One of the laptop speakers make crackling noise. Reinstalling the operating system and audio driver does not fix the problem.

Possible cause:

1. Failed laptop speaker.
2. Failed sound card.

Possible troubleshooting steps and repair solution:

If one of the laptop speakers started makig crackling noise, the first thing to do is test the laptop with headphones.

If both channels in headphones sound normal and crackling noise comes only from one of the laptop speakers, you have a faulty speaker and it has to be replaced.

If you hear same crackling noise from one of the headphone channels, most likely there is a problem with the laptop sound card. In most laptops the sound card is integrated into the motherboard. If the sound card fails, you’ll have to replace the whole motheroboard.

Sound stutters while playing an audio file from the laptop hard drive. The problem happens only when the laptop is moved or lifted.

Possible cause:

Hard drive protection is enabled.

Possible troubleshooting steps and repair solution:

Most likley the sound statters because you have the hard drive protetion utility installed on the laptop and it’s enabled. When you move the laptop, the hard drive protection kicks in and the read/write heads go into park position freezing the laptop for a fracture of second. Apparenlty this causing the sound to statter.

You can disable the hard drive protection for a while and see if it fixes the problem.

Also, try reducing the movement detection sensetivity in the hard drive protection utility.

One speaker in the laptop doesn’t work. The other speaker works properly.

Possible cause:

1. Problem with audio settings.
2. One speaker is bad.

Possible troubleshooting steps and repair solution:

First of all check the laptop audio settings. It’s possible that balance between left and right speakers is not set correctly and one of the speakers is simply muted.

If all audio settings are correct, most likely one of the speaker is bad.

Here’s an easy way to find out if you have a problem with settings or bad speaker. Start playing an audio file so the sound comes from the laptop speakers (actually one speaker). Now plug the headphones and listen the same audio. If you can hear both channels in the headphones but when you unplug them only one of the speakers starts working, it means the second speaker is bad and has to be replaced.

The laptop has no sound coming from the internal speakers but headphones connected to the laptop audio jack work fine.

Possible cause:

1. Broken audio jack.
2. Bad speakers.

Possible troubleshooting steps and repair solution:

If you can hear sound from the headphones, it means the sound card and audio driver work correctly. Why can you hear sound from the headphones but not from the laptop speakers? Here are two most common problems:

1. The audio jack has a small switch inside. When you plug the headphones, the plug activates the switch and the sounds switches from the speakers to headphones. It’s possible that the switch inside the audio jack got stuck and because of that the sound works only when headphones are connected. Try plug and unplug the headphones into the audio jack very quickly a few times, this might release the switch inside the jack and the audio signal will go back from the headphones to speakers.

Also, the audio jack could be broken and plugging/unplugging the headphones will not help. In this case you’ll have to replace the audio jack which is not easy because the jack is soldered directly to the motherboard or sound board.

2. There is a chance that you have bad speakers but it’s not very likely that both speakers fail at the same time.

The laptop starts properly but the sound coming from the laptop speakers and headphones is garbled.

Possible cause:

1. Software related problem.
2. Failed sound card.

Possible troubleshooting steps and repair solution:

If you hear garbled audio from both the laptop speakers and headphones plugged into the audio jack, this problem is not related to the laptop speakers. It’s either a sotware related problem or the laptop has a failed sound card.

1. Try reinstalling the audio driver. You can download the latest audio driver from the manufacturer’s website.

2. In some cases reinstalling  just the audio driver doesn’t help to fix the problem. Try reinstalling the operating system from scratch. Back up all personal files and run the laptop recovery disc or installation CD.

3. If the garbled sound is still there even after reinstalling the operating system, this is related to the sound card.

Unfortunately, in most (if not all) laptops the sound card is integrated into the motherboard. When the sound card fails, you have to replace the whole motherboard.