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!

[joshindaphils]

BRSxIgnition wrote:
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.

There is nothing about a 'right' test tone that will make it sound as though it is coming from the right... it is simply a test tone delivered to the right channel there are no psychoacoustic manipulations.

I also tested with music the difference is most noticeable in the higher frequency ranges as the sub simply doesn't produce these frequencies as well as the R/L speakers. The test tone in the Realtek audio manager is of a much lower frequency. You may have better luck using something like this site: http://onlinetonegenerator.com to more clearly distinguish the front speakers.

[Ekentuor]

Hi all, sorry for my bad english ... I think i've a fix for this ... Maybe just for me.

I had the problem on my first G751 and the new too (first with baklit problem ...), with Realtek drivers Asus site. In my sound panel I had two speakers, L+R and subwoofer ...
And with the Realtek Driver by Asus, no AudioWizard Installed on my computer.

I installed this driver for testing : 64bits Vista, Windows7, Windows8, Windows8.1 Driver only (Executable file)
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=24&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownT...

Reboot and ... No speaker in the menu, no sound, nothing.

I reinstalled the previous driver by Asus and now sound look fine ... One speaker in the menu and AudioWizard is here ...

I'm lucky or ... ?

[Richdog]

Ekentuor wrote:

I reinstalled the previous driver by Asus and now sound look fine ... One speaker in the menu and AudioWizard is here ...

I'm lucky or ... ?

That just means the software sound drivers are correctly isntalled, not that your sound is working as intended.

[thamann2000]

We are truly in the 11th hour here. People without extended return policies are having to decide whether to keep or send back. No resolutions. No temp fixes. No official statement from asus. No promise of reparations. Just a wait and see.

We must speak in the only way this company understands. With our dollars. So I say we give asus five days to make an official statement, issued a fix, make an offer of reparation, or at least explain when we can expect a fis.

Anyone agree? Light the Fire.

[joshindaphils]

thamann2000 wrote:
We are truly in the 11th hour here. People without extended return policies are having to decide whether to keep or send back. No resolutions. No temp fixes. No official statement from asus. No promise of reparations. Just a wait and see.

We must speak in the only way this company understands. With our dollars. So I say we give asus five days to make an official statement, issued a fix, make an offer of reparation, or at least explain when we can expect a fis.

Anyone agree? Light the Fire.

Not really... As someone that has has software delivery experience within large corps 2+ months turn around is realistic, any resolution would likely involve Asus and Realtek. Just look at the build time when you apply the latest BIOS and when it was posted for D/L it is nearly a month apart, now think about that, and this was to fix a far more critical issue; some USB HDDs failing to function properly on certain ports. In this example the final fix was created and when it was available to users is a ~month apart, there are good reasons that things take this long. On the other hand this speaker issue is not as critical... The sound works, it is not working as expected.

Honestly I am to the point that it may be working correctly it is just that the sound is totally underwhelming. Now frankly I consider sound from any laptop a last resort utilitarian feature, I have IEDs for traveling light, a portable DAC/Amp and some circumaurals for better sound and isolation, and a pair of monitors at my desk... if you care about sound you don't use ANY internal speaks this goes for TVs, Laptops, etc.

[BRSxIgnition]

joshindaphils wrote:


Honestly I am to the point that it may be working correctly it is just that the sound is totally underwhelming.

The sound shouldn't be SO underwhelming that loading GENERIC Windows drivers - ON THE SAME SPEAKERS - make it sound better.

[joshindaphils]

BRSxIgnition wrote:
The sound shouldn't be SO underwhelming that loading GENERIC Windows drivers - ON THE SAME SPEAKERS - make it sound better.

To be fair I haven't done this to A/B test, just trying to put things in perspective... Certainly the sound can and should be better, it is however better sound than my last laptop, it is far from unusable.

To boot MarshallR has stated it is being worked on. Things take time, things don't always work out to arbitrary deadlines set by oneself.

[thamann2000]

joshindaphils wrote:
Not really... As someone that has has software delivery experience within large corps 2+ months turn around is realistic, any resolution would likely involve Asus and Realtek. Just look at the build time when you apply the latest BIOS and when it was posted for D/L it is nearly a month apart, now think about that, and this was to fix a far more critical issue; some USB HDDs failing to function properly on certain ports. In this example the final fix was created and when it was available to users is a ~month apart, there are good reasons that things take this long. On the other hand this speaker issue is not as critical... The sound works, it is not working as expected.

Honestly I am to the point that it may be working correctly it is just that the sound is totally underwhelming. Now frankly I consider sound from any laptop a last resort utilitarian feature, I have IEDs for traveling light, a portable DAC/Amp and some circumaurals for better sound and isolation, and a pair of monitors at my desk... if you care about sound you don't use ANY internal speaks this goes for TVs, Laptops, etc.

Your setup and situation is totally unique. And you missed one of the key issues completed: proper testing would've eliminated the issue completely. Testing just 10 out of1000 systems would've showed them that this issue is present across the board. And how long did it take for them to acknowledge the issue. Do you know how many people told me and other users that this issue was just in our machines even after telling them that I made a return and tested a second one. And there's been no official word or response from asus at all. Me and many others have escalated emailed hit multiple message boards and the extent of acknowledgement was Marshall and hmscott saying to give it time. But man, contact asus and the first thing they tell you is that they are not able to do anything for the multitude of customers to make it right. So a company doesn't acknowledge the issue, then they provide no release or info on a fix, they don't respond properly to escalations, they tell you that even when fixed they will do nothing as reparation, and tell you to wait and hope they can fix it? How are they even in business? The only way you send a message to a company with service this poor is with your $$$ and by returning their products. If we don't start pushing they will take their sweet time and nothing will get done.

[BRSxIgnition]

While I am one of the people with an extended warranty - it would be an absolute pain to return the machine then pick up a new one. (It would require I cross the border twice.) This is even worse for people who wont even be able to return their machine as soon as next week.

So yes, I agree that we ask that ASUS release a statement within the next 5 days - either that repairs will be FULLY covered for those with the issue or that a fix will be issued by Christmas.

Any less, and I will pledge to avoid buying ASUS in the future - after returning this machine of course. I cannot purchase a product what isn't checked thoroughly, and I cannot support a company that doesn't support its customers. (Both my technical inquiries got nowhere.)

I will test the "Right Balance" theory in about an hour or so, and post my results here.

PS: None of the above applies to you, MarshallR - I understand you are doing your best that you can do in your position. Please try and push for the above if possible, thank you very much in advance.

[Sanctrum]

It all makes sense.
I have other gaming laptop from MSI that has subwoofer.
At MSI case, the design with subwoofer is simple.
Subwoofer ALWAYS combines the sound ONLY from L/R channels and at any circumstances.
So when it is 2.1, it combines channels L and R. But when it is 5.1 it STILL combines sound ONLY from L/R. So laptop’s sub is NOT the separate channel x.1 !
And it is still OK if you understand how it works… and only if you can swith-off the sub!
At MSI case you can always switch-off laptop’s sub BUT NOT using Realtec HD Audio interface… It is possible ONLY with the DEDICATED physical button located at the laptop’s case! So MSI avoided the problem/design flaw… by adding this button. Also MSI sub is located to the left side, so once it plays the music the sound balance is shifted to the left.

NOT sure it is possible to have this button equivalent available as software… I do not have G751, just planning to buy.