Windows 7: Extremely low volume in headphones/speakers

Good day,

I'm using a fairly new HP Mini netbook and ever since I got it I have this problem of low volume in plugged in headphones and speakers. The netbook speakers themselves are pretty fantastic, but if I plug in headphones or speakers, it seems that the computer lowers the volume substantially to the point that I can't even use speakers for listening to music or watching movies (on full blast, you might be able to make out speech on a film for example, but not from very far away; that's how low the volume is).

I've gone through everything I can think of, checked all the various levels in the volume mixer and audio hardware options, made sure everything is to the max, re-installed my IDT High Definition Audio CODEC driver, all with no results. I also have tried out the speakers both with the Loudness Equalization feature enabled and disabled with no noticeable effects. I've also tested the computer with different sets of headphones/speakers and so it must be some properties of the computer that are the issue here.

I appreciate your help.

Sincerely Wulfrich

Welcome Wulfrich to SF,
When you insert the headphones and or external speakers the main speakers are supposed to mute.

Yes, of course, I'm not speaking about the permanent netbook speakers, I'm talking about headphones/speakers which I plug in. Those headphones/speakers have extremely low volume, such that I can't even really use my speakers-subwoofer set-up, because nothing is loud enough to be intelligible.

Thanks for clarifying that. I imaging you've been completely though the sound cards setting and checked all levels to see if any are low? I'll likely have to bow out as I have zero knowledge of Netbooks only Laptops and I don't think they will be all that similar.

Are your speakers set to DVD quality? See this Low sound volume

i am curious to see the sound settings window on your netbook. Goto Control Panel > Sound and post the screenshot. make sure you do this after connecting the external speakers.

Hi Jacee, yes, they were set to DVD quality when I started to tackle this problem and I've tried them out on several different Hz (both with 16 and 24 bit) to little or no effect.

I've seen this be an issue when the laptop is on battery power and not plugged in... does anyting change when plugging or unplugging your laptop?

When you click Properties, what do your levels look like?

Everything is fully maxed out, I'm sure of that. Also, my comment didn't seem to go through before. I've put it on and off battery power without any change. Thanks though.

From what I can tell in comparison with other laptops, for example on this Dell I have if I listen to it on speakers, I might have the volume at 75% for example, but when I switch to headphones, I have to turn it down to about 5% to 10%. On this computer, I can have the headphones up to 100% without deafening my ears. So, I believe it is programmed to lower for headphones so as to not require me to manually lower the volume so much, but of course with externally plugged in speakers I don't want that volume decrease. So, if that line of thinking is correct, this is an intentional feature, but I can't find anything in any of the settings that fully fits that description or makes such a difference (again Loudness Equalization has essentially no effect, possibly a slight volume difference). I'm stumped.