T42 arrived

[JimL]

The T42 (2878-fzu) I bought on eBay for $529 arrived, not DOA as per guarantee.

But the sound is very quiet, altho all locatable volume controls in XP Pro are set to 100%. I had to use amplified speakers to watch a movie 2 feet away. After using the 770E I looked for a physical volume control that had gotten bumped - apparently there is no such animal. Is the T42 normally loud enough to ... Shouldn't it be just as loud as the 770E? On that I was listening to Christmas music from the other room.

[pianowizard]

I looked for a physical volume control that had gotten bumped - apparently there is no such animal.

Of course there is. Look at this page, where "14" indicates the volume control buttons. On my T43, setting XP's volume control at around 20% enables me to hear DVDs, CDs, Youtube etc clearly.

[Melvyn]

I can speak for my T42 (2373-M1U) and I must agree a bit with the first post. Theese speaker aren't good for anything. I can hear them some feet away when the environment is totally silence. At an office, a bus, a train, a park, a mall or whatever I can't use it to hear anything 2 feet away. The machine is the best I've own. The speaker are the worse.

By the way, I own an old ThinPad 600 (PII@233mhz) which have much, much better speakers than T42. Those speakers can be used at any environment and they're very good, better than other multimedia computers I've own (Sony Vaio, HP, Dell).

Cheers,

Melvyn

[pianowizard]

By the way, I own an old ThinPad 600 (PII@233mhz) which have much, much better speakers than T42.

I have used two 600E's and one 600 and my T43's speakers are as loud as theirs. I'm surprised that the T42's speakers are so much weaker than the T43's.

[GomJabbar]

I have a T42, and I do not find the speakers to be so weak as referred to above. I do agree they are not exactly High Fidelity. LOL

I use my T42 as an alarm clock by playing an MP3 file in Winamp. This is in a noisy environment - believe me. My T42 is about 5 feet from my head, and it wakes me up just fine.

There are numerous volume controls that come into play. Depending upon the source material, there may be as many as three or possibly four that can change the volume. CD's can be played back digitally or via analog. The volume level of the source material is certainly a factor as well. I am not positive, but I believe the software application being used to play back a sound file could influence the ultimate maximum volume as well.

As pianowizard pointed out. There are three physical volume control buttons just above the F4 and F5 keys. The left button is for reducing the volume, the middle button for raising the volume, and the right button mutes the volume. You should have an on-screen display pop up for a couple of seconds anytime one of these three buttons is pressed.

If the speaker output continues to be low after checking all the volume controls and trying different types of sound files, then you could have a problem with the headphone jack. Try plugging and unplugging a headphone plug several times into the headphone jack. Does the speaker volume ever increase? If so, then you are having poor contact between the connectors of the jack. These connectors close when the headphone plug is removed to enable the onboard speakers.

[JimL]

I looked for a physical volume control that had gotten bumped - apparently there is no such animal.

Of course there is. Look at this page, where "14" indicates the volume control buttons. On my T43, setting XP's volume control at around 20% enables me to hear DVDs, CDs, Youtube etc clearly.

I was thinkiing in different terms. The max I get out of the push buttons is still less than half the volume of the 770E.

[JimL]

If the speaker output continues to be low after checking all the volume controls and trying different types of sound files, then you could have a problem with the headphone jack.

I'm not talking about accessory speakers. I'm talking about the T42 speakers. My whole point is that I MUST use accessory speakers to get volume similar to the 770 and that's with all volume buttons up and display volume controls set to max. (At first I thought it was because the CD volume came set to about 30% (on the mixer), but it's no louder when set to 100%.) Either I have an atypical system or it's the old "minimal engineering" rule to just get by.

[pianowizard]

I was thinkiing in different terms. The max I get out of the push buttons is still less than half the volume of the 770E.

Besides the push buttons, have you also turned up WinXP's controls for both Master Volume and Wave?

[JimL]

I was thinkiing in different terms. The max I get out of the push buttons is still less than half the volume of the 770E.

Besides the push buttons, have you also turned up WinXP's controls for both Master Volume and Wave?

Master Volume, Wave, SW Synth and CD Player. None are muted but Line in.

[ipatent]

I had the same issue on my now defunct T43p. I had all the hard and soft volume controls maxed but could still not adequately hear movies, internet video, etc. With headphones it was fine.

[GomJabbar]

If the speaker output continues to be low after checking all the volume controls and trying different types of sound files, then you could have a problem with the headphone jack.

I'm not talking about accessory speakers. I'm talking about the T42 speakers. My whole point is that I MUST use accessory speakers to get volume similar to the 770 and that's with all volume buttons up and display volume controls set to max. (At first I thought it was because the CD volume came set to about 30% (on the mixer), but it's no louder when set to 100%.) Either I have an atypical system or it's the old "minimal engineering" rule to just get by.

Yes, I understood you were talking about the internal speakers. My point is that the internal speakers are turned off by plugging in a set of headphones. If, when the headphones are unplugged, the contact in the headphone jack does not make a good connection, the internal speakers will not come on or they will not operate at full volume. As far as how loud the 770 is relative to the T42; I have not listened to a 770 to make a comparison.

[PanEuropean]

...I use my T42 as an alarm clock by playing an MP3 file in Winamp... and it wakes me up just fine.

DKB:

That sounds like a really neat trick - if I knew how to get the computer to do that, then I would not need to pack a small travel alarm clock when I am on the road.

Can you give me brief instructions explaining how to get the computer to function as an alarm clock?

Thanks very much...