Why is my volume so low?

**unsavory** · 02-02-2004, 09:41 PM

I had mute on. lol. It's not all my fault. I don't have my monitor installed yet, so I was hibernating the PC while it was playing a song so that when the computer booted up, all I had to do was hit the enter key on the keyboard to launch the song. I had all levels set at 75% but somehow mute got turned on without me knowing since I have no monitor. So that part is fixed.

Thanks for your help guys.

One question though. Does everyone's EPIA-M10000 onboard audio crackle and pop? Mine started doing it and I don't know if it is a driver issue or if the hardware just sucks. I'm really hoping I don't have to buy an external sound card and was hoping to use the onboard one. But the crackle/pop is horrid.

Anyone else?

**BoraXP** · 02-02-2004, 09:42 PM

mine works with no crackle

**brrman** · 02-03-2004, 08:35 AM

HAW HAW... MUTE!

mine has no crackle

**LESLIEx317537** · 02-03-2004, 08:45 AM

Wait, even with Mute on you get low volume noise, when my mutes on, I get no noise at all.

**unsavory** · 02-03-2004, 11:07 AM

Well keep in mind that I had the gain cranked all the way to max. But yes, I got low volume noise.

My onboard audio sounds like crap. Not sure what the prob is. That crackle will never do.

**Hartlove** · 02-03-2004, 11:42 AM

Is it becasue you still have the gain on your amps turned all the way up?

**unsavory** · 02-03-2004, 12:26 PM

No, I adjusted the gain to minimum and then worked up from there. It does it on my home system now too. Funny thing is that it didn't do it before.

Not only that, the sound quality wasn't that good either. The bass is sadly lacking, and the highs aren't that clear. I think I'm gonna have to ditch the onboard audio for an Extigy.

**Altimat** · 02-03-2004, 08:20 PM

Originally Posted by Hcomplyr

i just got the SoundBlaster MP3+ HOLY CRAP WHAT A FRIKKEN DRIFFERENCE i will NEVER use my onboard sound ever again, infact its now disabled, but to help you if the line out on the SBMP3+ isn't enough you could alway plug it into the headphone output adjust the volume to a high enough level and thats it, your done!
P.S. best $40 I have spent on this project yet

I don't understand how one sound card can sound all that different from another. I thought it was mostly just features...Is the difference that noticeable????

**LESLIEx317537** · 02-03-2004, 10:03 PM

Yes the difference is noticable.

I use a Audigy 2 NX to replace my laptops onboard sound at home and run it though a optical device.

In my car I use the MP3+ because I allready had a hub up front. The RCA line out goes into my Aux in on my HU and the RCA cable is only 1 foot, so it doesn't pick up as much line noise as you would if you ran a RCA down the side of the car to the sound card on the mobo.

Also the options like, optical in are very appealing to me. A XMPCR going into my MP3+ using Optical SPDIF should sound very very clean.

**unsavory** · 02-05-2004, 12:37 AM

OK, so it turns out that the crackle is from enabling the SMART 5.1 options. That is the option that puts 5.1 audio out through the line-in/line-out/headphone jack. so you can get 5.1 surround sound with the existing ports on the motherboard. Except it doesn't work.

For one thing the volume on the rear channels, center channels and sub is significantly less than the volume on the front. And you also get crappy sound quality and crackling, even through the standard line-out port.

After disabling the SMART 5.1 option, the sound is extremely clean. Now all I have to do is split my one set of line outs 3 times to get my 6 channels.