Can you please tell as how to connect my laptop to creative 5.1 speaker system so that I can hear surround sound from DVDs.

If you want to watch DVD movies on your laptop and experience full surround sound on 5.1 or 7.1 speakers, you’ll have to use a special sound card for notebook computers. For example, take a look at Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS PCMCIA notebook sound card. You plug this card into the PCMCIA slot you your laptop and then connect 5.1 or 7.1 speakers. You can find this card on the Internet for less than $100.

Just make sure your laptop meets all hardware requirements for the sound card.

A couple of days ago when I turned my laptop on the sound is there on the internal speakers but is very low. The sound used to blow you out. The volume is turned all the way up on front of laptop-little wheel. Under control panel advanced audio controls all volume turned up to max with no mutes. Under device manager Realtek is operating properly. I even used the restore CD to reinstall Realtek. Windows says latest version of Realtek AC97 is already on my computer. I can hookup external speakers and they are loud enough to hear great, but even at max volume it doesn’t blow you away. Help! Not under warranty any longer.

Did you check the wave settings in the advanced audio control window? The wave slider should be on the right side from the play control, try turning it up. Read the rest of this entry »

My Compaq Presario V3000 laptop makes funny noise if I turn up volume..it comes from the speakers and its noisy when hearing music. What will be the solution?

First of all, test the laptop with headphones. If your headphones make the same noise, it’s possible you have a software related problem. Try reinstalling the sound driver. You should be able to download the sound driver from the manufacturer’s website. If reinstalling the sound driver doesn’t help, you can try reinstalling the operating system. If you still have the same noise coming from the laptop speakers and headphones even after you reinstalled the operating system, apparently you have a problem with the sound card.
Read the rest of this entry »

My speakers were working fine one moment but then stopped working after i used in my headphones. I still have sound when I use my headphones but when I unplug it, i can not hear anything from my laptop speakers. I went through the troubleshooting on my laptop but I still can not get sound to come out of my laptop speakers. Please help!

I think you have a problem with the headphones jack in your laptop. There are contacts inside the headphones jack, you can see them if you look inside the jack. When you plug the headphones into the jack, the plug shorts these contacts and the sound switches from the external speakers to the headphones. Apparently, these contacts got stuck in the headphones mode and because of that you cannot hear any sound from the external speakers.
I’m not sure if you can fix this problem yourself, probably you’ll have to take your laptop to the repair shop. Try plugging and unplugging your headphones a few times in a row, do it fast, it might help to release contacts inside the jack.

I just formatted my Toshiba Satellite laptop and the speakers stopped working. They worked fine before I formatted. I went to the control panel to see how the speakers were set up and everything was dimmed out and could not be adjusted. What do I need to do?

Apparently, you are missing the sound card device drivers. Download this driver from the Toshiba website and install it on your laptop. Also, you should be able to find this driver on the recovery disc.

I have a problem related to ‘jack’ problem, not power, but the audio jack. The headphone jack spring become loose and doesn’t secure the headphone plug well, it’s quite annoying cause when I connect to speaker it’ll generate noise when the plug is being touched…
I think the easiest way to do is to take a screw driver or something to adjust the spring and make it a tight fit as like it was new. If not, it has to be replaced I think, but it’s sure going to cost me a lot, either money (replace motherboard) or trouble (self repair)…

I think you have one more option. You can purchase a PCMCIA audio card and use the headphone jack on the card. Here’s an example, Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS notebook PCMCIA card. These cards are not cheap, but it would be less expensive then replacing the laptop motherboard.

I needed some help on my Toshiba Tecra 9100 notebook. I have three issues that may be related:
1. Sound card is not detected by laptop
2. Wi-Fi card not detected by laptop
3. Modem is listed but not usable - laptop reports that it is used by another software
I have used the rescue CDs that came with the computer to restore the laptop to new condition and I even downloaded the latest drivers for audio from the Toshiba support website. The driver did not install.
I installed a BIOS update months before these problems happened. And these three problems happened at almost the same time
I opened the laptop following your procedure (thanks, by the way) to check for loose connections but everything seemed okay.
The computer still works but there is no sound, modem nor wi-fi. And I can still connect to the internet via LAN cable…but it really sucks that I can’t listen to music or use the modem for dial-up connections.
What could be the problem? Please help me.

All three modules - the sound board, the wireless card and the modem connect to the I/O board and I think that’s your problem. Apparently the I/O board is bad. You can see the I/O board pictured on the step 17.

Hi, I’m having problems with my Toshiba Satellite A50. No sound will come out from the internal speaker. But when I use the headset, I can hear a sound. I’ve checked everything and everything is set to play sounds, just not with the speakers alone.
I want to disassemble this speaker and see if there some dust or whatever, how can I do that?

If you want to replace speakers on Toshiba Satellite A50 notebook, you have to remove the top cover assembly. I haven’t created a complete laptop disassembly guide for this model yet, but I have instructions for removing and replacing the keyboard for Toshiba Satellite A55. You can use this guide and get some access to the speakers and to the connectors. I think that cleaning up the speakers will not help a lot. If you can hear the sound from the headset but not from speakers, then I would suspect that the speakers are bad, the speakers are unplugged or some sound circuit on the system board is damaged. Try to reconnect the speakers first. The speakers are connected directly to the system board through 2 little connectors located below the keyboard connector. You can see these connectors on the step 6; they are hidden under the white tape.