T400 w10 internal speakers barely audible

[Ignorant]

My T400 is p8400 8gb/250gb,1400x900
The sound to the earphone is acceptable when plugged in.When external ear phone is NOT plugged thhe output from the internal peaker is shameful.
what could be the reason. I am using w10.

[rkawakami]

Windows has had several ways it can interfere with the speaker volume. You may have to go to a couple of places to get what you need.

Try to find your audio mixer; not sure where it's at in W10. W7 has a speaker icon in the system tray. If you right-click it it bring up a sub-menu where you can select "Open Volume Mixer" and "Volume control options". Selecting either one will open the same configuration screen, where in it, you can adjust the speaker volume of Device (or main volume) and other sources. Your hardware speaker volume on the keyboard should drive the Device level, in addition to all of the other sources (in an ideal situation). One of other sources listed in this menu could be the browser you are using. Make sure the volume is slid all the way up if you are trying to play audio from your browser.

If you are using a separate application to play audio, make sure it has its own volume control all the way up.

Is your volume problem related to EVERYTHING you are trying to hear? Or is it only a problem with certain applications / programs / sources?

[Ignorant]

tried all that...In fact I had to put maximum in the task bar sound mixer even to get whatever sound i cound hear through the internal speakers.
The earphone speakers via the front jac work as wanted.
In the process I observed that the green hole takes voice input also from my earphone+mic single plugin . so the next red hole is virtually of no value
unless i have 2 separate connections --1 for my ear and another for my vocal chords...?.

[rkawakami]

I do not see where an external microphone would be connected to the laptop through the (green) headphone jack when you use a combination headphone/microphone setup. The internal microphone should still be active in that case.

The T410 does have a single (uncolored) headset jack where it does support a 4-connection plug; ground, audio L, audio R and microphone. But as far as I can see, the T400 should not.

As far as your reduced audio problem is concerned, there may be a problem with one or more of the integrated circuits on the motherboard. About the only thing that I can suggest is to open up the system and look around the parts labelled U8 (CX20561 should be stamped on it) and U22 (AN12946A). Those are the HD Audio chip and Stereo Amplifier chip.

[Ignorant]

I have this cheap mobile earphone which can be used as a mic also.if i plug it in the T400 grren slot it works as both speaker and mic.I was surprised to find that.the jac is a single cylindrical screw with 3 black bars ..
I installed the sound drivers from W7 lenoo site and I get ...better sound (FULL VOLUME )
..but not good enough...
I was about to replace the internal speakers but the cheap ear phones meant for a mobile made me drop that idea.
The drivers are for conexant 20561. smart Audio HD..
apparently the mobile earphone has some rectangular bump with a hole in it alog the wire which serves the purpose of a input mic.
And the wire into the slot carries both signals ..voice in and sound out.! The number of rings on the metal jack indicates
if it is single signal or both. Surprising IBM had not noticed such a contraption when they gave the thinkpad line to Lenovo.

[rkawakami]

I have this cheap mobile earphone which can be used as a mic also.if i plug it in the T400 grren slot it works as both speaker and mic.

This is what surprises me. The green jack on a T400 should mean it is only for headphones and does not support an external microphone. The external microphone is what the red jack on the laptop is for. I do not have a T400 myself; I am just going by what the documentation says: https://support.lenovo.com/si/en/solutions/pd025730 (Item #6 in the bottom view of the T400)

By the way, just so we are clear on what we are talking about, the hole in the laptop where you insert the headset or external microphone is normally called a "jack". The end of the headset/headphone that you insert into the jack is called a "plug".

I was surprised to find that.the jac is a single cylindrical screw with 3 black bars ..

If you mean that the plug on your headset has 3 black insulator rings and looks like this:



then that is called a TRRS (Tip/Ring/Ring/Sleeve) plug and it is designed to support both stereo audio and a single channel (mono) microphone. From what I can tell the T400 should not be using your headset's microphone when you plug into the green jack. Are you SURE that the laptop's internal microphone is not being used? Have you tried recording some audio with your headset plugged into the T400 and then lightly tap on the internal microphone (it's located near the bottom of the screen bezel just left of center; item #11 in this front view of the T400: https://support.lenovo.com/si/en/solutions/pd025727)? If the T400 is truly using the headset's microphone then you should not hear any of the tapping when playing back the recording.

[Ignorant]

yes, dear
the r phone wire plug looks as in the picture. It is a ZXL ear phone for mobiles...5 years old...i opened the packing only recently to get some usage out of it...
I see the internal mic just to the left of the display cable....


I started using the ear phones only because the internal speakers were not noisy enough for me to hear the other side speaking AND was about to invest in a mic when my friend informed me that he could hear me....!
I will explore and post it here... I am setting up a contraption for video chatting...My T400 does NOT Have a camera ...(p8400,1400X 900,tubelight display,further only 10 years old).
I am using the mobile (Android) as a camera for the laptop...
PS: your thinkpads list does NOT have T40,T400..and they are the only 2 thinkpads I have ever used in the previous decade...

[Ignorant]

yes,
thank you very much for parting with the knowledge.
Here(mumbai) I get LOT OF good quality ear phones at less that 0.5 $ each.I will play with them as the internal mic is enough for my purpose.
Later I will go for wireless bluetooth ear contraptions.
The internal stereo speakers puzzle , also,got resolved ..the right speaker is non functional and so the output was NOT good enough.