Volume booster

Is there any way to boost the audio volume besides the "Volume Control"
and "Wave" settings in windows? I've an onboard AC97 soundcard. My
problem is that when I increase the "Volume Control" setting I hear a
humming sound, which gets disturbing after turning the meter up to
around 1/6. Some movies, for example, have such a low volume that
turning all settings to maximum output isn't even enough. On top of
that, the humming is unbearable when doing so.

Thanks in advance. :smile:

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

Problem 1: You have Onboard Sound.

Problem 2: You have AC97 Onboard Sound.

Suggested fix: Buy a PCI Card, A Soundblaster at least. & turn off your s**tty AC97 Onboard s**te.

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In a world without fences and walls - who needs windows and gates?
A dead letter is a letter that has never been delivered because the person to whom it was written cannot be found, and it also cannot be returned to the person who wrote it

I suppose I'll have to buy a soundcard then.

Isn't there any way to boost the audio volume using some sort of software?

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

There's nothing wrong with on-board sound.

What sound setup do you have? I'm assuming they're just computer speakers, but, do you have it set to 2/4/6/8 channel?

I have on-board AC97 set up with 6 channel sound (to a receiver) and it sounds great.

The hum because of poor wiring or shielding. Usually, if it's a hiss, it's the speakers, if it's a hum, then it's a ground loop or something like that. (It's easiest to hear in the lower channels, like < ~75Hz.

The only "fixes" I know are either: A) Use some good shielding on the speaker wires or B) (This is a hack way to do it) get a "one way" cable. It's a cable that has only 1 grounded end, but that's for a full system set up and has more to do with receiver problems than anything else.

Um. Not sure. You could look online for ways to remove hum. By the way, don't feel discouraged or anything like that, computer audio feedback problems are really common.

Another 'hack' you could try, which will probably decrease audio sound, but might allow you to turn your sound up higher on the speakers. Place a connection to another circuit against a conductor in the audio jack. This is really easy if have metal connectors on the audio cable, but I doubt it, since I'm assuming they're computer speakers. I'm not sure how you could do that in a normal audio set up. But I'm sure a paper clip will help :smile:

By the way, if you bought a new sound card to fix this problem and it has no "feature" (hardware wise) to ground its self properly, then you're going to have the same problem still.

It isn't an easy problem to fix.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I got the hum as well, until I found this little trick:

In the volume control box, go Options->Properties, and check the "Phone" option. Then, put Phone volume to zero. No more hum.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

Right. It could be "fighting" for dominance of the ground. (Or however you're suppose to say that)

But, that isn't guaranteed to work. But, it's a valid possibility. Try muting everything except Mixer and Wave. If the hum is still there, then it's the problem I was talking about earlier.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

first troubleshoot the problem by; a. connecting your headphones to the speaker jack. see if the hum is still there. b. use the same audio cables with different speakers. then the old speakers with new cables. c. buy a pci soundcard, buy new speakers. am i the only one that would see this as a great excuse to buy new speakers? at least?

[edit]the problem is most likely NOT the onboard sound..[/edit]

Go into volume control and mute everything your not using: Line, Modem, MIDI Synth, etc. You're getting noise from these, probably from crappy connections.

Also, I'd advise you to upgrade (or downgrade) to a better soundcard. I myself replaced my 16-bit AC97 with an almost decade old 64-bit AWE. Clean.

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Better to be in denial than to be human.

Bill Gates understands binary: his company is number one, and his customers are all zeros.

I got the hum as well, until I found this little trick:
In the volume control box, go Options->Properties, and check the "Phone" option. Then, put Phone volume to zero. No more hum.

Try muting everything except Mixer and Wave. If the hum is still there, then it's the problem I was talking about earlier.

Seconded, this seems to work most of the time with most systems I've
seen (PCI audio AND onboard audio). Keep muting controls until the hum
goes away.

If the sound problem is still very bad have a professional look at it and he'll probably put a ground loop isolator in place.

If ur really desperate, buy an amplifier?

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I would love to change the world, But they would'nt give me the source code.

I have it set to 2 channels, as I'm either using my 2.1 speakers or my stereo headphones.

Muting everything I'm not using seemed to help. Now almost all humming
is gone and only a very vague humming sound can be heard when turning
the volume settings up high.

The headphone's cabel is not removable, so I won't be able to test with
another cable. As for my speakers, only the cable between my PC and the
sub is removable, so I won't be able to easily upgrade to other cables
or test with different ones. But, as almost all humming is gone anyway
it doesn't matter. Is it even possible to have a setup with absolutely
zero humming at the highest volume?

Thanks for your help, everyone! :smile:

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

Yes, but it takes a lot of custom work. There shouldn't be humming or hissing. It's because of a low standard in the industry. A lot of recievers have this problem.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I have an integrated 8-channel AC'97 sound card with 5.1 heaphones and I get accused of cheating in CSS :razz:

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