT high definition audio CODEC (latest driver from HP website)
The laptop uses Beats audio.
This is an issue with plugging speakers/headphones into the 3.5mm audio jack. Yes, I'm aware that the regular laptop speakers do not output bass to begin with. This is not about the internal laptop speakers.
No, I did not stick anything into the 3.5mm audio jack.

Things I tried...

1. Checking with multiple headphones and speakers
2. Restarting the computer
3. Checking for updates to the audio driver (none found)
4. Rolling back the audio driver - this caused the computer to output NO sound when something was plugged into the audio jack, but the internal speakers still worked
5. Reinstalling the audio driver

Thank you so much for your time.

 

[fireberd]

Check the configuration of the Beats Audio. It is an "enhancement" to the basic PC sound. I don't have Beats so I can't say what all it does, but I suspect there are different music settings and an equalizer in it. Beats is known for boosting bass, so another reason to check the Beats configuration.

 

[racie]

Check the configuration of the Beats Audio. It is an "enhancement" to the basic PC sound. I don't have Beats so I can't say what all it does, but I suspect there are different music settings and an equalizer in it. Beats is known for boosting bass, so another reason to check the Beats configuration.

Thanks. I forgot to mention that I tried fiddling with the Beats audio control panel, but there aren't a whole lot of options there. Nothing I did seemed to affect anything, so I'm not sure what I'm doing here. Is there a way for me to reinstall this? There isn't any sort of program on the HP website for it.

 

[racie]

My brother helped me to solve the issue!

Here's what I did...

1. Opened msconfig
2. Went to services
3. Enabled "audio services" (by IDT)

I have no idea how this became unchecked, nor do I know why this only affected the bass.

 

[Tech4Friends]

Thank you raice

 

[peking93]

I'm having the same problem, tried the same fixes, and finally tried to go into windows config. There I noticed that my Audio Service by IDT, Inc. was checked but it said that the status was "Stopped" and I can't figure out how to restart it?? Right-clicking doesn't bring up any sort of menu and unchecking, applying, then re-checking the box doesn't change the status to "Running". This is immensely frustrating. I too love listening to music and without any sound below 80Hz it's just not worth it.

 

[YakCity]

Solution

I ran the troubleshooter, selecting (bad) for the first two tests, and on the last one selected try Windows HD or whatever, I can't remember exactly, but basically it selected a new audio driver, and my problem with no BASS is fixed.