W2V Sound update

Hi.

I have the european W2978vcmp model and like many others (all w2v's?) it has a very bad sound quality when connected to an external amplifier through the front sound output jack.

When I contacted ASUS support they claimed that there was no problem, despite several reports to the contrary on this and other boards. After some back and forth with support I sent in the laptop for repair. After 1 week they called and said there was nothing wrong with it, I dissagreed and they tested it again!

This time they found something and replaced the motherboard!!!!

I got it back today and was very hopefull when I plugged it in... but the sound is still very bad. Before the repair the volume output was very low, but after the repair the volume at least is normal.

I'm not sure that the low volume issue is something all w2v users experience or that actually was a specific problem with my unit, but at least they fixed that.

Since the repair people have tested my unit and think that the sound is normal for a W2V I'm forced to conclude that the bad sound is a known issue on the W2V and ASUS has no (at least public) plans to fix it.

Any tips for a good USB soundcard?

/Torbjörn

 

It's an issue for all w2's.
I find it amazing Asus waste your time like that, on something they ought to know affects all the mashines.
The guy from Proportable , that writes alot in here, promised at some point that it was looked into by Asus.
I'm looking forward to see if it will be fixed, or if it maybe was said coz he had alot of w2's for sale at that point.
I think Asus have had alot of time to fix this by now, and since the w2's came out there have been 4 or 5 new audio drivers by Realtek, but no fix for the issue.
And since the w2 came out there have been no bios, or any updates at all, on the asus download site for the w2.

That( and the lousy keyboard) makes me wonder if my next notebook should be an Asus.

 

Well, the Swedish support guy sounded genuine when he said there where no known issues. So apparantly they don't tell their support staff about it.

The W2 is quite new on the Swedish market so maybe this was his first case.
The guy on the global support tough should have no such excuse though. He even claimed to have tested the european W2 himself and the sound was fine.

Has anyone actually got any confirmation from ASUS that they are aware that the problem? Or are they stonewalling the issue?

I have read several reviews claiming the sound is very good on the W2 so I'm wondering if there are multiple versions of the model floating around. Maybe something in the european model is screwing up the sound. I have no clue what that could be though, I thought the only difference was the TV-tuner...

/Torbjörn

 

I'd be very interested to hear of any developments on this too. My sound is pretty terrible. I've also noticed a lot of interfearence too. Just this strange background noise. Playing with the volume levels seems to help a bit but it really shouldn't be like this on a laptop of this quality (or cost at least?!?!).

Maybe we should organise an online petition for Asus and see if we can get some sort of response on the issue. I'm thinking of taking my W2 in for a few problems and I'll see what they say about the sound at the same time.

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

I am very surprised there is so few reactions here on this issue. Either everybody that owns a W2 is content with the sound quality on this 2500 Euro "Multimedia Experience" notebook or people have just given up (like me) hoping for a fix.

Indeed, since september 16 no driver updates have been made available at all.