Volume extremely low, found no fix via google

EDIT: I just found out that this is most likely because my driver thinks the speakers are plugged in and lowers the sound. I tried on another computer, once in the speaker jack (it was low), then in the headphone jack (it was high). Would it work if I made the speaker jack a headphone jack by remapping the outputs in the registry?

Hi there! I recently upgraded my motherboard to an ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX and did a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

After installing all the drivers, I noticed that my sound was playing extremely low in my headphones (I don't have speakers). I did not have that problem with my old motherboard. When I open the volume control, the meter is at maximum but the green line only jolts up a little bit.

I should also mention that I plug my headphones in the rear green jack. There are 3 audio jacks on my back panel (blue line-in, green line-out, red mic-in). There are no audio jacks on my front panels (the jacks are there, but are not and will not be plugged in my motherboard). On my last motherboard I just plugged my headphones in the rear green jack and everything worked fine.

My headphones are recognized by Realtek and Windows as speakers, perhaps because they are plugged in the rear jack instead of the front jack. Not sure if this is related to my problem. I'm pretty sure the same thing applied on my last motherboard.

What I already tried:

- Reinstalling driver directly from my motherboard's site, then from Realtek directly.
- Adjusting meters in Windows and Realtek HD Audio Manager/checking device in device manager/obvious things
- Reading a lot of threads about similar problems via google and trying out every suggestion I found. None of these threads with the same problem as mine were confirmed to be solved by the OP.

I read something interesting: maybe my green jack is damaged. I tried remapping my blue line-in jack to a line-out jack in the registry using this thread and I know I have the correct pin (unplugged and plugged headphones then hit refresh) and binary value. Yet after a restart my Realtek Manager does not show the jack as being remapped.

I don't know what to do anymore... This seems to be a great mystery of the internet, as I've been reading on google for literally hours and I found no fix, and there are many people with the same audio device and the same problem.

The rear speaker jack (Green) or the front panel heardphone jacks are basically the same thing. There is no danger in connecting the front panel headphone (and mic) jacks to the motherboard. If your case has an HD Audio connector use that, otherwise the older AC97 will work (but there won't be some auto sensing as there is with the HD Audio Connector).

The "Speakers" (the RealTek sound) is the proper default audio playback device. However, you should be using the AS Rock supplied RealTek drivers as non-vendor drivers many times will not work or work correctly. I just built a new system using an ASRock Z77 Professional motherboard. After installing Windows 7, I installed all the drivers on the ASRock supplied CD.

Check the Recording section of the Sound Panel, the "System Mixer" should be set as the default audio playback device. If it is not set, do that and then see if that makes any difference in sound level.

Also, in the Playback section of the Sound Panel, click the "configure" button and set the speaker type for "Stereo" and test the "speakers" (your headset) there to see how the sound is.

Perhaps this thread can clarify some?

Extremely low volume in headphones/speakers

see also Equalization Loudness in the forum Search Tab