Having trouble with laptop sound

[firaplays]

I'm using a Lenovo Thinkpad with Windows 10 installed on it. Lately I've been having this problem where if I'm doing any two things on my laptop that use sound, one of those things will have its volume lowered. For example, if I'm listening to music and playing neopets at the same time and decide to play a flash game, the volume on the flash game will be really low. If I then close the program that was playing the music, the flash game volume gets high. I don't even know where to start in trying to figure out how to solve this problem, it's getting really annoying. 

[Steve]

I'm not really sure if this will fix it, but it's worth a shot (not that familiar with Win10 so it may be a little different):

 

Open Control Panel (shortcut is Windows Key + W) and look for the Sound option (possibly in Hardware and Sound). Once you find Sound, go to Communications tab within that window and select the Do Nothing option for "When Windows detects communications activity:"

 

Hopefully that works, good luck!

[Scoobert_Doo]

Well, there can be some differences, depending on your sound card. However, I would check the "Volume Mixer" properties, first. To find it, in Windows 10:

 

1. Right mouse click on the speaker icon on the task bar.

2. Select "Open Volume Mixer".

 

A window will open, and may have more or less options, depending on your sound card. For example, on my computer, I have Speakers (Device section), System Sounds, & Mozilla Firefox (both listed in the Applications section). Generally, all are usually at the same level. Again, for example, all of mine are set at "50", as I have the main volume level at "50".

 

In your case, I would check to see if any are set higher or lower.

 

If those seem normal, then the next place I'd check is the settings for "Playback devices". So:

 

1. Right mouse click on the speaker icon on the task bar.

2. Select "Playback devices".

 

This will open a new window, on the (default) "Playback" tab. Click on "Speakers", to high-light it, then click the "Properties" button. Click on the "Enhancements" tab. In the "box", see if any of the options are checked, especially, "Loudness Equalization". Generally, none of those options are selected. If "Loudness Equalization" is "checked", uncheck it and see if you now notice a difference. Conversely, it if is unchecked, you can try "checking" it and see if that makes a difference.

 

If those seem normal, then I'd have to ask if you are using any other program to listen to music. Some music applications have their own settings for audio/sound. It is possible there could be a setting for the music program audio to always be loud, or be louder, than audio playing from other sources, like a web browser. It is also possible your laptop has a special audio program installed, like Conexant Smart Audio or what ever brand of sound card your laptop have. You may have to check the settings there.

 

Finally, some audio resources are beyond your control. For example, you could listen to/watch a music video on youtube and the recording just might be at a low volume, while others are recorded at higher levels. Not much you can do in those cases.

 

You might need to check if there is an updated audio driver for your laptop. Did it come with Windows 10 or was it upgraded?

 

Let us know what you find.

[firaplays]

I selected the do nothing option a while ago, it hasn't seemed to help : / As for the enhancements tab for my speakers, well, there is no enhancements tab. I've actually called Microsoft for help with that before, but the guy I was talking to was so unhelpful I gave up. Do you only get that tab if you're using external speakers or something? I'm just using the ones that are built into the laptop. The computer was upgraded to windows 10 from windows 8.

 

I tried to post a screenshot but I couldn't figure out how. It says I'm not allowed to post from imgur.

[Scoobert_Doo]

(Please read the entire reply, before trying. If they don't seem clear, please ask before doing any of it. TY.)

 

So, to be clear, you only see the "General", "Levels", & "Advanced" tabs? If you can remember, did you have this problem with Windows 8?

 

No, that tab isn't only if using external speakers. It is possible either your laptop manufacturer (Lenovo) or sound card manufacturer is using a separate program to control those items, or the card/driver lacks those options.

 

Try this:

 

1. Right-mouse click on the Windows "Start" button (Window icon on the task bar). Alternatively, you can use the Windows+X keys on the keyboard.

2. Select "Control Panel".

3. Click "Hardware and Sound".

4. Under "Devices and Printers", click "Device Manager".

5. Look for "Sound, video and game controllers" and expand it.

 

It is possible to see one or more devices listed. If you see more than one, please post what they are. If you only see one, and it is listed as something like "Realtek High Definition Audio" or "Conexant High Definition Audio", we are going to change it to the generic Windows (Microsoft) one, to see if it makes a difference. (I had a laptop where the Microsoft one actually was better than the manufacturer one):

 

6. Right-mouse click on "(Manufacturer Name) High Definition Audio". (Write it down, in case you want to change it back).

7. Select "Update driver software...".

8. Click "Browse my computer for driver software".

9. Click "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer."

10. See if "High Definition Audio Device" (just like that) is listed. If so, click on it, to highlight it, and click the "Next" button. If not, "uncheck" the "Show compatible hardware" check box. On the left, under "Manufacturer", scroll down until you see "Microsoft" and click on it to highlight it. On the right, under "Model", look for "High Definition Audio Device" and click on it, to highlight it. Then, click the "Next" button.

 

It should then install that driver and ask to reboot your laptop. Let it. After your laptop reboots, it should now be using the Microsoft audio driver. See if that makes a difference and if the "Enhancements" tab is now visible.

 

If not, you can go back to using the other driver by following the same steps, but at step 10, you should see your old driver listed ((Manufacturer Name) High Definition Audio). Click it to highlight it and click the "Next" button. Windows should then install that driver and ask to reboot. Do so, and when it reboots, you should back to using the "old" driver.

 

If the Microsoft driver didn't seem to help, you may want to look on Lenovo's website for an updated Windows 10 audio driver for your laptop. Sometimes, Windows 8.1 drivers will work with Windows 10, but I'd only try that, as a last resort. PLEASE DO NOT try that, unless you are comfortable with reinstalling everything on your laptop, plus have everything important backed up. I've also had Windows 10 crash on me, doing that, and having to format the hard drive and reinstalling everything.

 

Also, when you try steps 1 thru 3, before continuing with step 4, look for any separate item listed with an icon, like Realtek Audio, Conexant Audio, or Lenovo Audio, or something to that effect. If you see something like that, it would be specific settings for your audio/sound card. There could be settings in there that may help.

[firaplays]

It worked it worked it worked! And my computer didn't break XD Thank you so much for your help, I'm super useless with computers.

[Scoobert_Doo]

Yea! I'm glad it is working (better, properly) now!