T61 sound volume low

The sound volume on my T61 is very low, even when everything is turned up to full 100% (in the various sound controls. The sample music on the system is at an okay level (far below my wife's HP, however), but the sound from a DVD is hard to hear even sitting right by the machine.

If I use the keyboard sound controls the maximum there shows an onscreen display of "50". Is that 50%? If so, how do I make it go to 100%?

 

"50" is 100%. The scale goes from 0 to 50. You can see that with the green bar that goes across, right? If you click on the speaker icon on the task bar near the system clock you will see the same thing only with the 0 to 50 scale and a 0 - 100% scale.

It should be plenty loud at about "25" to "30" in a very quiet room. If you are in a noisy environment such as a car with alot of road noise it can be difficult to hear even at 50.

 

At 25 or 30 it's almost inaudible. 50 may be enough, depending on source, if I'm sitting right in front of the computer in a quiet room.

I have never heard a computer sound system with such low maximum volume.

 

I find myself using headphones 90% of the time if i'm in an area that has ANY ambient noise louder than a computer fan.

 

I have the exact the same problem. So far I dont like my T61. anyway to solve it?

 

From all of the TP models that i have used thus far, the sound has never been truly described as loud. Either go down the headphone route or get a set of good travel speakers.

 

I can see what you guys mean now. I don't listen to much audio on my T61. Most of the audio I have listened to has been watching TV through slingbox slingplayer. It is actually plenty loud on about 20. However I noticed that listening to stuff with Windows Media Center I have to crank it all the way to 50 and it is not very loud at all and would not be loud enough in a room with any ambient noise.

There must be a software way to correct this. If one of my applications plays loud at 20 then the hardware/speakers are capable of playing louder than what Windows Media Center is allowing.

 

Anybody come up with a solution for this?

Here's what I think -- in previous versions of Windows, the Thinkpad volume controls operated independently from the OS volume controls. But now it seems the Thinkpad volume buttons control the OS volume.

If that's the case, then it might be that the "hardware" volume is stuck at a medium level.

For example, when I suspend my Thinkpad, it always beeps at the same volume, regardless of what I have it set to in Vista -- whereas, as I recall in previous OS'es, the Thinkpad volume buttons would control that beep.

Does this make sense to anybody?

 

The Thinkpad speaker is not that loud and is more of an afterthought. As a matter of fact the speaker on the 61 series actually faces down. If you want better audio go with an external speaker set or headphones.

 

Thanks, but I think you may not have understood -- with previous thinkpads, the keyboard's up/down volume buttons would control the hardware volume, whereas the OS volume slider would control the OS volume.

So, for example, you could have the hardware volume low, but the OS volume high. (or vice-versa, or both high, both low -- point is, they were controlled separately)

But now it seems that the keyboard volume buttons control the OS volume -- and if that's the case, then what controls the hardware volume?

Meaning -- it may be possible to have the hardware volume stuck at a low level, limiting the total volume.

See what I mean?

 

is there anyway we can open it up and swap in some speakers :]

 

"There must be a software way to correct this. "

Have you ever looked at the speakers in a t61? They are tiny, about .5 inchs in diameter. This is not something that can be solved on software. They mechanically well integrated into the fram and if I recall there's room around them. But how much would someone want? The left speaker is very close to the fan and processor.

 

fwiw, this isn't about the speakers -- it's about the strength of the audio signal that gets sent to the speakers.

Historically, both the hardware and OS have contributed to the total strength of the audio signal. And historically I've been able to adjust both hardware and OS volume controls independently.

But if the hardware volume is now "stuck" at a lower setting, then the total strength of audio signal will necessarily remain limited.

Question:

1) If you're running XP and you change your laptop's hardware volume (in my case, Thinkpad volume control buttons), does that also change your XP volume slider?

2) If you're running Vista and you change your laptop's volume, does that also change your Vista volume slider?

(for me, it's #1 no, #2 yes)

Also -- if you mute your Vista audio and suspend, does it still make a beep?

(Just curious if others have the same results...)

