Headphone front jack is far too quiet

Hey

Recent problem, basically I've turned up all possible volume controls I can find, tried multiple programs, multiple headphones and earphones, and the problem remains = sound is fine when it's coming out my cheap 2.1 speaker set, but when I use the headphone jack, it's really quiet.

It's a PC with no sound card, motherboard Gigabyte SKT-1366 X58-USB3 Motherboard which has the realtek HD audio on it. I actually just saw the sticky about it switching output, which it used to do (I don't understand the fix at all), but I fixed it myself by uninstalling the realtek driver and letting windows install its own driver on a reboot, which worked.


I don't know if there's any more detail you need, but I can assure I've done all the basic stuff to increase the volume and it's maxed out at a very bearable medium voolume.

Thanks for any help.

UPDATE: I reinstalled the 2009 realtek driver from the motherboard's website and it's loud again, but I have the infuriating problem where it switches from headphones to speakers every 2 seconds. The realtek control panel is flickering so fast I can't even click on the "settings" button. It's like someone is repeatedly pulling out my jack, and it's confusing the system so much. All it says is "Reloading audio devices..." every single time, and the sound switches randomly between speakers and headphones.


I first thought this was a hardware problem but it looks like it's the driver. I cannot even begin to understand what the solution is in the sticky, because there is no clear description of the actual problem (whether it even relates to this) and also because I don't even know where to find ""HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE", search finds nothing.

Go to the Realtek site to download the latest driver for that mobo.

It may be that the driver from Updates is the only acceptable current driver, which is why optional Updates hasn't delivered a newer one.

Do a google search for your model Realtek device to see if others have dealt with this.

Just wanted to confirm that uninstalling and re-installing realtek drivers did it for me. I didn't even have to download them again. In device manager, clicked "uninstall" for my realtek sound. Then did a Action -> "Scan for hardware changes". It found my card and re-installed the drivers automatically. Easy peasy. Thanks for this thread!

Thanks for reporting back.

If you uninstall the driver in Device Manager and do not tick the box to also remove the software, it will reinstall automatically at reboot which often solves problems.