G751 Imbalanced Sound Problem OFFICIAL SUPPORT THREAD (thread closed)

[BRSxIgnition]

I've created this thread to condense the information we've gathered on this issue over the course of the old thread, which can be found here.

Current Fix Status:
Fix Here: https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?57462-G751-Imbalanced-Sound-Problem-FIX-IS-OUT!

Current Probable Issue Diagnosis:
Regular Signal instead of LFE (Low Frequency Effects) Signal to Subwoofer

Description (In different states):

Installed Drivers (Main Issue):

All speakers "working", but WITH massive imbalance issue.Sub greatly overshadows L/R Speakers & also distorts at volumes above 35%. Can hear sound very faintly coming from L/R speakers with ear pressed up against them.

Uninstalled Drivers (Temporary Fix):

Subwoofer (Only) is default playback device, with L/R Speakers being listed as a separate playback device. Left and Right Speakers working at full volume when selected as default playback device, with no sound
coming from subwoofer. Subwoofer can play audio when selected as default device, but distorts at volume levels above 35%, and does not work in conjunction with rear speakers in this configuration. (Either/Or Situation)

Reinstalled Drivers (Main Issue, Again):

Same effect as "Installed Drivers" every time. (All speakers "working", but WITH the imbalance issue. Sub greatly outpowers L/R Speakers & also distorts at volumes above 35%. Can hear sound very faintly coming from L/R speakers with ear pressed up against them.)

**NEW** Subwoofer Disabled (New Finding/Confirmation):

L/R Speakers can be heard perfectly fine when Subwoofer is disabled using the "Vbcmd_mute_int_woofer" Mute.exe file provided by MarshallR@ASUS on the ROG Forums. Cannot comment on volume level, but volume seems to scale fine without the subwoofer to overshadow it. This confirms the situation is a software issue, and all speakers are physically fine.

This issue is known to arise both brand new "out of box" units as well as on units where the OS has been cloned or reinstalled on a new drive and the ASUS Support Site drivers have been used. All G751 Models can have this issue.

Temporary Fixes:
As mentioned in the description, the speakers still work fine, proving that the issue is Software, not Hardware-related.

To get your Left & Right back speakers working correctly, follow the temporary fix guides below.

**NEW** TEMPORARY FIX - DISABLE SUBWOOFER:

• Download and extract this RAR file.
  
• Make sure you have the ASUS G751 Realtek Drivers installed. You can find them here.
  
• Unzip Vbcmd_mute_int_woofer tool, and run Mute.exe.
  
• If it returns a "Success!" message, your subwoofer should now be disabled.
  
• If you ever need to enable your subwoofer again (when a fix is issued), simply unzip Vbcmd_unmute_int_woofer and run Unmute.exe.
  
• Viola.
  

Enjoy your tinny-back speakers with no sub until we get a fix from ASUS. Until then, keep checking in here for updates, and let us know if you find anything!

Edit by cl-Albert 2/5/15: Very late thanks for looking into this and apologies for the delay, BRSxIgnition.
The new *.7432 G751 audio driver has finally been released, so this thread has been closed (to avoid 2 competing threads) and a new thread started.
If anybody is interested, please post your testing results or comments about this new audio driver at the post below. Thanks!

G751 Imbalanced Sound Problem FIX IS OUT!
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?57462-G751-Imbalanced-Sound-Problem-FIX-IS-OUT!

[BRSxIgnition]

joshindaphils wrote:
In the Realtek HD Audio Manager there is a R/L balance slider. Move that all the way to the right. This does not effect the volume of the sub it only isolates the right channel making it easier to distinguish the sound as the right speaker is the furthest from the sub.

So... I've finally checked this, and after studying the results for a while - it seems like you're right.

All three speakers on my system work, but are immensely overshadowed by the subwoofer, to the point that I need to place my right ear up against my right speakers to hear them at all, with all the balance set to the right. When I listened carefully on medium balance (neither left nor right), I could hear sound out of both speakers in the back, but both were incredibly hard to hear, and I needed to push my ear against both to hear any of them, again, mainly because of the difference in volume because of the subwoofer.

Finally, I tried it with sound balance "All Left" and guess what? Left signals got pushed through the left speaker and subwoofer, but no right signal was heard. (The same occurred with using an "All Right" setup, but with the right speaker and no left signal was heard.)

To summarize, our issues are now this, as far as I'm concerned:

• Sound plays through back speakers at about 30% (or lower) of the volume of the subwoofer.
  
