Windows 10 Sound is quieter than it was before

[TheOutsider]

Hello all, I have a strange problem I've never encountered before. I'm running Windows 10 1607 14393.447 In the last day my sound has gotten really soft compared to how it was before. I have to turn the computer volume up to 80-100 to be able to hear stuff I used to only had to have it at about 40. Also, I just played Rust tonight and the sound wouldn't work at all, everything else worked sound wise but not Rust. Before Rust would play but it had the same problem, the sound for the game was really soft but the rest of my computer was ok.

Any help would be appreciated, if you need any more info please let me know.

Thanks for your time.

 

[kemical]

Hi Outsider,

may I ask are you using a headset at the same time?

If you are then Windows will reduce the sound like so:



Check for malware using Malwarebytes

Have you tried re-installing the sound driver? It may have become corrupted so it's worth a try.

Did you add anything new recently like new apps or hardware? If you did try removing and see if sound returns to normal.

Check the event logs to see if anything relates..

 

[TheOutsider]

I am using a headset, but I always have been. I did run a program called Discord which is a voice chat program right before all this started, but I've used it before with no issue, also the setting you highlight I set to Do Nothing and it's still happening.

 

[kemical]

I did run a program called Discord which is a voice chat program right before all this started,

If it's still installed try removing it to test. I know you've used it before but perhaps you had a buggy install or something similar?

 

[TheOutsider]

Ok, so through exploring this problem it's gotten significantly weirder. I did uninstall Discord as requested and that didn't help. I disabled my mic and that didn't help. It now seems like some programs are quiet and others aren't. Playing Rust is super quiet, Google chrome is super quiet, but if I watch the same thing in Microsoft Edge it's loud as normal, vlc video player is as loud as normal, Google Chromium seems to be normal volume too. Really strange.

 

[kemical]

Hmm.. that does sound odd your right.. See if these scan help at all:
File scans
Right click on the Start menu icon and from the revealed list choose 'admin command prompt'. Type:
sfc /scannow
press enter and await results

In the same command prompt and after the above scan has finished type:
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Press enter and await results (longer this time).


Can you remember what was the last thing you installed?

 

[TheOutsider]

Here's the results, everything seems normal.

I installed an update to my graphics driver, I uninstalled it and the problem persists.

Here's a list of my recently installed programs. Discord I had installed previously but uninstalled to see if it was causing it but uninstalling caused no change. I first noticed the problem around a week ago, maybe a little longer. There was a Windows 10 update as you can see around the 5th. I don't think it was a problem after that, but honestly I can't remember. Some of these dates for the games are wrong because Steam updated them and that caused the date to change. I uninstalled and reinstalled Rust but that didn't help either, also even weirder on one rust server I play on the sound is still soft but not nearly as soft as another I play on. I know it's not a hardware issue because windows notifications and other programs still come in loud and clear.

Just FYI my setup is as so, I have a Lenovo Y410P laptop connected through HDMI to a Toshiba television.

Thanks for all the help, hope I can get this figured out. I'm going to run a virus scan just to eliminate that as a possibility.

 

[kemical]

Hi,
I just checked your support page at Lenovo and it appears driver support ended with Windows 8.1:

Link Removed

This means your basically running with no driver support at all and ultimately you might be better served going back to your old os.

Your lappie will run Windows 10 fine but the manufacturer isn't supporting the new os with driver support. This means everytime you have a driver issue you'll run into this problem.

 

[TheOutsider]

All the drivers for my audio haven't changed since July. Why would this have happened now?

 

[kemical]

It may well be that the Windows 10 os is constantly being updated.

You could perhaps try the Lenovo forums and see if anyone has found a driver or news of intended support.

 

[TheOutsider]

I really hope I don't have to downgrade to 8.1. That'd be a major pain in the posterior.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

 

[TheOutsider]

Wow... Fixed it. You know what it turned out to be? The Volume mixer was setting different programs at different volumes. If anyone else has this problem right click on your speaker icon and then click "Open Volume Mixer"

Do you know if there's a way to make it so it doesn't set different volumes for different programs?

 

[kemical]

Do you know if there's a way to make it so it doesn't set different volumes for different programs?

First of all, great job!
Does this help?
http://lifehacker.com/5862661/set-volume-levels-for-individual-programs-in-windows

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Also, Mike H. had lots and lots of problems with Chrome updates the last year or so; and most of us did not. He had to uninstall Chrome and reinstall many times to figure out his various audio problems. This is a good fix, but didn't work for his self-built PC.
Thanks for posting back your solution to share with other forum users!

<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>