I sent my laptop to Amazon for repair and it came back with much lower speaker volume, any idea why?

[qwak]

I'm not even sure they opened it because I sent it because the SSD is too hot and they returned it saying the temperature is OK in normal range (70ºC) and they reinstalled Windows, but I did another fresh installation myself and since then the speaker volume is quite lower than before.

Any idea what can be wrong?

 

[biffzinker]

Something plugging up the speaker opening in the enclosure? (Exterior panels)

 

[qwak]

Something plugging up the speaker opening in the enclosure? (Exterior panels)

You mean to open it and look or to check outside? Nothing wrong outside

 

[biffzinker]

check outside?

Just a visual inspection of the outside. Figured something might of worked it’s way into the opening.

 

[qwak]

Just a visual inspection of the outside. Figured something might of worked it’s way into the opening.

Have you ever heard of some software issue causing this? I never saw it before and the laptop is just some months old.

 

[biffzinker]

Have you ever heard of some software issue causing this?

Did you reinstall the drivers after the clean install? I’ve caught Windows 10 Update installing a audio driver for Realtek audio codec that was outdated, caused trouble or other odd issues. Getting the audio driver from Realtek’s website resolved what was going on for me.

The only other reason for the low audio could be tied to hotkeys for audio volume or the laptop OEM may of tweaked the audio driver.

 

[tabascosauz]

What brand is this laptop? Most of them use some sort of standard Realtek audio controller, but some laptop manufacturers choose to use a custom proprietary version of the Realtek driver. Dell likes to embed Waves Audio into the Realtek driver, and on some laptops they automatically boost volume levels. If your clean install didn't automatically fetch proprietary drivers from Windows Update / you didn't bother to install them, then your audio may sound different to what it is from the factory.

On Dell laptops, there is a well documented workaround for utilizing the Microsoft HD Audio driver (which stops the WU auto-download of the custom Realtek driver).

 

[qwak]

Did you reinstall the drivers after the clean install? I’ve caught Windows 10 Update installing a audio driver for Realtek audio codec that was outdated, caused trouble or other odd issues. Getting the audio driver from Realtek’s website resolved what was going on for me.

The only other reason for the low audio could be tied to hotkeys for audio volume or the laptop OEM may of tweaked the audio driver.

What brand is this laptop? Most of them use some sort of standard Realtek audio controller, but some laptop manufacturers choose to use a custom proprietary version of the Realtek driver. Dell likes to embed Waves Audio into the Realtek driver, and on some laptops they automatically boost volume levels. If your clean install didn't automatically fetch proprietary drivers from Windows Update / you didn't bother to install them, then your audio may sound different to what it is from the factory.

On Dell laptops, there is a well documented workaround for utilizing the Microsoft HD Audio driver (which stops the WU auto-download of the custom Realtek driver).

Thanks for the replies.

It's an HP 15-da0203ns and it has Realtek drivers and also a HP audio controller (screenshot). I didn't touch anything after clean install.

What could I try then?

 

[tabascosauz]

Thanks for the replies.

It's an HP 15-da0203ns and it has Realtek drivers and also a HP audio controller (screenshot). I didn't touch anything after clean install.

What could I try then?

View attachment 165452

Interesting. I didn't find a download link to the HP Audio Control panel. Is there some sort of option in there for an audio boost feature?

Here's the HP software page for your laptop: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-15-da0000-laptop-pc/20395828/model/28308029

Only things I can see on that page as pertaining to audio would be the Realtek drivers and a "HP Audio Switch" application, which as far as I can tell just detects different audio inputs. Might be worth a try.

Which one are you using right now? Or is it just the Realtek driver that Windows Update automatically fetched for you?

If you want to try the Microsoft HD Audio driver trick: https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-15-9560-Doing-away-with-Waves-MaxxAudio-Fixed/td-p/6013794
But be warned, it is only tested on Dell XPS 13 and 15, because those have the pesky built-in Waves Audio. I followed the guide on my XPS 9370.

 

[xman2007]

Interesting. I didn't find a download link to the HP Audio Control panel. Is there some sort of option in there for an audio boost feature?

Here's the HP software page for your laptop: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-15-da0000-laptop-pc/20395828/model/28308029

Only things I can see on that page as pertaining to audio would be the Realtek drivers and a "HP Audio Switch" application, which as far as I can tell just detects different audio inputs. Might be worth a try.

View attachment 165489

Which one are you using right now? Or is it just the Realtek driver that Windows Update automatically fetched for you?

If you want to try the Microsoft HD Audio driver trick: https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-15-9560-Doing-away-with-Waves-MaxxAudio-Fixed/td-p/6013794
But be warned, it is only tested on Dell XPS 13 and 15, because those have the pesky built-in Waves Audio. I followed the guide on my XPS 9370.

It appears to be built into the Realtek HP driver, at least from this HP support thread:

HP Audio Control and other audio options

Hi. My new laptop comes with an application called "HP Audio Control". This application/interface allows you to control equalization and enhancement settings as well as some other settings for the Realtek High Definition Audio Driver. The HP Audio control interface appears to be built...

h30434.www3.hp.com

 

[qwak]

Interesting. I didn't find a download link to the HP Audio Control panel. Is there some sort of option in there for an audio boost feature?

Here's the HP software page for your laptop: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-15-da0000-laptop-pc/20395828/model/28308029

Only things I can see on that page as pertaining to audio would be the Realtek drivers and a "HP Audio Switch" application, which as far as I can tell just detects different audio inputs. Might be worth a try.

View attachment 165489

Which one are you using right now? Or is it just the Realtek driver that Windows Update automatically fetched for you?

If you want to try the Microsoft HD Audio driver trick: https://www.dell.com/community/XPS/XPS-15-9560-Doing-away-with-Waves-MaxxAudio-Fixed/td-p/6013794
But be warned, it is only tested on Dell XPS 13 and 15, because those have the pesky built-in Waves Audio. I followed the guide on my XPS 9370.

I don't know. My knowledge is very basic. I haven't installed any driver or the HP Audio Control program. They are there on their own.

What I've done is to disable the start and see what happens as in this screenshot.

 

[silentbogo]

It could just be Windows. Had similar issue several times on my desktop, while transitioning between versions or simply updating the OS. Same hardware, same driver, just different windows version, but the volume in my headphones could change significantly. They did several major updates for audio subsystem over the past 2 years. It's not critical but noticeable. Used to drive me crazy w/ my headphones : normally I'd set the volume to 20-25%, and all of a sudden I could barely hear shit at 40%; then the next update came and nearly exploded my eardrums...

 

[tabascosauz]

I don't know. My knowledge is very basic. I haven't installed any driver or the HP Audio Control program. They are there on their own.

What I've done is to disable the start and see what happens as in this screenshot.

The Audio Manager is just an application/program. You should probably enable HD Audio Background Process, though, only reason to disable that one is if it slows down your system significantly.

If that doesn't make a difference, try installing the Jul 3, 2020 driver from the website.

 

[qwak]

Hi, just to tell that by disabling the two Realtek Audio programs that I showed three messages above, the volume is back to normal, very loud again.

Thank you very much everyone.