Quiet sound on dv6000

Ok... so recently I've noticed that there is something going on with the sound on my DV6000. Basically... everything is too quiet! I have to turn everything up to 100% volume to get sound to be "audible". I've noticed when I connect external speakers up to the headphone jack, the speakers are extremely quiet. Even when they are turned to full, my computer volume is at full, and the player (usually winamp) is at full. I know it's not the speakers (hooked them up to my PS2 and worked fine). I know it's not winamp (I tried using VLC and WMP11 as well). I've narrowed it down to my computer... I used to be able to hook external speakers up to my computer and it would work great. Nice and loud. I actually only had to turn the speakers up 40-50%.

This is recent... the past few weeks I've noticed. Any ideas? Does this mean I need to install new sound drivers or something?! I currently have the "conexant high def." driver. The only other option is the "Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) Bus Driver for High Definition Audio". I don't know what the latter one is... I'm a little skeptical of installing it. I just need some volume! If anyone has a suggestion please let me know. Thank you!

 

What have you changed since the time when your speakers were working to the current time?

 

I noticed the same on my Hp dv2000 today too. i don't have SP1 installed yet.

 

Harddrive upgrade... but I noticed it before I did the upgrade. I had to do a fresh install of windows... maybe the driver is outdated?

Also, I'm running windows XP SP2 (Not Vista).

 

If you did a fresh install recently, then make sure you've got the latest audio drivers for your sound hardware. You can check either HP website to pick up the latest manufacturer certified ones or you can check for the drivers themselves.

 

I went to the device manager, and clicked on the Conexant sound driver, and clicked "update driver". It updated to the latest version. It helped... but not completely. It's still quiet. Basically, I have to crank everything to max still... the only difference is that now it's actually audible. Before, everything maxed out produced a very quiet output. I can listen at a "normal" volume...

Does anyone know anything about the "Microsoft Universal Audio Architecture (UAA) Bus Driver for High Definition Audio"? I'm hesitant to try it... I don't really understand what it's for... Maybe someone has tried it.

 

Windows drivers should update or enable themselves as needed. Did you try looking through the manufacturer website? Usually their drivers are best.

 

Hmmm.....funny, but my dv6000 started doing the same thing, and i too was running XP SP2. Tried new drivers and different audio settings, but nothing. I then installed Vista on it, and the problem was gone.

 

Sounds like an evil Microsoft plot to me.....