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Strange audio problem when running both Chrome and Firefox

W530/W540/W541/W550 Series
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wrybread
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Strange audio problem when running both Chrome and Firefox

#1 Post by wrybread » Sat Oct 16, 2021 4:36 pm

I've been having an odd sound problem, and I don't know if it's a Windows issue, a browser issue or a driver issue. On my W530 running Windows 10 if I run both Firefox and Chrome the volume will suddenly go really low on some windows (a Youtube window for example) and occasionally get staticky, then suddenly play full volume, then revert to low volume, etc.

The problem goes away if I close either Chrome or Firefox. Sometimes it goes away if I close even a single tab in one of the browsers.

Windows 10 reports my driver as "Realtek High Definition Driver" v6.0.1.7572 dated 7/29/2015.

In Windows Control Panel > Sound > Configure > Properties > Advanced it doesn't seem to make a difference whether I have checked either "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" or "Give exclusive mode applications proprity".

Running latest versions of Chrome and Firefox.

I don't imagine anyone has any tips to try?

RealBlackStuff
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Re: Strange audio problem when running both Chrome and Firefox

#2 Post by RealBlackStuff » Sun Oct 17, 2021 1:29 am

Never running both browsers at the same time should solve the problem.
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wrybread
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Re: Strange audio problem when running both Chrome and Firefox

#3 Post by wrybread » Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:35 pm

> Never running both browsers at the same time should solve the problem.

I need to run both browsers (more actually) for development work sometimes.

But I found the problem! In case anyone else stumbles on this old thread and this odd problem, the issue is with the Dolby utility. When I run Firefox and Chrome together Dolby intermittently stops working, resulting in low audio levels. It's easy to see, just open the Dolby utility and note whether or not it's showing the audio on it's graphic eq. And without a boost the speakers on the T/W530 are really low volume.

I solved the problem by switching to an open source utility called Equalizer APO:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/equalizerapo/

It works great (so far), is free, and doesn't have this problem. After installing, open it and boost the gain. It remembers your setting through reboots.

I'm wondering if Dolby does anything substantial other than boost the volume? Thoughts on whether I'm losing much by losing Dolby?

axur-delmeria
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Re: Strange audio problem when running both Chrome and Firefox

#4 Post by axur-delmeria » Wed Feb 23, 2022 9:32 pm

wrybread wrote:
Wed Feb 23, 2022 5:35 pm
I'm wondering if Dolby does anything substantial other than boost the volume? Thoughts on whether I'm losing much by losing Dolby?
AFAIK, the Dolby software does some audio processing (aside from the volume boost) in order to make the sound output much better, since these Thinkpad models have rather anemic speakers.

IMO if you can't tell the difference, then you didn't lose much. :)
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wrybread
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Re: Strange audio problem when running both Chrome and Firefox

#5 Post by wrybread » Wed Feb 23, 2022 11:10 pm

> in order to make the sound output much better

That's my understanding too, but I sure can't tell the difference. I have a T530 as a sort of music server in our living room (it plays college and community radio stations) and it's running Linux Mint so can't use Dolby, it just uses a generic volume boost, and it sounds the same as my W530 running Win10 with Dolby. But that is relatively lofi since it's playing streaming radio stations, most of which are down around 128k with the occasional 192k mp3.

I guess some testing with headphones is in my future.

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