 

Thats a good thing with Vista becuase many a laptop was sent in to depot because a customer would not check the volume on the thinpad control and would think it was a defective audio chip or speaker, so under Vista yes.

 

under XP, YES

 

i know for my Treo...there is the same problem...however, there is this software called Butler..that lets you "overclock" your speakers..just pushes it beyond the max limit

There must be a software for this for computers as well..does anyone know of any?

 

I have external powered speakers hooked up to my T61p and with those, it is plenty loud.

Also, in vista, if you click on the "mixer" under the OS volume control, it lets you adjust and balance the volume for various applications separately but I doubt that would solve the problem being discussed here, but it might be helpful for some.

 

for those of you recommeding external speakers...that is defeating the purpose of a notebook and this thread...i am sure we all know that we can solve the problem by attaching external speakers...but we are talking about the built in speakers only..

the only remedy I can think of is a software that will artificially amplify the sound and push the speakers beyond their limit

 

Well, you know the T series has always been, first and foremost, a "business" machine and, unfortunately, as such, the engineers who design them seem to have never placed much emphasis on entertainment oriented features like the built in speakers. Imo, they have always been crap on the T series. That said, however, the built in ones on my current T61p seem to be somewhat better than the ones on my T42p which were so awful, I couldn't stand to listen to them for anything but system sounds.

With my old T42p, I really couldn't imagine using the built in speakers for watching a DVD movie or listening to music. My wife's HP (which is expressly promoted as being an "entertainment" notebook, has much better (Altec Lansing) built in speakers.

But entertainment, unfortunately, just does not seem to have ever been a design priority with the T series. They are great in many other respects which is why I have been using them for many years, but the built in speakers are not one of their strengths. Since I never expected the built in speakers on my new T61p to be any different, I haven't even tried listening to any music through them yet, but since they do seem to be somewhat better than the speakers on my previous T series machines, perhaps I should give them a try.

 

I agree with one of the posters in that external speakers defeats the purpose of using a notebook.

Having said that I wouldn't mind giving one of these a try:
http://www.everythingusb.com/asus_xonar_u1_usb_sound_card_13710.html.
They're small enough to be portable and unobtrusive and should sound better than the standard notebook speakers. The bad thing is it uses up one usb slot.

btw I find the max volume on the T61p to be plenty loud enough.

 

thank you

and extra battery juice!

 

The easiest way to boost the volume of DVD's is to use a direct show audio filter or something that will let you amplify the sound before it goes to the sound card. The problem you are having is that the sound cards internal amplification isn't enough, not that your speakers are too tiny. This is evident because other applications that some of you have reported have been plenty loud. DVD's have very very wide dynamic ranges and so the quiet parts are most likely too quiet for the sound card to amplify. Part of it may be what the sound card drivers limit you to. There are ways around it.... like I said, if you can get a direct show filter installed that'll decode DVD audio that should work. I rip my DVD's to mp4 h.264 to watch on my laptop and using ffdshow and ac3filter I can crank the volume of DVD's so high that I can listen to them on my T61p even in a noisy room. I don't have time now to give you any more of a write up on the process but look for ffdshow and ac3filter and play around with them and see if they'll help you out. You will have to be using a direct show media player for them to work (windows media player is one).

 

I just wanted to chime in because I have this same issue too. I'm able to correct it in Media Player Classic by telling it to "Normalize" audio and adding a little bit of gain, but I really need/want to find a similar way to artificially increase volume on a global level. A lot of times, I'll be wishing I could kick the volume up a couple of notches when watching a YouTube video or something else flash-based, and just can't hear anything.

We need some kind of third-party software for Vista that artificially boosts system volume's max capacity on a global level.

 

Can anyone listen to some music on this thing and let me know how it goes? Thanks

 

I listen to music all the time while im studying in my room.....I think the speakers are not that bad as some complain..maybe others have damaged tympanic membranes?

I would love it if they could make it go just 25% louder....after having it on max...you always wish that you could just kick it up a few more notches..

