Another Realtek Problem

I recently bought a refurbished Sony Vaio SVF1521Q1EB laptop with windows 7 professional. The spec says the Audio Adapter is Intel Panther Point HDMI @ Intel Panther Point PCH - High Definition Audio Controller [C-1]. It also says for Audio Adapter Realtek ALC 233 @ Intel Panther Point PCH - High Definition Audio Controller [C-1]. Presumably that's the same thing? The control panel does not show the HD Audio manager nor the hidden tray icons. The only settings I can change are from the Manage Audio Devices section. The sound is perfect when played through headphones, but very muffled and inaudible through the internal speakers. I've removed the drivers and installed the most up to date ones, 6.0.1.7541 but this makes little or no difference. I have also tried re-installing the original drivers, but again no difference. I also used Revo Uninstaller to remove the previous drivers before installing the latest version. Is there anything else I can try?

Thank you for your replies. There isn't an option to return the laptop so I'm resigning myself to using USB devices.

candec, the built-in laptop speakers in the Sony Vaio SVF1521Q1EB laptop are of inferior quality and the sounds come out relatively soft.
believe me I know. My younger bro has a Sony VAIO laptop (model VPCEB44FX/B - black color, late 2010) that uses Realtek HD audio drivers and the HD Audio Manager control panel never shows up. In fact the Realtek HD Audio Manager app never works on Sony brand computers, regardless of any version (old and/or new) of the Realtek audio drivers installed on there. Although my bro's Sony laptop does come with Dolby Home Theater V3 audio enhancement for Realtek ALC269 audio, enabling it made very little or no difference for the sound.

erpster4 said:

candec, the built-in laptop speakers in the Sony Vaio SVF1521Q1EB laptop are of inferior quality and the sounds come out relatively soft.
believe me I know. My younger bro has a Sony VAIO laptop (model VPCEB44FX/B - black color, late 2010) that uses Realtek HD audio drivers and the HD Audio Manager control panel never shows up. In fact the Realtek HD Audio Manager app never works on Sony brand computers, regardless of any version (old and/or new) of the Realtek audio drivers installed on there. Although my bro's Sony laptop does come with Dolby Home Theater V3 audio enhancement for Realtek ALC269 audio, enabling it made very little or no difference for the sound.

I should have thought more carefully before buying. I can see now why Sony is no longer in this market. It just seemed bizarre that a company of Sony's standing released something as poor as this. I spent ages trying different drivers, but with no joy. I did try Audio enhancers, but they didn't work either. In frustration I bought a cheap Bluetooth speaker and although the device has been identified it won't connect!

hard to say if it is the laptop's bluetooth at fault or the bluetooth speaker huh.
if you've got any electrical repair people locally, you could always take the laptop to them & ask them to install new speakers.

all they gotta do is undo the speakers, check the impedance (resistance) then measure the output voltage coming from the soundcard to ensure the new speakers wont blow from too much voltage.
but
if the soundcard is stupid sensitive, the electricity coming back from the speakers (when the cone isn't neutral, but rather in or out & moves back to neutral) it sends a little bit of electricity back into the amplifier - that is the only problem i see doing it (plus finding some speakers that sound good might be hard too).

but technically, the repair person should be able to learn if the speakers are sending back enough electricity to kill the amplifier all the way to the DAC, or simply the amplifier - and either way they should be able to fix that too.

I've given up on the internal speakers and instead concentrated on the external Bluetooth speaker I bought from PC World. I didn't want to spend too much and I got a Goji GBTB14/GBTW14/GBTN14 round speaker for £9.99. I had a load of bother trying to connect with Bluetooth. The windows 7 professional Sony laptop identified the speaker but it wouldn't connect. After updating and removing drivers I've finally got it to work and the speaker is very impressive for the small outlay. The adapter on the laptop is a Broadcom BCM43142 and the driver is version 6.5.1.6770. The laptop also has a Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator with driver version 6.1.7601.17889 and in the sound video and game controllers, a Bluetooth Hands-Free Audio driver for Broadcom version 6.5.1.6750. The control panel headset type settings for the Goji speaker are My hands free device can display contact and/or call information. The Bluetooth services for the device are all ticked (Audio Sink, Remote Control, Serial Port (SPP).

As regards the internal Realtek Speakers I now have the latest driver version 6.0.1.7797 and the sound is still awful. It seems a spectacular error for the Audio Manager to have been disabled.

that suggests one day you might give up on always remembering to grab the bluetooth speaker.
and if that happens, the suggestion is still on the table.

obviously if the headphone out sounds good, then the amplifier for the soundcard is good & thus the chances of the speakers being bad are much higher.

by chance, did you ever remove the plastic from in front of the speakers to see if there's any dust or crud in there preventing the speakers from sounding good?
might be worth a look some day.

No, I haven't looked inside the laptop. I think the problem is more than dust/crud. I could indeed seek the repair alternative, but the comment by erpster4, which I've read from other Sony owners, makes me think this is a generic problem.