Am I being really dumb? Subwoofer problem (maybe) on XPS 1645

Heya,

If I'm being really dumb, please do (politely!) tell me ...

I got my new XPS 1645 today, with the lovely RGBLED screen in a wonderful shade of wish-I-could-afford-a-MacBookPro white, and I'm generally very happy with it. The only downer is that I don't know if my subwoofer is working?

Not having anything compare it against, I don't know from the everyday sound of music/movies whether it's there or not, but when I go to Sounds in the Control Panel and click the Configure link, the setup for the 5.1 which lets you click a speaker icon to hear a sound generates a sound for every speaker but the sub.

What I've tried so far:

• Update the BIOS (to A10)
• Get the latest IDT drivers, or whatever they're called
• Run the 32-bit test from a flash drive, and the Subwoofer test DID generate sounds that I could hear

What else should I be doing? Have I missed a thread that covers all this (and god knows, I've searched for it)?

Any help or pointers would be most appreciated!

Martin

 

Its a 1in woofer so you wont get any real bass out of it. It really is only there to add some decent mids to your sound and not have it sound too treble heavy like most other notebook speaker systems. Dont expect to hear thumping from such a small woofer.

 

Would you expect to hear any noise at all from the sub-test in the configure panel though? I really can't hear a peep from the thing.

 

No. I don't think it works the same way as a sub does in a 5.1 system.

In a 5.1 system, the subwoofer is it's own speaker. In the SXPS 1645, it's associated with the two regular ones on the sides of the keyboard.

Mess with IDT and turn up Bass Boost if you really want some good low-mids.

~Ibrahim~

 

Oh well yeah you should hear somthing out of the "sub".

 

If you play something with a bit of bass quite loud, then you should notice the notebook vibrate a little! Particularly around the touchpad! But it's not supposed to be noticeable, it's just there to make sounds more balanced... Which I think it does well

 

Ok, I'm a bit confused. People seem to be saying different things.

Can someone - who believes their sub is working fine - please click the sub icon on the speaker setup page (as below), and tell me if they hear any noise at all, because I don't hear anything, even with my ear up to the location of the sub...

 

Just tried that, and the sub doesn't make any noise either. But I'm 100% confident it does work.

Hope this helps!

 

Thank you ... it does! )

 

Hmm, interesting. I just ran the test on my computer and the sub made noise. It sounds like a drum or explosion compared to the the sounds the other speakers produce.

Edit: The Sub only seems to make noise for me if SRS Premium Sound is enabled in IDT Audio and if Movie or Game is selected as the content.

 

Interesting... I'll try that...

Yeah you're right!
Is the subwoofer not enabled without these options then? The sounds when I play music just sound so natural that I assumed it was utilized?

I guess I'll have a play with the IDT software a bit more!

 

Aha! Mine too. Very interesting. Thank you all for your help on this!

 

Uhhhh...no offense but to answer your question..you are being really dumb...

I dunno why you are clicking on the 5.1 setup and trying to test out the speakers when the XPS doesnt have 5.1 surround. This isn't a dedicated true sub like you'd find in a 5.1 system. Click on the center and rear surround speakers and you won't hear them either..Wanna know why? Because you dont have them!

I dunno why no one else caught this..hahaha.

Unless you are plugging in an external 5.1 speaker system, leave the setup on "Stereo" not 5.1..

 

Hey, no need for the attitude. No need to be so arrogant, either. Most of us caught it, too.

And, you know what makes this post even better? I clicked on the "center" and "rear surround" and they work. It's called virtual surround. Can I get a "pwnd"?

I'm on SRS Premium + Movie mode.

+rep codester

Conclusion: Enable SRS Premium now. It makes the sound about 50x better. Enabling Movie or Game mode enables IDT's version of Virtual Surround (different from Windows, I think). When you enable Virtual Surround, it "creates" a dedicated subwoofer speaker so now the 5.1 test in Windows "works". Enabling Music Mode (which gives more options to tweak than Movie/Game) obviously also gives you the nice effects of SRS Premium.

So, if you are playing a game/watching a movie with 5.1 sound, enabling the respective mode in IDT will create virtual surround.

~Ibrahim~

 

THere is no arrogance man. Did you read the thread title? the OP ASKED if he was being dumb and if he was to politely tell him. How is directly responding to something he asked being arrogant? I even said no offense before I said it..I was playing a long with the OP..

People around here really need to relax and stop riding there high horse. Why is everything about being proved wrong and being right all the time? OMG dude, you totally PWNED me by telling me something I already knew. Except you fail to miss the point completely...Let me educate you..He was concerned his subwoofer wasn't working..HIs subwoofer is a real physical piece of hardware. Why turn on Virtual Surround sound, something that is software based and emulated, IE NOT REAL, to test out to see if a subwoofer works? It makes little to no sense. Yea great use it, but not to test if a real speaker is working..You can use it test virtual speakers though..because that's what it does! It makes virtual speakers.


Of course when you turn on virtual sound all the spears make noise, thanks for that captain obvious. Also saying an opinion as fact isnt the way to go. I think turning on SRS Premium makes me speakers sound worse, not even close to 50x better. And it's a good thing you educated him on 5.1 and virtual surround sound because that's really what he wanted to know...Not about making his subwoofer work...

You say it yourself right there..It creates a subwoofer speaker..It doesn't test the one that's already there..So how is he to know his subwoofer works at all unless you're in the Virtual Mode?

Can I get a Pwned? (god that feels so ridiculous to type.)

 

No need to argue, this is the only test needed:

1. Select your favorite heavy metal song (or try this one YouTube - Ozzy w/ Primus-N.I.B. particularly between 25 and 35 seconds into the song)
2. Set volume to ~90% (also works to a lesser extent at low volume)
3. Put the back of your 4 fingers of your left hand on the palm rest.
4. Hit play.
5. If you feel the vibrations (especially during drum/bass heavy parts of the song), the sub is working.

 

Is this good to enable in conjunction with Sound Blaster's default effects? My SRS was off, and turning it on made it sound a bit different when playing music, but honestly I couldn't tell if it was better or not (I'm not a sound expert).

 

Maybe for the laptop speakers it might be better. I have some nice higher end klipsch speakers that I have plugged into the laptop. When I enable SRS it definitely has a little bit more kick and in certain songs it may sound better, but its briefly or usual only certain style songs. When the song changes or sometimes when Im listening to a different genre, the SRS sounds really bad. It defiantly focus's the vocals and makes them pop in the center more. But after listening to various songs with it on and off through my nice speakers, I've noticed it tends to mute certain sounds because its accenting others and sometimes its trying to raise those accents so much the sounds become muffled and less clear. I listen to a lot of instramentals, break beats etc and I feel it sounds worse with it on. Also I feel with SRS off I get a more "full" sound rather than a focus center sound.

I have yet to try the Xfi based on what you and others have said..Which was it was a waste of time?

Either way, its a personal preference. Before I had external speakers I left SRS Prem on..Once I got them, I disabled it.