It is not made to be listened to unless you are in front of your computer. For example, if you are brushing your teeth in the next room or so, you won't hear anything. The best bet is to hook it up to external speakers at that point

 

The speakers on the T61 are really good. Nice and medium-loud. The only thing about them is they seem to put a little bit too much treble-sound into the songs. I listen to them all the time.

 

50? My volume only goes up to 25. Is 50 the max? Does anyone have this problem?

 

Hmm...my on screen display only goes up to 25 also. I just reread the thread and noticed a discussion about 50.

What's up with this?

 

business machines are business machines, they just can't be true multimedia machines by any chance. regarding the speakers in the T series, softwares are system settings have nothing to do with the speakers. the speakers themselves are small in size so their coils are very tiny in order to be able to produce rich, full sound as a lot of people expect. total wattage is 2!

 

Ok, I know the T61 is a business machine, but can someone tell me what's the maximum display you get for you volume? Mine says 25. People on this thread are reporting 50.

 

you guys might try QsoundLabs multimedia enhancement softwares in order achieve better audio.

www.qsound.com

 

mine goes to 50 units

 

on-screen volume display is 25 max. i've never heard of the 50 case, could it be a volume setting managed by windows?

 

Is 50 only for Vista? It would seem so...

 

Seems like max volume is 50 for Vista and 25 for XP.

 

Yep..i have vista and it shows 50 units. it is not the vista volume indicater, it is the one installed from the hotkey driver and system interface driver from lenovo for a t61

 

Ahh I see, that darn system interface driver. XP users don't have that. Thanks eyecon.

 

no problem
i don't see why it's an xp/vista issue since they are not the ones controlling the volume. It is a lenovo driver for the buttons, which in turn, controls the vista/xp volumes

 

any way to increase audio in XP

 

I'm not sure, but I read somewhere that someone claimed that the latest XP drive produced higher volume (not more volume bars). I'm using it and personally, I don't hear a difference.

 

I was having the same problem. I found that I went to Sound in Control Panel, then go to Speakers and click Properties I could solve the problem. Under the Advanced tab, turn off Exclusive Mode and now my Audio can go up to twice the volume.

This is using Vista Business 64-bit, but I presume it would be the same for 32-bit.

And no thanks to the IT department nerds who give a completely unrelated answer to satisfy their own desire for self-superiority. I know external speakers are useful and that a Thinkpad was designed for business use, but that only begs the question. Perhaps someday this forum will be more helpful in fixing problems instead of accepting them.

 

I noticed the same problem concerning changing audio values, whereas one day "25" was much much too loud for listening to music, the next I had to push it up to "25" to barely hear anything. I'm using headphones; I've never actually listened to the speakers in my system, except to quickly push the mute button whenever they chime up. I'm also on XP.

This is my fix to set it back to the too loud default. I use a freeware program called Quintessential player(QCD) to listen to .mp3s. I think the audio slider in that program directly corresponds to the "wave" control in the audio controls; the same may not be true for whatever media program you use.

1. Set Green Bar Value to "1" using keyboard buttons.
2. Open up reference .mp3 file using QCD.
3. Set QCD Volume bar to Max(Or whatever lesser value you prefer, I'm at 50% right now).
4. Close QCD.

So the "1" value should be at its max under this method. This may be the same as setting your wave volume to max, I've just never done it in that less obtuse way.

There are still some additional quirks; the volume bar in a media player I use does nothing, some movies are barely loud enough at 25, nowhere near potential, but I chalk that up to the files themselves. I'll try messing around with ffdshow audio controls next time that is the case as one user suggested.

So yea, the "sound", not native speaker performance, on T61s has some issues and those issues haven't been explicitly defined.

 

Anyone get some resolution to this native low volume issue with the T61?

I recently got the sister T60 w/ XP, and was also disappointed at the low sound output even with all sound options maxed.

I was trying to find an app that could, lets say, artificially boost the WAV audio channel? Does this sound reasonable? Basically, a pre-amp. Does anyone know of such a program? ... or maybe it's actually a driver hack?