Windows 7: No bass and subwoofer not working in Windows 7 64 bit

I purchased a new Asus laptop a few weeks ago with Windows 7 Home Premium installed. The laptop has Conexant Cocoa II High Definition SmartAudio speakers. The problem I'm having is in regards to the sound I am getting from both my laptop speakers and my external speakers which plug into the headphone port not having any bass. When I have my external speakers plugged into my old laptop running Windows XP the sound is fine and all speakers and subwoofer work, so I know it is all wired properly. When I unplug from my old laptop and plug it into my new one with Windows 7, there is no bass being played. The subwoofer doesn't work and the bass that usually comes from the speakers is not present, and turning up the subwoofer doesn't do anything. I've tried to use the "Bass Management" enhancement feature in the speaker properties, but it has no effect. The only thing I've been able to find that will lead to the sound having bass, is when I enter the set-up for the "Room Correction" feature in the enhancement tab for the speaker properties. During the set-up, the sound has bass, but as soon as the set-up finishes the sound returns to having no bass. The odd part is when sound is playing out of just the laptop speakers, the "Room Correction" set-up menu causes bass to be played out of them too. So I know my laptop has the potential to play bass, it just seems like something is stopping it. I cannot find any equalizer feature. My laptop didn't have Realtek when I got it, but I've downloaded the latest version and installed it (I think) but it hasn't changed anything. If anyone has any idea how I can get appropriate sound with bass, I would love to hear it. I'm starting to get frustrated trying to get it to work.



I also have to apologies, I'm not the most computer literate, but I do have some understanding of how they work.

If you plug in a headset do you get bass? Also, what are the external speakers you have? 2.1 speakers?
I have an Acer laptop with Realtek and Dolby enhancement.

Oddly enough, I do have some bass when I use my headset, but it's still less then what I get if I enter the "Room Correction" set-up. Sounds much nicer then through my external or internal speakers though. It's an alternative until I can get the rest of issue figured out.

The external speakers I are 2.1s I believe; 2 speakers and 1 sub. Their Altec Lansing speakers.

Realtek sound cards are dicy... I replaced mine w/ a Sound Blaster X-FI 5.1 USB sound card for $60. If you want better sound quality and or plan on picking up a set of 5.1 speakers like the Logitech X-540s then I'd highly suggest getting the X-FI USB. They run for about $60 + Shipping and the X-540s run for about $80 + shipping.

I actually don't think my sound card is a Realtek one, since there was no Realtek driver loaded on when I got my computer. It was just the Conexant one. But thanks for the info, I'll look into that if things don't get themselves sorted out. I'd love to be able to just use the laptop speakers of my external ones with the card I have, of course.

Hi,

I just got a similar problem, I have a Creative 5.1 sound system, now, when I start Windows XP the basses are really hard to hear. The sound is quite bad for the speakers. Now here comes the fun part.

I start to play a BeeMP3 song on Firefox on Windows XP, it sounds without Basses, and as if you were playing the music on any laptop. Now I reboot, start Fedora, Firefox, and BeeMP3 and play the same song and it sounds really clear and my mom pops into my room asking if I could stop the noise.

Now it comes even better, I start WinXP again and connect the sound output of my Mac to the PC's Mic in (set the PC to output the mic on the speakers) and play the song on the mac, it plays in stereo (not 5.1) but the sound quality is, as on Fedora, perfect.

I don't know why it happens, but it's the same sound on WinXP for everything (Firefox, Spotify, WMP or iTunes) but when I play the music on a non windows OS it sounds great. What is my windows doing to my speakers?

I've just found you have to deslect full range speakers in the windows 5.1 speakers (or 2.1) configuration and bass management and redirection works..

I did a clean install of win 7 pro 64bit recently. My sub wasn't working. All I have is a simple 2.1 setup(not a simple nor cheap sub though lol). Speakers worked but the sub just wouldn't. Unistalled/reinstalled audio drivers soooo many times I was ready to do another win install.....This is what fixed it for me.

Right click speaker icon in task bar -----> Playback Devices----> Right click your speakers(Realtek High Definition Audio Ready) in my case---->Properties---> Enhancements---->scroll down to the Bass Management box, if it's unchecked then check the box. Voila, that solved my sub not working for me. Hope if anyone else can't get their sub working that this works for you

GUYS!!! everything that have to do with speakers and malfunction is drivers!! only in very little cases that is hardware!!!! your sound card need drivers for windows 7!

If you go into the auto calibration and leave that running you get bass right?
but ass soon as you close it, it goes away again?
here's what i did, leave it open but close the auto calibrator with task manager.. and bam, still got bass!