Hello. I'm using a cheap HP laptop running Windows 10. It's about a year-and-a-half old. At some point within the past year, I've noticed that the built-in speakers have gotten very inconsistent with the quality of the sound that they produce.
At its worst, it'll sound as if the audio has been bass boosted to a ridiculous degree, and you'll hear lots of crackles. Sometimes, it'll sound completely normal.
Could the issue be with the hardware? Or did I accidentally ruin my settings at some point without noticing? I'm not knowledgeable about this sort of thing at all, so I would appreciate some help.