Computer sound levels. Help!

[Andy_S]

Intelligent people of the Zone, I ask for your help.

Recently my computer has taken on a mind of it's own regarding the sound levels. For the 2 years I've had this computer, the speaker level in the bottom right hand corner of the taskbar by the clock has been set to 100. Then when I switch on my speakers I turn them up and down using the control on them, with the level in Windows always set to 100. When I switch on my speakers, the volume is very low to start. Now though, if I have Windows set to 100 and I turn on the speakers, it's 10 times as loud straight away and it blows you away. So now I've changed the level to 50 and yet soon as you turn the speakers on it's still pretty loud straight away. It seems to be affected by Youtube and any online video. If I listen to music via Winamp and then go on to Youtube and watch a video, the sound will blast out even though the speaker hasn't been changed and nor has the level in Windows. I then have to restart the PC for it to calm down.

What the heckus is going on and does anybody know how I might be able to fix it? It seems uncontrollable.

 

[Ayrshire Blue]

This may sound basic, but have you turned the volume down on the youtube video ?

 

[Forever A Shrimper]

Do you have Vista?

 

[Andy_S]

This may sound basic, but have you turned the volume down on the youtube video ?

Haha, it's not that. Once something like a Youtube video has been played, the sound is then affected on anything else. For example, if I played an mp3 then the sound would be much louder than before I played the vid. :unsure:

 

[Andy_S]

Do you have Vista?

I do indeed have Vista yep.....

 

[Sussex Shrimper]

I don't use Vista, but from my experience of XP it sounds to me as though Winamp (or possibly some other app) is changing the main volume on your soundcard rather than going through DirectSound, which handles the volume on a per-application basis. If you go into Winamp's settings and look under output, you should be able to see whether it's configured to use the system's primary sound driver or to access the soundcard directly.

Going off at a tangent, if you've got a decent soundcard you might want to read up on using either ASIO or Kernel Streaming to bypass the Windows mixer altogether and drastically improve the sound quality. Here I am configuring it on my PC:

 

[Strykr]

thats one nifty setup youve got there sussex

 

[Andy_S]

I don't use Vista, but from my experience of XP it sounds to me as though Winamp (or possibly some other app) is changing the main volume on your soundcard rather than going through DirectSound, which handles the volume on a per-application basis. If you go into Winamp's settings and look under output, you should be able to see whether it's configured to use the system's primary sound driver or to access the soundcard directly.

Thanks for the suggestion. This is what the settings in Winamp currently look like:

 

[Sussex Shrimper]

Thanks for the suggestion. This is what the settings in Winamp currently look like:

If you click 'Configure', is the device set to the sound mapper (as it should be), or something else? Do you mind if I ask what soundcard you're using?

 

[Andy_S]

If you click 'Configure', is the device set to the sound mapper (as it should be), or something else? Do you mind if I ask what soundcard you're using?

It says it's set to wave mapper as recommended. The other 2 options in there are speakers and SPDIF Out.

I can't actually remember what soundcard is in this. It's a Creative Sound Blaster one but I don't know which.

On this point, as you've mentioned about applications controlling the sound, I might have stumbled across the answer. In control panel and then sound, if I go into the speakers and then properties, on the advanced tab there is an option that says "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" and it's ticked. Could this be the problem? So when I go on Youtube etc, Youtube is actually bumping up the sound?

 

[Sussex Shrimper]

It says it's set to wave mapper as recommended. The other 2 options in there are speakers and SPDIF Out.

I can't actually remember what soundcard is in this. It's a Creative Sound Blaster one but I don't know which.

On this point, as you've mentioned about applications controlling the sound, I might have stumbled across the answer. In control panel and then sound, if I go into the speakers and then properties, on the advanced tab there is an option that says "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" and it's ticked. Could this be the problem? So when I go on Youtube etc, Youtube is actually bumping up the sound?

It looks like the problem isn't what I thought it might have been then.

When you talk about YouTube throwing off the volume, if you open the system volume control (the thing in the taskbar), do any of the levels change when you use YouTube? YouTube uses Adobe Flash player, which to the best of my knowledge simply uses the primary sound device and shouldn't otherwise mess with the volume levels.

I'm not sure what else I can suggest, other than the usual horribly patronising stuff about making sure you have the latest flash player, sound drivers, etc. Sorry. :unsure:

 

[Andy_S]

It looks like the problem isn't what I thought it might have been then.

When you talk about YouTube throwing off the volume, if you open the system volume control (the thing in the taskbar), do any of the levels change when you use YouTube? YouTube uses Adobe Flash player, which to the best of my knowledge simply uses the primary sound device and shouldn't otherwise mess with the volume levels.

I'm not sure what else I can suggest, other than the usual horribly patronising stuff about making sure you have the latest flash player, sound drivers, etc. Sorry. :unsure:

Nope the actual levels in the task bar don't change.... It's just so odd why it's just started happening. The latest flash player etc are installed yes. Is there anyway to reset everything to do with the sound/sound card etc? Cheers.

 

[Sussex Shrimper]

Nope the actual levels in the task bar don't change.... It's just so odd why it's just started happening. The latest flash player etc are installed yes. Is there anyway to reset everything to do with the sound/sound card etc? Cheers.

As far as resetting stuff goes I can only suggest uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers for the soundcard and speakers. Make sure you get the latest ones from the company websites rather than using those that came with the devices on disc. Other than that, if it's not a software DirectSound issue as I suspected then it has me stumped TBH. Have you installed any new software recently?

 

[Andy_S]

As far as resetting stuff goes I can only suggest uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers for the soundcard and speakers. Make sure you get the latest ones from the company websites rather than using those that came with the devices on disc. Other than that, if it's not a software DirectSound issue as I suspected then it has me stumped TBH. Have you installed any new software recently?

I did an automatic update drivers thing through Vista and Windows Media Player and Winamp refused to play so I've had to go back to the previous one.

I think I might have to just put up with it, although thankfully it seems to have settled down now. It's just frustrating that I can't set the level to 100 any more like it used to be on every PC I've owned.

Cheers for the help though. Appreciated muchly! :clap: