W2V sound volume issue resolved

Hi all - A friend saw my W2V and just had to buy one themselves (W2V owners will get a lot of this I think). Anyhow, said friend had an issue with sound volume (low) as a couple of people have mentioned.

He was right, his W2V had a lower volume than mine.

Solution; we simply rebooted the system, pressing F9 - which prompts factory reinstall from hard drive, which we opted for (option 4).

Then we simply right clicked speaker icon in system tray bottom left and selected "open volume control" and then selected options from menu bar, then properties and then clicked on all the options available for whihc you can show volume controls (subwoofer, front, rear etc).

For some weird reason they were all by default very low (1 out of 10), and the main volume didn't seem to affect them. So we simply increase the default volume to 6-7 (higher and the machine is just too loud) - and problem solved. The sound is AMAZING - I have never heard a laptop so loud, with such good sound - totally awesome, really, no kidding.

No idea whether reinstall was necessary - but the problem was completely resolved.

Hope this helps

Polo

Asus W2V-U011P
Pentium M 770 2.13 2.13ghz
17.1 WXGA+(Glare)
DDR2 1024MB
100G 5400R
8X DVD Super Multi
802.11b/g + BT

 

**** you beat me too it....... I'll agree with you that indeed was the problem...... also on a side note notice the "DTS" button on the function keys....

 

good stuff! So the problem is solved?

 

The problem is not the volume, but the way the 4-1 system adresses the speakers. Go to Control panel-sound effect manager-speaker configuration.

Now, if you set 4ch or 6ch output and run the test sound, you'll see that the front speakers are not adressed. So the 4-1 system is not working as it should.

 

This doesn't resolve the problem at all. In fact, for me those volumes where already set at the max...

 

I'm in the same situation BarnOwl. Is this another difference between the US and International versions? There's no DTS function on mine either that I can see. It's not on the side or on the Fn keys. Was this only on the ' demo' model?

 

Press FN+F4, I think PROPortable ment DSP.

 

Yeah, I have the DSP function also. Doesn't fix anything though, simply changes between graphic equaliser settings.

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

No you're right it's DSP and yeah it changes the equalizer settings - first time I saw it on our notebooks......

Back to the problem -- no that didn't solve it....... but I do have the other two speakers working now. The thing is, the 4 speakers on the unit are all only ever going to play stereo out of 4 speakers and sub unless you're watching something that'll seperate them... like a dvd...... pop a dvd in.

 

Justin, I don't think that really separates them. Indeed if you put a dvd or audio cd in you wil hear sound coming from all the speakers, including the subwoofer, but that doesn't mean it separates the sound as it should on a 4-1 system.

Check the Realtek audio utility and see what happens if you test the sound.

 

No no - I realize that...... what I'm saying is the sound isn't going to seperated unless you have a source that's producing them. With just mp3's playing you're going to get a stereo sound.

 

Okay, something is weird here - you are right Barnowl - the realtek autotest sound config does not work, when you do the four speaker autotest, but when I do the 3D audio test in the sound config with the bee or loopy sound it goes through all speakers as it should.... (choose the option to manually move them around)

Is this the same for you ?

And I've definitely got sound coming out of all five speakers when playing from itunes, and when I play DVD.

Is there other simple way of testing whether its the realtek 'autotest' software or the driver that is not working?

 

It's not the same for me. When I do the 3D audio test as the sound gets to the front it simply fades out instead of coming out of the front speakers. Then as is moves towards the rear again it fades back in.

I also have all five speakers working when playing music in I-Tunes but only as double stereo speakers which is what you would expect as Justin explained.

I don't think any of the speakers are faulty or anything like that. It's just the driver isn't seperating/addressing them properly. I'll try out a DVD with surround sound though and see how that works.

Phil
W2Vc-U005P