Asus Zenbook u303lb low volume unfixable

I'll start by saying that I'm sure this has been covered but unfortunately I feel that my situation may be somewhat unique or at least not solved as I have scanned many many forums and tried many fixes.

I'll start with this: Purchased the laptop second hand about 4 months ago with a clean install of windows 10, I noticed right away that the volume was quite low, my microphone was working fine but the volume was unacceptably low to the point I had to use an external speaker. I searched online and found a fix, I believe at the time all that I did was open Smart Audio WIzard and adjust the volume from there and voilla. The only problem was that shortly after my mic became unresponsive. I don't use it very often so I left it alone. It became necessary to make a skype call yesterday, so I updated my drivers and my mic works! .... fast forward... now my speakers are back to being extremely low. I have tried seemingly everything, there's no "loudness equalizaion" option in the enhancements tab when I click on the speakers properties.. Smart Audio Wizard no longer exists on my computer. I have tried updating drivers and now am back to square one, the mic barely works and the speakers again barely work. I am at my wits end. Help me before I throw this computer out a window.