LOW VOLUME WITH CONEXANT & B&O

[kh_samala]

I have purchased a brand new HP Spectre 13-V101TU, core i5, 7th Gen, 8 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD with Bang and Olufsen Audio and Conexant Speakers. I am not  contented with the sound that it produces. It is way too low even after adjusting the volumes on my laptop. Is there any way to make it louder? Thank you.

[DavidSMP]

Hi @kh_samala,

Good Day.  Thank you for taking an interest in the HP community. I understand that you have issues B&O audio. I will be really glad to assist you here.

Great description and splendid diagnosis of the issue before posting. Kudos to you for that.

For better clarity, I would require more information regarding this to assist you?

• Did this happen recently after a Windows 10 or software update?
• Did you tweak the B&O audio playback and check if the issue gets resolved?

For starters please try these steps:

• Right-Click on start button> click device manager> expand sound video and game controllers>then select the sound drivers and right-click on it and uninstall the audio drivers. Then check the box delete the software for this device.
• Then restart the computer and update the bios, chipset and audio drivers from this link: http://hp.care/2uduJkq then check if the issue gets resolved.

Otherwise please perform these steps:

Disable enhancements

- Right-Click on the Volume icon on the taskbar, select "Recording“, Double

click on Microphone.

- Open the Enhancements / Effects Tab.

- Check "Disable All Sound / System Effects“. Click Apply, OK, test the Microphone again.

2. Change format of the Microphone

- Right click on the Volume Icon on the taskbar, select "Recording Devices".

- Double click on Microphone.

- Go to the Advanced Tab, choose any of the 16-bit options on the list.

Then check again by restarting the computer. If the issue continues,

Please try these steps:

1. Run Audio Troubleshooter:

  - Launch Troubleshooting by typing and clicking “Troubleshooting” in  

     Windows search.

  - Click on "Playing Audio".

  - Follow the on-screen instructions.

2. Check if the microphone isn't disabled:

  - Right click on the Volume Icon on the taskbar, select "Recording Devices".

  - Click on "Show disconnected devices", and "Show disabled devices".

  - Select on Microphone, click on "Properties". If it is disabled, enable it.

  - Once enabled, set Microphone as default audio input device.

3. Check if the microphone isn't muted:

  - Right-Click on the Volume icon on the taskbar, select "Volume Mixer".

  - On the Microphone slider, slide it up to 100%.

4. Boost sensitivity of Microphone:

  - Right-Click on the Volume icon on the taskbar, select "Recording".

  - Double click on Microphone.

  - Open the Levels Tab, move the Microphone boost slider up to check audio.

Please try this step also if nothing works:

• Right-click the sound icon in the taskbar located at the bottom right of the screen and select Playback Devices from the ensuing context menu.
• Select the current playback device in use and by default, it should be the speakers. Double-click on it to open its properties window.
• Go to the Advanced section and change the bit rate to either of the following - 24bit/44100 Hz or 24bit/192000Hz - depending on the speaker configuration.
   
• Otherwise, try these steps:

• Solution 1:

• Right-click the speaker icon in the Taskbar and select 'Playback Devices'.
• Left click the default device once to highlight it ( it's usually 'speakers & headphones' ) then click the Properties button.
• Click the Enhancements tab and put a tick in the box next to 'Loudness Equalization'.
• Click Apply to save the change and then click OK in all remaining windows and see if this has helped at all.

• Solution 2:

• Right-click the speaker icon in the Taskbar and select 'Playback Devices'.
• Select the Communications tab up the top.
• By default ‘when windows detects communications activity’ is set to ‘Reduce the volume of other sounds by 80%’.
• Change this to ‘Do nothing’.
• Press OK.

Right click the Speaker icon in the bottom right corner by your time.
2. Click Playback Devices.
3. Click Speakers.
4. Click Properties.
5. Click the advanced tab on the Properties window.
6. Change the Default Format drop-down to the highest quality.
7. Apply the properties.
8. Click OK to close the properties window. Restart the Notebook and test the sound.

Is the loudness equalization off? If not, please:

• Right-click the speaker icon
• select 'Playback Devices'. 
• Highlight the default device
• Click Properties
• Click Enhancements tab
• Next to 'Loudness Equalization' take out the check mark in the box.
• Click Apply
• Click OK

Please perform these steps one at a time and check if the issue gets fixed. If it does ignore the other steps. Otherwise, proceed to the next step. Please don't get perturbed by the troubleshooting steps given. They are very simple to perform if performed one at a time.

Please perform all these steps patiently as it is critical to resolving the issue. Going by your technical expertise and competence I am sure you will be able to perform these steps without breaking a sweat.

Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes.

To simply say thanks, please click the "Thumbs Up" button to give me a Kudos to appreciate my efforts to help. If this helps, please mark this as “Accepted Solution” as it will help several others with the same issue to get it resolved without hassles.

Take care and have a blessed week ahead.

Cheers!

[Phaernidslher]

I'm having issues with very loud volume on a similar B&O Spectre that could probably be solved with the Loudness Equalizer like you talked about, except for two problems:

-When I right-click the speaker in the taskbar, it only gives me options to manage bluetooth devices or to exit, not any of the sound device controls.

-In the Sound control panel, I have no "enhancements" tab and thus nowhere to find the built-in equalizers.

The only equalizer I can find is the B&O-branded one, which, while nice and detailed, doesn't have the same control for overall volume. Thus, I end up with static in my headphones and a limited dynamic range (above 20 or so depending on the source, it becomes too loud). I've already updated the drivers and tried to get help from HP support online and over the phone, but they just did the same thing, plus have me hold my power button down for a while and then restart. Of course, nothing helped because what I really need to do is download software to get rid of this built-in hardware problem. Any advice?