low volume speakers on a fe21m

[raheller]

Hi there,
I recently bought a vaio fe21m and I'm overall very happy with my laptop, I've just got one little issue...
I find the volume of the built in speaker(s) very low... the sound of most movie and mp3 files are far from loud. I know laptop speakers are never ideal but with some downloaded movies and even the free hitch/spiderman/s.w.at. dvd that came with the laptop the volume is really unacceptably low... I live in the city centre and when I have my windows open, I can't understand a word... does anyone else experience this problem? is it common for sony vaios? I've had an HP before and despite the 'tinny' quality, the volume was never a problem... could there perhaps be a problem with software or drivers? or should I consider returning the laptop?
please let me know, any help would be very much appreciated!
Robbert

btw, I have of course set all the settings to the loudest!;-)

[Xenon101]

I can't really tell if the BIOS change made a difference but I was never particularly disatisfied with the speakers on my FE21H! (perhaps because this laptop upgraded my P1 with no sound )

[galimh]

Thanks for the help guys but the change made no difference.

It's very annoying to have a "media centre" PC but you can't hear the bloody thing.

I started out by buying an XL100 which I spent weeks trying to sort out the component video connection problems (without success). I took it back to the shop and exchanged it for the FE 21H and now, weeks later I am still no nearer to having an enjoyable experience.

i wish I had never gotten involved wiyh SONY products

[raheller]

the VLC player does indeed increase the volume by quite a bit! I can now actually hear what they're saying although it doesn't play some of my video files correctly... I've changed the bios settings from 4/8 to 8/8 but that doesn't do anything really on my fe21m.

my question is now... since a player like vlc can increase the volume by quite a bit and prove that there's nothing wrong with the actual speakers, surely something (software wise) can be done to increase the volume permanently in any application.
I'm no expert at all, so does anyone know any other volume boosting settings, software or drivers? or any other solutions?
help would be very, very much appreciated!!

[galimh]

I too would love to find a "fix"

[Igloocharlie]

you need a pre-amp, or sound card driver upgrade which should have pre-amp and equalisers.
cya

[galimh]

Thank you Charlie,

I'm not very techie, so could you be more specific?

Tom

[kathrynm]

I know it doesn't solve your problem but I've a FE21H and I tried the bios change and it worked...speakers are much louder now! thanks guys for the tip:smileygrin:

[raheller]

you need a pre-amp, or sound card driver upgrade which should have pre-amp and equalisers.
cya

Same here, I'm not too technical... 😞 I've had a look around but I can't see what type of soundcard I have (or doesn't this matter for the driver upgrade you're talking about?)
Do you have any idea where we can download these drivers? if I do some searching on google, I'm not getting any wiser:smileyconfused:
thanks a lot for your help!!
Robbert

[dansimm]

BIOS volume change hasnt done anything for me. except for making the BIOS startup sound louder.

I was looking for the drivers a while ago, but could find any. I dont think i actually found the make of the speakers either!

Anyone know the speaker brand and model?

[dansimm]

Think i have a solution....

Right I've set the audio setting in the BIOS to 8/8.

Then on the start menu in the "Sonic stage mastering studio" theres a program called "Audio Filter". When that loads up press the power button......i noticed my preset was set to 'Flat'...i changed this to 'No Effect' and i noticed a little difference in the sound umph. You can then close that program.

Using VLC to play my audio files, i changed the equaliser to "Full Bass".

Cranked the volume up to full using the buttons on the laptop.

It's now sounding pretty good! Ive had to turn the volume down on the VLC volume bar as it was too loud for the speakers to handle.

If anyone wants to try what I did, let me know if you've noticed any difference......