P170EM Sub-woofer not working

My P170EM subwoofer does not seem to be working. Is this a known issue? Or is there some easy way to fix this?

Thanks

 

Download the manual, http://www.eurocom.com/download/m225_ServiceManual.pdf and check if the cable is still connected.

 

use thx trustudio pro and enable "speaker". ur subwoofer should work now.

 

It was already enabled and I can tell no difference in sound when it is on or off.

 

then have you slide to max?

 

Yes, I've slid to max and min and everywhere in the middle.

 

then should be hardware problem

 

Have you checked the cable? It's simple to check.

 

There is a really simple way to check if its working.
1.) Unplug the laptop from everything
2.) power it on, using battery power
3.) play a song trough its speakers
4.) pick up the laptop, bring your ear to the subwoofer opening
5.) listen carefully. If the speaker is working, you should clearly hear it

Thats how I tested mine when I got my lappy.

 

I also had this problem with my NP9130 (p151em).

So you already know about the THX studio software (I didn't until this thread and when I activated it, my subwoofer started working) so I recommend using this clip to test to see if your sub is actually working or not:

<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PC7WEQsiz08?version=3&amp;hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PC7WEQsiz08?version=3&amp;hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width='420' height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Play it and then toggle the "speaker" option in the THX software and there's a clear difference with it on and with it off. I found otherwise, the sub is so weak that it's really hard to hear any differences with regular music.

For reference, with it toggled and working, the sound clearly comes from the bottom of the laptop and is a slow crescendo and decrescendo of "bass." With it toggled off, it basically becomes static that plays through the top speakers mainly.

Hope that helps. If it isn't working, then perhaps you can try the recommendations other people have posted.

 

Same here my Sub also have Zero respons even with Thx Pro enable

 

Ok, I could hear the sub-woofer but I had to turn my volume almost all the way up and it sounded distorted when I did. My current volume is at 20% so at around 80% volume when I finally heard it would be too loud. Is there a way to change the voulme of just the sub? I already have it all the way up in THX StudioPro.

 

I was thinking the same thing when I got my Sager. I was really excited to have a built in sub and then I found out it doesn't really do much. Haha As far as I know, you can't really turn the sub up separately...

 

To say it bluntly - no. You dont have control over the volume of the sub.
However.....With the THX panel, you can set up the subwoofer crossover frequency.
What this does, is it tells the sub which frequency should be most prominent when playing sound. The deep bass is in the range below 50hz and the mid-bass is between 50-150hz.
Since the sub is small and weak, you need to set the frequency high, around 150-200hz in order to have audible bass.
Bass is generally almost in-audible, which means you "feel it" more than listening to it. Boomy bass is clearly audible and this is oftentimes produced from low quality stereos which arent capable of the deep bass that some good speakers can produce.


So to keep it short - set the crossover to 200hz in THX software. That should produce some more "boominess" off your laptop.

 

I had to change the speaker setup to "headphones" to be able to change the crossover frequency, and when i increased it to 200hz I was able to hear a slight increase in sound quality. It does appear that the sub is very low quality however . But thanks for the help

 

The problem is the size of the sub, not necessarily the quality. The frequency response on a speaker with such a small diameter (what is it, 1" or 1.5"?) stops much higher than the typical low frequency sounds produced in movies/games/music. You need at least a 10 inch diameter speaker to reproduce 'real,' quality bass sounds. This "subwoofer" as they call it isn't a whole lot more than a decoration, sadly. I'm sure it helps round out midtones, but there's no way it does more than that.

 

That's the thing that is interesting about the subwoofer in laptops. It's is a weird concept using a 1" speaker and expecting anything remotely resembling bass. However I have seen it work quite well in my GT725 adding midranges or whatever that speaker is actually capable of. I am acutally curious to see if I can find a replacement speaker to give this otherwise fantastic laptop some much needed oomph.

 

I found that the best way to check and set up the subwoofer is to pop the top cover on the 170EM and disconnect the speakers. Then you can see what if anything comes from the sub. And I found that almost nothing does, WHen you run the REaltek HD Audio Manager and switch it to 5.1, and do the speaker tests, you can tell the only time there is any serious volume from the subwoofer is when the "middle speaker" test plays.

SO mostly the drivers are not utilizing the subwoofer too well. Setting crossover up in THX setup helps too.

 

do you guys know whats the best cross over frequency for the head phones?

 

The subwoofer is weak. Weaker and smaller than the subwoofer on my last desktop replacement. You might think it isn't working when in fact it is. Mine works fine, and all I have installed is the stock thx software. Perhaps changing the frequency will help it sound more powerful, but I didn't feel a need to do this. You can tell it is working simply by playing some bassy music and putting your fingers over the sub, you should feel it working. Hopefully it isn't a hardware problem. Most likely you are just underwhelmed by its performance, but this is what to expect from a 1 inch sub.

 

I don't know, mine doesn't seem to have more bass than the top speakers. It's really not sounding like a sub whatsoever. But at least i know it's hooked up

 

In my P170EM, sub-woofer really works without THX installation (I have installed only universal Realtek HD driver). But since it is small, it is audible from about 120-150 Hz.

I tried to install THX (activation was successful) but its control panel application just displayed error message "There is no supported device" so I uninstalled it.

Does THX perform any hardware-assisted processing or it only installs a software APO? In P170EM schematic, I see that the sub-woofer is connected to APA2607QBI and TPA2008D2 amplifiers. Found no datasheet for APA2607QBI but it does not look to be digitally controlled. TPA2008D2 is definitely not digitally controlled.

 

This sub is incredibly crap... Compared to this my old Dell XPS m1710 produces incredible bass.

Luckaly I have a spare sub of an old m170 lying around. I feel a mod coming on...

 

i was about to comment the same, i used to own a dell xps m1710 and the subwoofer was just awesome, really powerful and clear. so after i bought my clevo p170em i thought the subwoofer wasnt working, but it is in fact working, it's just really low quality, but i have sold my xps so no fiddling with the hardware will happen here.
sadly my fix would be a pair of headphones

 

Modding a speaker in could be a quite a lengthy project.

 

i truly believe it has nothing to do with the speaker units. it is the amp.

 

Or potentially a bit of both.