• The subwoofer receives the left and right signals, when it should not.
  
• It is unknown if the subwoofer is receiving its own signal or not. (It is muddled in with the others)
  
• None of the playback device settings change anything other than "Front" which adjusts all volume.
  

Any confirmation/debunking of these findings from others is greatly welcomed.

.... So what now?

[joshindaphils]

BRSxIgnition wrote:


Any confirmation/debunking of these findings from others is greatly welcomed.

.... So what now?

Update MarshallR / Asus support with the correct information as several reports including yours of sub only sound could be leading the remediation team down the wrong rabbit hole.

Update your first post / title.

Occasionally pushing MarshellR and support for remediation / feedback.

Decide if you can wait it out for a fix or not.

Your findings are in line with mine.

[BRSxIgnition]

joshindaphils wrote:

Decide if you can wait it out for a fix or not.

Your findings are in line with mine.

Alright, I've updated the thread and asked for a title change.

The first month of having this issue is 2 weeks away, I hope they have a stance on complimentary repairs or a date for the fix by then. (That's about all the time we have for those who got a G751JT on release without an extended warranty.

[bsod]

Just received my g751jt yesterday and I thought based on the posts that I had avoided the subwoofer issue, but it looks like its the same issue everyone is experiencing.
I can confirm that my machine behaves the exact same way yours is. When running default Windows sound dialog, by default my Speakers are set to Realtek Hi Def Audio, and when running the test chime, I hear left/right chimes distinctly coming out of the right/left speakers but also out of the subwoofer at the same time for both.
Playing with the balance settings, I can mute the left/right channels individually, but the subwoofer levels slider has zero affect on the subwoofer.

If I right click -> Configure speakers, and choose 5.1 surround, I can selectively produce a chime from the L/R speakers. However, clicking on the subwoofer icon only causes the subwoofer speaker make distinct "on" and "off" sounds, but no other audio.

I did find out today that setting Audio Wizard's setting to "Off" gets rid of the annoying tinny sound the machine ships with. I have no idea why the machine would ship with the default of "multimedia" which looks like it clamps the max volume while cranking up the treble.

BRSxIgnition wrote:
So... I've finally checked this, and after studying the results for a while - it seems like you're right.

To summarize, our issues are now this, as far as I'm concerned:

• Sound plays through back speakers at about 30% (or lower) of the volume of the subwoofer.
  
• The subwoofer receives the left and right signals, when it should not.
  
• It is unknown if the subwoofer is receiving its own signal or not. (It is muddled in with the others)
  
• None of the playback device settings change anything other than "Front" which adjusts all volume.
  

Any confirmation/debunking of these findings from others is greatly welcomed.

[WoodburyMan]

I originally did the installation with a Realtek Driver directly from Realtek's site (R2.75). I found I had the same issue. Sound only coming from the Sub. I didn't notice it at first. I removed it, then reinstalled with the driver from Asus' site (V6.0.1.7335) and all is well. Although.. the speaker design I believe is a little flawed. The majority of the sound for the left/right channels come out the rear of the laptop, behind the screen, near the vents for the CPU and GPU. That would be perfect if I was sitting behind the laptop... Instead I'm left hearing the majority of the sound outputted from the combined output of left/right on the "sub" speaker, which does not help in gaming at all when determining if a sound is coming from the left or the right. There's no easy way to disable the sub since it's wired into the physical left/right channels, not having it's own separate channel via software.

[xeromist]

In order to keep the discussion from fragmenting I locked the other thread. Keep in mind that even if a thread gets long you can always updated the first post to convey updates and if you can't edit a title a moderator can do it for you.

[thamann2000]

New threads are great and neat. Fixes are better.

[xeromist]

I'm a volunteer moderator so I have no more power to push for a fix than you do, sorry.

[ARX7Arbalest]

I installed the Audio Drivers from ASUS and I can also confirm that sound also comes out of the Right Speaker when adjusting the Balance of the audio.

So the real issue now is that most of the sound comes from the subwoofer. The loudness of the sound from the subwoofer is more dominant than the ones on the rear speakers.

[BRSxIgnition]

I will test this tomorrow morning or evening - I can usually detect things like audio very well, and I know that right-test-tones do usually sound like they are coming more from the right, even when it is the same speaker. This, combined with the fact that the back speakers sound immensely different than the sub-only sound, leads me to thing it's more of a psychological effect of expecting the sound to come from the right, rather than it actually doing so.

Regardless - I will check as well and see if the above hold true.