Vaio Z volume with headset

Hi, the volume on my vaio z has recently gotten even worse. I know the speakers aren't very loud but I don't even get much volume on my headset. I've gone into control panel and set all the volumes to max, but it doesn't help.

Any ideas??

btw, it is a VPC-Z11QGX/S

thanks,
Eric

 

Has this been gradual or sudden? If the latter, the easiest thing to do is to restore the OS to the most recent previous state when the volume was ok. Note what programs you've recently installed that might be culprits.
If this was sudden, and recent, this should fix it.

Regardless of the cause, here's something I recommend to anyone with a laptop:

SRS Labs :: Audio Essentials Download, 1 PC License $19.99

Here's a review:

SRS Audio Essentials Enhances Sound to Awesome (but Addictive) Standards | PCWorld

The free version lacks too many features. Spring for the $20 pay version. It's essentially a software driven sound card, and it works really well. It improves the sound coming out of the anemic laptop speakers - any laptop speakers - but it really improves the sound coming through the headphones and even more through external speakers you have connected via the line out (headphone) jack or USB. The difference is not subtle, but rather remarkable.

Short of that, Creative Labs makes a number of USB and ExpressCard hardware sound cards. Unlike Audio Essentials software, these won't help the sound coming out of the laptop's internal speakers, but on the Z they're pretty hopeless anyway. You can plug headphones into it or hook up external speakers, though, and it will do a good deal more than the AE software. Plus, for what it does, it's pretty cheap. Not sure off hand if the EC version does much better than the USB version. Here's a link:

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Soundblaster-Audio-System-SB1290/dp/B0044DEDC0/ref=pd_sim_e_3

Unless you have a serious hardware problem, one of these should end your audio problems and then some. Good luck!

 

please check my attached file.