Low sound on laptop

I just bought my wife a Toshiba A200 Saterllite laptop- We got Vista removed and XP Home Edition put on it- The problem I'm having is the sound volume which is extremely low even with the pots (volume controls) turned up all the way. On playing a CD it's just about alright (just!) with it's volume up all the way-
With the built in webcom the video is OK abut it's microphone pickup is vertually useless- The xp audio driver they put on is a "Realtek High Def audio driver- Is there anyway we can improve the volume? I have been into all the volume settings and placed them at the highest.
Also been into "Device Manager" deleted the audio driver and rebooted to let Windows re-install it- it did and came back with the same one and of course it's still very low.
Any suggestions will be appreciated such as another driver to replace ther current one.
Bob

 

In this case, drivers aren't going to help you. The problem is in the speakers and how each individual sound has been mastered (which is why the CD is just about perfect - it was probably mastered at a higher sound level). The only way to get more volume out of the system is to use external speakers of headphones (preferably with an in-line volume control).

 

There is a knob on the front of the notebook for the volume, but I guess you have already played with that.