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Realtek on-board audio low on one drive, ok on the other, same PC

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This is NOT the typical low audio out problem with Realtek chipsets which can be mostly fixed with tweaking level, balance & eq. settings. I researched that.

This is on a single PC (tower) with two bootable drives, both running Win 7 from the same original image. The only difference (if you can call it that) is one drive is a SSD, the other a HDD. The 2nd bootable drive is used as a backup. This probalm is a good example why I have this.

The MB is Gigabyte and it's the on board audio chipset that is being used. No other audio. This is using software for playing back mp4 files (LA Player, Pot Player & VLC Player). Doesn't matter which software, nor does it matter which mp4 file, one one drive the audio is fine. The other, the level is down anywhere from 10 to 20 db! I'm using the line level audio out into a int. amp into a pair of bookshelf speakers. Nothing fancy.

I have updated the driver, but there as no change. It can only be some hidden O/S issue somewhere, but I have no idea what or where. Since everything is the same, the only differences are the system files, possibly including the registry, but that is a long shot. I have been trying different player softwares and I wonder if one of them made some 'hidden' change to the O/S somewhere that it affects the system globally past the user controls.

Any idea here??
 
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can you delete the device from the device manager including all files and then force the reinstall as windows re-detects the device?
 
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I tried that. Deleted and installed the most recent driver thru DM.

My only guess other than some other 'quirk' is one of these other software players did something globally while I was going thru their settings. I mentioned the registry because I read one post regarding completely loosing the audio (no outout at all), but that isn't the case here.
 

eidairaman1

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Make sure the audio icon is turned up on the taskbar.
 
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Try Sound > Communications
When Windows detects communications activity: Choose "Do nothing".
 

eidairaman1

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Try Sound > Communications
When Windows detects communications activity: Choose "Do nothing".

Yup some programs will try to take priority over audio output.
 
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i mean if the two installations are the same... then you could in theory take a registry backup of the good one and upload it to the bad one...
 
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Audio icon has been on, but why would that make a difference??

I changed the communication setting to 'do nothing', but I didn't notice a difference. Most time when I use the player, the browser is not running, but I do have a Bandwidth Monitor running all the time (BitMeter) come to think of it. That would make sense, I will take a closer listen.

Problem is the drives are not the same now. They were originally, but the Main drive has far more S/W in it than the Backup that I only use for troubleshooting (like now).
I did think about C&P the System32 folder, but nixed that for the same reason.
 
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