Sound Issue

[sb55mv]

Hi All,

I hope this is the right place for this question.

I have a Titan 17" wide screen laptop, and as much as I think it's extremely impressive for the money, I am having an issue with sound.

playing back sound files, music Cd's or DVDs etc are fine, it's when I come to speak to my friends on either MSN, Ventrilo, or Skype. they all complain that I am hardly audible.

I went back to the store where I bought my current headset from and got another one in case it was that, but they still said the same thing.

so I tried the plantronics audio 90 headset from my main PC, but the result was the same.

I then tried recording my own sound file using XP's sound recorder facility, and I now see what they were all talking about, it is so quiet that it is hardly audible.

I did the same thing on my main PC and there was a world of difference, it was almost deafening compared to this laptop.

I am using XP Pro, with SP2, all drivers are up to date, in fact, I called the Novatech support yesterday (Monday) and spoke to a guy there who was helpful, and suggested that I download the latest sound driver for this Realtek item,

but this has made no difference at all.

I am fully open to suggestions, and welcome anyones thoughts on this.

I do enjoy the mobility of the laptop, and my Netgear Wireless Router, a DG834PN, but if I have to go upstairs and fire up the main PC each time I want to speak to someone, then I might as well not have the laptop.

Thanks in advance.

Steve,

[Danno]

the only thing that i can think to check is if the microphone volume is turned up and the mic boost is enabled.


How to Increase the volume of you microphone

If people cannot hear you very well, follow the steps to improve this:


Steps

1. If you have a windows based system then you can go to the control panel and select "sound and audio devices"
http://www.energy.kth.se/courses/Distant_program/DSEE/Volume1.gif
2. Then click on the voice tab and later on "volume" under the section "voice recording" next to the microphone symbol.
http://www.energy.kth.se/courses/Distant_program/DSEE/Volume2.gif
3. In the next window that opens click on options, advanced controls (if it is already selected do not click on it)
http://www.energy.kth.se/courses/Distant_program/DSEE/Volume3.gif
4. Under microphone click on "Advanced" and select "1 mic boost"
http://www.energy.kth.se/courses/Distant_program/DSEE/Volume1.gif

Taken from http://www.energy.kth.se/index.asp?pnr= ... 290&lang=1 (http://www.energy.kth.se/index.asp?pnr=17&ID=1290&lang=1)

If this does not help we have a few gamers on the forum that use headsets so i am sure they will have a few other things to check.

[sb55mv]

Hi Dan,

nope, I already checked all of that, but it's still the same,

a couple of my friends did comment that they had a lot of feed-back, or noise when I used the push to talk key in ventrilo.

I don't know if this means there is something wrong with the audio jacks on the laptop.

Steve,

[AndYbrown]

Hi sb/dan,

I have the same problem except with the line out (and, I suppose with the mic in but it's still just about audible). After chatting with Dan I tried to access the sound power in BIOS but manufact's seem to have given a really restrictive BIOS setup and I can only change Boot sequence / a few IDE settings. Any idea how to get a BIOS with more than these settings?

I guess a mean time solution is buy an amp, I guess sb. I don't think you'll saturate the input any time sooner than a normal systems - it seems to be a lack of power coming out, if yours is like mine.

System speakers work fine as do powered (amplified) speakers from the line out, which has led me to the conclusion not enough power is reaching the set o' 3.

EDIT: A quick check of uniwill web site and there are no (as in 0) driver for my model 259KI1. I'm gonna try the updated sound drivers for the 259KI8/259KI8 64 bit as they should be similar, but I can't really flash the BIOS with these to fix the problem!

EDIT EDIT: While not entirely fixed, that driver change definitely moved my sound from barely audible to audible. If you have a uniwill like mine, dowload the drivers for your (or I guess, similar) laptop and see if that helps.

[purbeckpc]

I also have a problem with the audio on this laptop. It plays audio fine from files on my computer, and plays video files well in this manner also. Howver, when I try to play a cd or dvd, I get serios stuttering and digitized sounds, almost as though the audio is in slow motion! It's awful. Novatech advised me that it was unlikely to be a problem with the drive, but with the drivers / codecs. I plan to rip a cd using the drive to see if this is playable from hard drive to eliminate this. I'll let you know what happens.

[Coops]

I also have a problem with the audio on this laptop. It plays audio fine from files on my computer, and plays video files well in this manner also. Howver, when I try to play a cd or dvd, I get serios stuttering and digitized sounds, almost as though the audio is in slow motion! It's awful. Novatech advised me that it was unlikely to be a problem with the drive, but with the drivers / codecs. I plan to rip a cd using the drive to see if this is playable from*hard drive ('http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/products/a502x1y0z1p0s0n0m0') to eliminate this. I'll let you know what happens.

Is you Optical Drive listed in Windows Under the Device Manager as running in UDMA or Multi World DMA mode or is it listed as just being in PIO mode.

[purbeckpc]

it just shows in device manager under dvd/cd rw drives as a dw-q520a. I cannot see any reference to UDMA etc on any of the tabs when I loook further.

[purbeckpc]

I found the section you referred to, and selected IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. I then deleted the driver and on reboot all worked fine! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

[Coops]

no problem. Glad its sorted for you