T400 speakers sound

I think the T400 speaker sound is very low. I know it can be boosted in media players like vlc. etc but if you do voice chat or skype calls or youtube videos then its not adequate.
My Nokia N82 phone plays songs louder than my t400 at full volume.
Is it because its 14" notebook or is it because Lenovo didn't make the speakers loud enough? Even for a business notebook speakers should be loud enough as its basics ( display, sound and keyboard must be good in my opinion). I know this is very powerful notebook but I am not very impressed with the display and sound. Keyboard seems fine to me.

anyways, I am using ffdshow to boost mine. you can get it from free-codecs.com

 

really? im super impressed with the sound

 

interesting, while using skype I couldn't hear other party unless I would lean forward and pay attention.

 

driver issue?

 

yea im pretty impressed with the T500 speakers as well.

 

Sounds like a Skype configuration or other audio configuration problem. I find the T400 speakers to be more than loud enough.

 

thanks for the replies guys. I tried everything but sound seems very low to me as compared to hp dv2700t

 

dude they use altec lansing speakers! ofcourse there is a difference.

 

You're comparing a home/multimedia notebook to a business notebook

 

hey, parijat. i noticed that my t400 had pretty loud sound..

until i reinstalled windows. i wonder what the difference is?
to the people that have NOT done a clean install, how is your sound?

i am surprised also that there is no option for an eq or anything with this conexant audio. or maybe i just didn't install it. at least i could turn up the eq on my IFL-90 to boost the volume. does anyone have a solution for low volume on a T400 after a clean install???

 

Yep, I did a clean install of windows xp and the sound seems very low.

 

yeah. weird. hopefully we can figure this one out... it won't even get loud in my earphones.

 

Maybe there's a newer or different driver other than whats on Lenovo's website.

 

well, in term of t61 with vista preload. the speaker is very very low. not loud, but low.

thats why the audio ports are ready in front of it.

if then, get a speaker with subwoofer.

 

dude. we are not asking whether we should buy speakers/subwoofers to fix this. lol.

 

My personal T400 hasn't come in yet, but the few T400s that I have used had low to medium sound. It never got loud but it was still audible from a good distance. The headphone having low volume is a mystery to me as well. My best bet would be that it needs a driver update 000111.

 

000111
glad to know its not just me having probs. I have two T400s and one of them is louder. I hope the new driver update will fix the issue.

 

Are there any differences between the two laptops (software/hardware). And if so which one is louder. Thnx

 

No differences, same hardware. I also tried swapping hard drives but one of them was always louder.

 

Please check the bios to see if they are the same version. Thanks

 

Just checked, both T400s have current Bios. thanks for the reply.

 

If the bios are the same and you switched hard drives I guess there is no fix to the problem. There must be varying components or tolerances which effect the volume output. Thanks

 

No way. This doesn't seem likely to be the cause. I mean, the process of manufacturing as well as assesembling can never be bad enough to lead to this type of problems.

 

My speakers sounds good and loud (for laptop speakers). Much better than HP, IMHO. I am in Vista.

 

i have a guess... i looked in the registry and found the following key;

hkcu\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\applets\volumecontrol

there are two keys at this location;

conexant HD audio input
conexant HD audio output

there is a volume contol key under hd audio output...

under conexant HD audio output, i have;
default (value not set)
x (0)
y (o)

in the volume control key i have;
default (value not set)
line states (reg_binary)

i wonder if these keys show up as the same WITHOUT a clean install. hmm... anyone without a clean install running XP want to chime in here?

 

There are several people with different screens. It could be that they install different speakers. Parijat has two identical laptops and swapped the hard drives. That eliminates the software. The bios are the same. I have no other guess than the hardware is different in some way. But this doesn't explain 000111 issues.

 

yeah, i the factory install was much louder than a clean install of XP. like 2-3 times louder (on this same laptop). lenovo must have figured that out. now i have to.

hehe... anyone want to post their registry values (see post above)?

i was hopeful they might differ from machine to machine- specifially from XP clean install and XP factory install, but this is just a shot from the hip.

********************************************************
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edit: i compared the factory install image with my clean install. the sound was no different between the two. yikes. so i guess i'm just totally full of it! at least in my case there is no magic to the factory install that makes it louder. ugh. i would still like to find a way to boost the volume. is there a conexant driver that includes an eq? i could just turn up all the frequencies... this worked well on the old ifl-90 (in sig).

 

000111 I am also unable to find conexant drivers with Eq.
I am using AC3filter to boost my sound, its not great but better than the default sound. you can download it from free-codecs.com/download/ac3_filter.htm

 

Ok - I received my "2" T400. Exact same configs. The sound is so low its not even funny. If i try to view Youtube videos you literally have to take your ears to the laptop.

And no I won't buy external speakers to solve the problem. This laptop has two speakers meant to output sound not to carry around external speakers. I am not a multimedia person but there is something wrong here.

I assume its more of a driver issue than hardware issue - but need this taken care off.

 

i agree, the conexant drivers leave something to be desired!

 

I can confirm that this is not a hardware error. I just got a new t400 from work, and the unit had Vista pre loaded on the laptop. I did a clean install with Windows XP, everything seems to working as it should, but the sound is much much lower than it was on Vista.

So it's the same identical laptop running a different OS, the drivers for XP have not been developed for a long time. Does anyone know if there is going to be a fix? Or is there a set or drivers which would work in XP and improve the volume?

 

I find that the speakers are great!

 

FWIW the sound on my T400 is quite loud with the factory Vista install. Even in Ubuntu Linux it's pretty loud. I've been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the speakers, too.

 

I had XP pre-installed on my system and the volume was really low... not to mention that the max volume on my system was 25. I did a clean install of vista ultimate and noticed that my sound was a lot louder and the max volume was now 50. Has anyone experienced this? I installed the latest drivers (8/6/09) but its still quite. any input on how to get louder sound would be appreciated.

 

On my system with dual boot WinXP and Win7 I get the same 25/50 max volume limit. I think the max volume is the same, just that Vista/Win7 have more increments. When I turn on my laptop again I'll run some tests.

 

Yep, I believe that is correct. Without actually hearing your speakers, I can't say whether you have a problem or not; my T500's speakers do not get that loud, so maybe you're just at the upper limit of the speakers.