is this sound distortion hardware or software?

I've got a 10 month old HP laptop.

When playing sound through the speaker, it pops/distorted and the volume level is pretty low even when turned all the way up.

I've updated drivers to the latest, disabled power management, etc.

When I plug headphones or a speaker into the 3.5mm output, the sound is fine and clear. Similarly with bluetooth headphones.

I'm hesitant to send off for repair unless it's really a hardware problem - is there anything else I could try that might be a software/drivers issue? Or is this pretty clearly just a blown speaker?

Solution 1:

Try a different speaker. See if that works.

It could also be the speaker power circuit in the computer (which may be different than the headphone output.

So if a new speaker does not change things, then the computer needs repair.

HP should have a 1 year warranty, so take advantage of that.