Thinkpads Forum

Bought this on Ebay, private sale, and fitted a 250gb hd and 2gb ram and Vista pro. Quite impressed but the sound is low so I installed Sound Max audio but no better. To be honest I can live with it, and
I have a small plug in speaker that works well enough. But reading a review the sound was said to be pretty good. So, am I missing something? Knowing me, probably. Perhaps it's old age, me and t60, but it would be nice if the sound was louder. Any suggestions gratefully received, preferably simple and cheap

Some "sound" advice here: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T61-and-pri ... /m-p/88831

Thanks very much for your he;p. I looked at the link, sounded scary.... I uninstalled Sound Max and the volume did increase. Not a lot but at least I didn't need my external speakers. I assume that Vista came with its own sound drivers? Until I'm more familiar with the laptop I think I'll stick with what I've got. I spent several hours yesterday setting it up to my satisfaction, so I'll just use it for the moment as it is. I'll no doubt be back with even more problems, thanks again.

There can be up to THREE volume controls you have to deal with:

- the hardware buttons on the Thinkpad keyboard; make sure you press the volume up button until the on screen indicator displays maximum (assuming you have the OSD package installed, otherwise press the volume up button about 15 times)
- Windows volume controls; double-click on the speaker icon in the System Tray. The far left slider is the master volume control. Make sure it's all the way up and the mute checkbox cleared. If you don't see the speaker icon in the tray, then go to Control Panel/Sounds and Audio Devices and there should be a checkbox to put the icon in the tray/taskbar.
- Depending upon the sound source, there's other sliders that control .wav, CD/DVD player and the synthesizer volumes. Slide all of them midway and again make sure that the mute option is deselected.
- Some programs have their own volume slider but it should control one of the previous sliders I've mentioned.

Oh Dear! I'm almost too ashamed to admit this - I faffed around on screen and had set all volume controls to maximum, what I didn't do until I read your post Ray, was use the hardware buttons! I totally forgot them, what a pillock. I increased the volume with the button, and my wife told me to turn the noise down, so that was a result. Thanks very much, and I apologise for not trying harder. I must download the user manual. So, is it worth re-installing the Sound Max drivers? What benefits does this give me? Thanks to all who replied.

I would install whatever sound driver that was the default from the factory; that should be the one that RBS pointed you to earlier. That should give you the best chance of having the proper control and performance.

Greetings!

I know this might seem an ancient topic but it's likely relevant today to those individuals and groups leaping on the incredible values of older Thinkpads on eBay and Amazon, but I startlingly noticed that the infamous low volume problem some Thinkpads have disappears when you boot up Linux, at least Mint. Whether from YouTube or VLC mp4s or streaming from browsers, my z61t and R60e in Mint blasts room-filling sound beyond what their Windows partitions pump out, so the issue seems to lie in how Windows handles sound output.

Jim in NYC

Gotta love the hardware audio control. Post-*60 generation, no longer can you control the Power Control Beep. Loud beeps everywhere, and only the mute button has any control over the internal speakers, headphones not included.