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Help, hardly any sound comes out of my new laptop

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  • Help, hardly any sound comes out of my new laptop

    I just got a new laptop, a Toshiba Satellite A105-S4084 with Windows XP Media Center. I have gone to the master volume window and turned up all of the volume for all of the channels or whatever you call them (Master, Wave, CD, etc.). There is no way to turn up the volume on the computer itself physically. But I can get hardly any sound. Only a little bit. What can I do to fix it?
    "The first man who, having fenced off a plot of land, thought of saying, 'This is mine' and found people simple enough to believe him was the real founder of civil society. How many crimes, wars, murders, how many miseries and horrors might the human race had been spared by the one who, upon pulling up the stakes or filling in the ditch, had shouted to his fellow men: 'Beware of listening to this imposter; you are lost if you forget the fruits of the earth belong to all and that the earth belongs to no one." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  • #2
    Is this for a particular program, or in general? If the former, the individual program-specific volume controls may need to be adjusted.

    Are you just using the computer's speakers? Make sure "Enable S/PDIF" is not selected. Also use the right speaker configuration (Control Panel -> Sound).
    THEY!!111 OMG WTF LOL LET DA NOMADS AND TEH S3D3NTARY PEOPLA BOTH MAEK BITER AXP3REINCES
    AND TEH GRAAT SINS OF THERE [DOCTRINAL] INOVATIONS BQU3ATH3D SMAL
    AND!!1!11!!! LOL JUST IN CAES A DISPUTANT CALS U 2 DISPUT3 ABOUT THEYRE CLAMES
    DO NOT THAN DISPUT3 ON THEM 3XCAPT BY WAY OF AN 3XTARNAL DISPUTA!!!!11!! WTF

    Comment


    • #3
      No, it isn't the particular program. I turn the volume up to the max in both iTunes and Windows Media Player and it is still really quiet.

      I don't have speakers plugged into it or anything, it is just the computer's speakers. Where is enable s/pdf? And what is the right speaker configuration?
      "The first man who, having fenced off a plot of land, thought of saying, 'This is mine' and found people simple enough to believe him was the real founder of civil society. How many crimes, wars, murders, how many miseries and horrors might the human race had been spared by the one who, upon pulling up the stakes or filling in the ditch, had shouted to his fellow men: 'Beware of listening to this imposter; you are lost if you forget the fruits of the earth belong to all and that the earth belongs to no one." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

      Comment


      • #4
        S/PDIF is under Advanced in Volume Control.

        The right speaker config for you is probably "Laptop Stereo Speakers" under Control Panel -> Sound and Audio Devices -> Speaker Settings -> Advanced. Also play around with some of the other settings in the control panel applet.

        If it still doesn't work, I would suggest that you either get your hearing tested, or call tech support
        THEY!!111 OMG WTF LOL LET DA NOMADS AND TEH S3D3NTARY PEOPLA BOTH MAEK BITER AXP3REINCES
        AND TEH GRAAT SINS OF THERE [DOCTRINAL] INOVATIONS BQU3ATH3D SMAL
        AND!!1!11!!! LOL JUST IN CAES A DISPUTANT CALS U 2 DISPUT3 ABOUT THEYRE CLAMES
        DO NOT THAN DISPUT3 ON THEM 3XCAPT BY WAY OF AN 3XTARNAL DISPUTA!!!!11!! WTF

        Comment


        • #5
          Why turn off S/PDIF? I looked at my control panel, and "AC3 SPDIF" and "PCM SPDIF" are both selected, but I don't have this problem.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Kuciwalker
            Why turn off S/PDIF? I looked at my control panel, and "AC3 SPDIF" and "PCM SPDIF" are both selected, but I don't have this problem.
            Interesting. Are you passing a signal via coax or optical to a receiver? If so, you should definitely have it on. If not, there's no reason to have it on (it can't improve your sound in any way), but maybe it doesn't hurt in your case. If I, on the other hand, disconnect my S/PDIF link and use an analog cable, I get no sound unless I disable S/PDIF.
            THEY!!111 OMG WTF LOL LET DA NOMADS AND TEH S3D3NTARY PEOPLA BOTH MAEK BITER AXP3REINCES
            AND TEH GRAAT SINS OF THERE [DOCTRINAL] INOVATIONS BQU3ATH3D SMAL
            AND!!1!11!!! LOL JUST IN CAES A DISPUTANT CALS U 2 DISPUT3 ABOUT THEYRE CLAMES
            DO NOT THAN DISPUT3 ON THEM 3XCAPT BY WAY OF AN 3XTARNAL DISPUTA!!!!11!! WTF

            Comment


            • #7
              No, I'm just using my laptop's speakers.

              OTOH, I don't want them to get any louder, because I'm already hearing distortion in some of my music.

              Comment


              • #8
                Dammit, I bought a Toshiba laptop with XP about a year ago and had the same problem....but for the life of me, I can't remember what the solution was.

