T400: Low speaker volume

[dk]

Hello.

My T400 has very low speaker volume. In comparison, my T40 and T41's have ample volume but the T400, even at max volume, is hardly audible at times.

I've heard of others complaining about quiet audio and am looking for any suggestions. Has Lenovo limited the gain on the Conexant CX20561? I can't see how such a modern laptop can have such poor audio volume.

Derrick

[Tony Chan]

You might want to have your T400 check out by Lenovo.

My T400 is noticably louder than my T60. It is definitely louder than my T40p. And dare I say, it has best sound quality amount the 3.

[Afty]

What OS are you using? I find that in Windows Vista, my T400 is quite loud, but in Ubuntu Linux it is too quiet. I assume it's a software problem with Ubuntu.

[dk]

What OS are you using? I find that in Windows Vista, my T400 is quite loud, but in Ubuntu Linux it is too quiet. I assume it's a software problem with Ubuntu.

I am using Debian Linux. After reading Tony and your comments I'm starting to lean towards there may be an issue with the snd_hda_intel driver in the Linux kernel. Hmmm.

I'll install Vista 64 and see how loud it is there. Thanks!

[KlaymenDK]

My T400 has very low speaker volume. In comparison, my T40 and T41's have ample volume but the T400, even at max volume, is hardly audible at times.

My T400 is noticably louder than my T60. It is definitely louder than my T40p.

I have the opposite problem; maybe same as Tony, possibly worse.

The volume setting on my previous TP, a T41, had about 7 steps and I usually had it set to 3. The T400 I was recently issued has about 25 steps and, for most things, step 1 is way too loud! Especially for power beeps it's literally startlingly loud. The odd thing is that the maximum setting is hardly any louder at all; it's as if the volume setting "goes to 11" but it starts at 9, so to speak.

It's not just the built-in speakers, either, it's the same on the headphone jack. When listening to music, I frequently have to fiddle with pixel-size adjustments in the advanced sound control panel (wave & master out) to get the sound to its lowest possible setting. I could drive a nail through the speakers, but it wouldn't solve the headphone problem.

If there's some way to fix this (perhaps a firmware update?), I would be glad to hear of it.

For what it's worth, I'm on Windows XP.

[Tony Chan]

Well I don't consider my T400's speaker as a problem

I am running Vista 64 and at max volume it's quite loud. But when I volume down to couple steps it is actually very quiet, as it should.

I would say it's a driver related issue instead of hardware.

[disposable]

What OS are you using? I find that in Windows Vista, my T400 is quite loud, but in Ubuntu Linux it is too quiet. I assume it's a software problem with Ubuntu.

I am using Debian Linux. After reading Tony and your comments I'm starting to lean towards there may be an issue with the snd_hda_intel driver in the Linux kernel. Hmmm.

I'll install Vista 64 and see how loud it is there. Thanks!

I had the same problem with mine. As soon as i upgraded the kernel to 2.6.27, the sound was even louder than in windows. So yes, a newer alsa is needed.

[arekm]

Mine T400 has very low speaker volume (even on max settings) under Linux (various kernels from 2.6.18 to 2.6.34rc7) and also under Windows 7. Basically max setting is somewhat usable.

I think that the problem is in T400 hardware and not in software.

I wonder if there is potentiometer or something on t400 board that would allow to adjust volume? Or some other hardware way to increase volume on internal speakers?

[arekm]

Found a way to get improvement by doing hardware modification. It changes internal amplifier gain from +13dB to +19dB:

http://readme.maven.pl/2013/02/18/think ... rs-volume/