Windows Vista sound problem

[wilkinsi]

The system sounds are loud enough, but any media played is stupidly low. I've checked the speaker icon, the mixer and control panel. The meter is hitting full 100, so I have no idea what I've missed. Tried googling it, but the links only point to where I've already looked.

[wilkinsi]

WTF. Its started working normally now. Seems you have to change things twice to get Vista to perform simple tasks.

[xenophobe]

If you use Skype a lot, it will fuck with volume outputs....

As for Vista, I haven't had any problems. I have more problems with my W7 machine.

[Newc]

My XP Pro desktop has this issue where I have click the volume slider in the mixer every time I open a file or play back a track in Audition before the sound will be at the correct volume. It starts at half or less, but even though I don't actually move the slider, it jumps to full.

[wilkinsi]

This is both stupid and wierd. Both both media player (be it VLC player or WMP, Youtube, whatever) and system volume sliders are on full. Its the actual audio that's ridiculously low. I tried running a restore point and it failed. I also tried installing a Realtek AC97 audio driver which the machine kept asking for authorisation every few seconds before I eventually declined it. Since then, it has removed Utorrent and put my media volume back to normal, suggesting the restore point was in fact partially successful. Vista also seems to dislike saving favourites on my web browser. It doesn't like editing/moving/deleting them either. From what I've read of others' comments, an upgrade to WIN7 would be a waste of money.

[Hellbat]

In the mixer you want to make sure the "wave" slider is turned up as well as the master.

There are a lot of bad apps out there that mess with the volumes and don't put things back where they started after they are closed.

As far as upgrading to Win 7, I prefer it to Vista a lot, overall it's more stable and faster. BUT.... I have built my own PC using standard components. If you are on a dell or HP or Lenovo sometimes the drivers are not going to be updated for their proprietary stuff. You should alway run the system compatibility checker before upgrading so you have an idea if anything will be broken off the hop.

[xenophobe]

From what I've read of others' comments, an upgrade to WIN7 would be a waste of money.

Fully patched Vista is almost identical to W7. Other than a few minor UI tweaks, a different and less intrusive UAC (which is what most people had issues with, I turn it off on both Vista and W7) and a slightly more optimized kernel, most of the codebase is identical. The only people who should really like W7 over fully patched Vista are people who work corporate IT jobs as most of the real improvements to W7 was to simplify enterprise scale usage.

Oh, there is a slight performance increase in W7. The performance difference is only noticeable if you're running benchmarks.

[wilkinsi]

I've found a way round this. Control Panel > Sound > Balance. The Left and Right keep reverting to 2 out of 100. Turn the fuckers up, save, full volume again. Just gets annoying when I have to keep doing this.

[Hellbat]

It has to be one of your apps messing with the setting and not changing it back after it exits.

[tomanyjacksons]

I have a Vista at home, and it sucks.

[xenophobe]

I have a Vista at home, and it sucks.

I have a Charvette and it sucks. All Charvels must suck too.