                My best guess (or more accurately, my least worst guess) is that XP has an additional master sound slider in some other area...and once I found it and turned it up, the problem was fixed.

                I really do need a new brain.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Make sure the proper driver is installed
                  (\__/) 07/07/1937 - Never forget
                  (='.'=) "Claims demand evidence; extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." -- Carl Sagan
                  (")_(") "Starting the fire from within."

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Thanks everyone. I changed the speaker configuration from desktop to laptop stereo speakers, but that didn't help. I went to Volume Control, but couldn't turn off the S/PDIF because I couldn't click on the advanced controls under 'options.' It was gray, so I couldn't click on it.

                    How do I know if it is the correct driver? And I'd like to point out that I am getting some sound, just not enough to make it enjoyable. Is this the way the laptop was made? Maybe I can't listen to music at a normal volume. But that just doesn't seem to make much sense. Other laptops play much louder and aren't more expensive or anything.
                    "The first man who, having fenced off a plot of land, thought of saying, 'This is mine' and found people simple enough to believe him was the real founder of civil society. How many crimes, wars, murders, how many miseries and horrors might the human race had been spared by the one who, upon pulling up the stakes or filling in the ditch, had shouted to his fellow men: 'Beware of listening to this imposter; you are lost if you forget the fruits of the earth belong to all and that the earth belongs to no one." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Do you live in the EU? Maybe a directive against noise polution has been issued.
                      DISCLAIMER: the author of the above written texts does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for any offence and insult; disrespect, arrogance and related forms of demeaning behaviour; discrimination based on race, gender, age, income class, body mass, living area, political voting-record, football fan-ship and musical preference; insensitivity towards material, emotional or spiritual distress; and attempted emotional or financial black-mailing, skirt-chasing or death-threats perceived by the reader of the said written texts.

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                      • #12
                        Colon, you are as boring as the face in your avatar.

                        At least the combination of your posts and the face generates general boringness. No offense.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Nonsense. I just made the most exciting computer virus-thread ever.
                          DISCLAIMER: the author of the above written texts does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for any offence and insult; disrespect, arrogance and related forms of demeaning behaviour; discrimination based on race, gender, age, income class, body mass, living area, political voting-record, football fan-ship and musical preference; insensitivity towards material, emotional or spiritual distress; and attempted emotional or financial black-mailing, skirt-chasing or death-threats perceived by the reader of the said written texts.

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                          • #14
                            To click the advanced button, you have to click "advanced controls" in the Options menu. Then the button will be ungrayed.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              I found out why the 'advanced controls' is gray under the options menu. My speakers don't support separate bass and treble settings. Volume control help told me that that would explain why I can't open up that window.

                              Now a new problem. I have no sound at all!! I know by my iTunes record of songs being played that my brother was messing around with my laptop when I was at work today (and played a ****load of music, including what must've been making a song repeat over and over again and left it on, unless he played it 109 times manual), but he never said anything about it not working when I saw him (I won't see him again until tomorrow or the day after, and I want the problem fixed ASAP). Anyway, I was on my computer and noticed that on the taskbar on the bottom right hand corner of the screen, there was an icon that when I moved my mouse over displayed: TOSHIBA Virtual Sound: Off (if I remember correctly).

                              I thought this might have something to do with it. So I double clicked on it. The window popped up. Under listening mode, I selected built-in speaker, or I think it was already selected, I can't remember which. I clicked open detail setting, then option, and then the volume control tab. There were the list of the channels of Circle Surroun Xtract, Front Left Channel, Front Right Channel, etc. They were all on 0db. So I moved them to 3 db and tried playing a sound. That didn't work, so I moved them back to 0 db. When I went back to play a sound, it still didn't play. I went back to the toshiba virtual sound, and turned it on (at this point I noticed a sticker on my laptop that said SRS TruSurround XT). It still wouldn't play anything (iTunes, systems sounds, whatever, I tried several things throughout the process, so it isn't a problem with a particular CD or program, that's for sure), no matter what the decibels were on.

                              So I troubleshooted with the help feature. I went to the volume control and made sure it wasn't muted, made sure all of the boxes were unchecked, and left the volume nobs where they were at, on full blast. Then with troubleshooting, I verified the sound device was turned on (under Device Manager), verified the sound device is the default device (under Sounds and Audio Devices Properties), and verified that windows in configured to use the audio features of my sound device (under Device Manager). And every window I was in said the device was on, enabled, and working properly, though it isn't. I also tried plugging headphones into my laptop and playing sounds, and that didn't work either. Somebody help!

                              And Colon, I live in the US.
                              "The first man who, having fenced off a plot of land, thought of saying, 'This is mine' and found people simple enough to believe him was the real founder of civil society. How many crimes, wars, murders, how many miseries and horrors might the human race had been spared by the one who, upon pulling up the stakes or filling in the ditch, had shouted to his fellow men: 'Beware of listening to this imposter; you are lost if you forget the fruits of the earth belong to all and that the earth belongs to no one." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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