i have a hp envy 6-1002tx laptop which came with windows7 HB but i upgraded to windows 8.1 recently.
since then the sound qualtiy is not the same as it used to be.. it's not loud any more. i have to keep the voulme at 100 to listen. while back when i was using windows 7, even on 60, it was loud enough to be aublible.
i have installed the sound driver recommended by the HP site for my laptop.
there is no support for windows 8.1 from HP.