Decreased volume from new Desktops

[Zeqilix]

Hi all,

 

We recently replaced our classrooms with faster desktops, but are facing a strange volume issue.

 

With all possible settings on max volume, the previous desktops would be a lot louder. The new desktops with all max are way too quiet.

We believe it may be the audio drivers.

- For one the speakers or board get picked up as (Headphones) and not (Speakers) which doesn't seem right.

 

The new desktops come with Synaptics HD Audio - We've tried uninstalling this and installing the standard Realtek audio driver, however the Synaptics audio driver automatically gets re-installed after a restart.

 

Our next idea if we can't get this weird problem resolved would be to look for some sort of Equalizer software, as the sound is too quiet for the class to hear.

 

The new Desktop we're having low volume issues with is this:

HP EliteDesk 800 G4 DM 35W (TAA)

 

 

If anybody could give us any suggestions it'd be greatly appreciated!

 

Many thanks,

Jona

[Oaktech]

Hi all,

 

We recently replaced our classrooms with faster desktops, but are facing a strange volume issue.

 

With all possible settings on max volume, the previous desktops would be a lot louder. The new desktops with all max are way too quiet.

We believe it may be the audio drivers.

- For one the speakers or board get picked up as (Headphones) and not (Speakers) which doesn't seem right.

 

The new desktops come with Synaptics HD Audio - We've tried uninstalling this and installing the standard Realtek audio driver, however the Synaptics audio driver automatically gets re-installed after a restart.

 

Our next idea if we can't get this weird problem resolved would be to look for some sort of Equalizer software, as the sound is too quiet for the class to hear.

 

The new Desktop we're having low volume issues with is this:

HP EliteDesk 800 G4 DM 35W (TAA)

 

 

If anybody could give us any suggestions it'd be greatly appreciated!

 

Many thanks,

Jona

 

Are you using the audio from the 3.5mm jack or the display audio out from the DP connector? We've noticed the 3.5mm audio out is quieter than the display audio out?

[Zeqilix]

We are using the the DP connector for a lot of the classrooms, which are still too quiet unfortuantly

The classrooms that had their own speakers and are using a 3.5mm jack have also gotten a ton quieter too just from plugging them into the new desktop, which is really strange!

[sigma]

I note from HP's website: https://support.hp.com/gb-en/drivers/hp-elitedesk-800-35w-g4-desktop-mini-pc/21353727

 

That they offer the exact same Synaptic Audio driver for Win 10 and Win 11:

8.65.319.200 Rev.A Is that what you have? If not try it.

OPERATING SYSTEM(S):

Microsoft Windows 10 version 1803 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 10 version 1809 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 10 version 1903 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 10 version 1909 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 10 version 2004 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 10 version 20H2 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 10 version 21H1 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 10 version 21H2 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 10 version 22H2 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 11 version 21H2 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 11 version 22H2 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 11 version 23H2 (64-bit)

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2019 LTSC 64-bit

 

They also offer a previous version which would also be worth trying as its a somewhat larger file:

8.65.319.170 Rev.A (Win 10 and 11)

OPERATING SYSTEM(S):

Microsoft Windows 10 version 21H1 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 10 version 20H2 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 10 version 2004 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 10 version 1909 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 10 version 1903 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 10 version 1809 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 10 version 1803 (64-bit)

Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2019 LTSC 64-bit

Microsoft Windows 11 version 21H2 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 10 version 21H2 (64-bit)

Microsoft Windows 11 version 22H2 (64-bit)

 

The operating systems listed just mean tested.

 

What version/release of Windows are you running?

Edited December 5, 2023 by sigma

[Steve21]

We had similar on some HPs previously, and for some odd reason the "karaoke mode" was automatically turning on in sound options when building computers. This muted a lot of the sound by default, so would be a good place to check to disable all those kind of options and see if it improves

 

Also, silly things like testing if you have "When windows detects incoming communications activity" set by default to have sound cut down a lot, as that's been issues previously

 

Steve

[geohanson]

We're having the same issue here with the same PCs.

I'm currently working on trying to script a driver change....

 

It seems that changing the driver back to the Windows High Definition Audio Driver fixes it.

[Koldov]

As for Windows reinstalling the 'newer' drivers, do you have 'automatically install updated drivers' set?

 

 

Also, you may not have any luck if they are coming from your Windows 'in-built' driver repository, but see if there's a tick box to delete the drivers when you are uninstalling.

 

[geohanson]

From what it seems the only way to script driver changes in Windows is using PNPUTIL or DEVCON

PNPUTIL is built into windows, and can install and delete drivers but NOT replace a driver for a specific piece of hardware.

DEVCON is not built into Windows, but CAN do the above.

 

Devcon can be obtained from here: https://github.com/Drawbackz/DevCon-Installer

Use the Devcon Installer under the releases on the right side of the page to download the EXE.

 

Run the EXE, click the Update Sources button, choose the OS (I went for the latest one) and Devcon should then download.

 

It is part of the Windows Driver Development kits, but there is no easy way to download it.... https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/devtest/devcon#where-can-i-download-devcon

 

 

You then need a copy of the Windows "High Definition Audio Device" Driver. You can't actually download this, but you can extract it from a PC. This is what you will use to replace the 'quiet' driver from HP.

 

In device manager, manually update the driver to the "High Definition Audio Device" driver. - In order to extract the driver, a device needs to be using it. You may need to reboot. The sound should now be much louder.

 

 

 

In CMD as an administrator run:

pnputil /enum-devices /class "Media"

 

You should now see that the driver you need is HDAudio.inf

 

To extract the driver and dump it in the root of C:\ run:

pnputil /export-driver hdaudio.inf C:\

 

Note this will extract TWO files.

 

Now we have DEVCON, and two driver files, we just need a script to use Devcon to replace the HP driver with hdaudio.inf

 

 

DEVCON requires the HardwareID of the soundcard in order to replace the driver. (You do not need to run this now, it's just showing the process)

 

Get-WmiObject Win32_PnPSignedDriver | Where-Object { $_.Description -eq "Synaptics HD Audio" } | Select-Object HardwareID

 

Once we have the hardware ID we can use the following script to replace the driver. Note the location of DEVCON and the hdaudio.inf. (You do not need to run this now, it's just showing the process)

 

C:\HPAudioDriverFix\devcon.exe updateNI "C:\HPAudioDriverFix\hdaudio.inf" "HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_14F1&DEV_5098&SUBSYS_103C83EE&REV_1001"

 

 

So, to make everything work in one PowerShell script.....

 

 

Get-WmiObject Win32_PnPSignedDriver | Where-Object { $_.Description -eq "Synaptics HD Audio" } | Select-Object HardwareID | ForEach-Object {
   $HardwareID = $_.HardwareID
   Write-Host "HardwareI: $HardwareID"
   C:\HPAudioDriverFix\devcon.exe updateNI "C:\HPAudioDriverFix\hdaudio.inf" "$HardwareID"
}

 

This will find anything called "Synaptics HD Audio", list the hardware ID, and run the DEVCON script using the Hardware ID it just found. The Hardware ID may vary between PCs, so this will ensure it is always correct.

 

 

I am running this via PDQDeploy, so you may need to script this further depending on how you are planning to deploy it.

First I am copying DEVCON, and BOTH Audio Driver files to a folder on the C Drive of the affected PC

Then run the above PowerShell script

Then reboot.

 

That seems to work for me but I've only tested on a couple of PCs so far.

It hasn't reset on reboot so hopefully it should be okay.....

 

My PowerShell knowledge is extremely limited (thanks ChatGPT!) so there may be a better way of doing this, but it seems to work so far....