Hi Gova
I feel your pain. I had the same issue for ages. tried all the work arounds. the only thing that fixed it was when i clean installed windows 8. I tried all the work arounds with windows 7 and unistalling the drivers. but it imbeds the files deep within the system. It can be removed but it is a pain. it would be good if you just had the option to turn it off! Its such a shame. cause besides Beats Audio my HP Envy is a great PC. I honestly think that Beats audio is one of the worst things to happen to consumer audio produts in the last decade.
My suggestion is, if you havent done it. upgrade to windows 8.1 if you havent. its actully pretty good and stable and use the normal audio drives. they work fine. And if you want more enhancmets there are many DSP prgrams you can put over the top of windows.
I was stupid enough to recently reinstall the beats drivers onto windows 8.1 cause i do like the EQ setting in the beats panel (and i just like to mess around with things :) ) . and the problem is still there.
If you need any help let me know i will try and think of something.
Cheers
Nick