Low Audio on G74SX? Here's the fix

[Chastity]

Open up the THX TruStudio app and set it to "External Speakers". When on "Built-In Speakers", it's filtering the audio improperly, and losing a lot of the audio playback.

Just a FYI, comparing the G74SX to the G73SW, the audio is fuller sounding. Seeing how the audio plate is wider, I suspect they put in larger drivers. 🙂

Feedback welcome!

[PILGRIM]

@thizzladen:

😄 Thanks a lot for the tip! My laptop audio is crisper and a bit louder now.

(I also enhanced it with THX TruStudio PRO.)

[dstrakele]

To my understanding, Loudness Equalization will make softer sounds louder and louder sounds softer, decreasing the dynamic range of music played on the system. But it's all whatever'll float yer boat....

[Xet]

The only really good solution to the sound problem that I have found are:

Uninstall the THX, Realtek and the drivers after that. Restart the computer and install the latest ALC269 drivers from Realtek instead, restart the computer. Go to the speaker Properties. Click the "Enhancements Tab" and adjusted the equalizer to Powerful and ambient to Forest (or to the one you think sounds best). BINGO! The Asus G74 sound is much better 🙂

Thx Pro is not a good solution because you have to change the settings each time you start your computer. With my solution, you do not need to do that anymore 😉

[BrodyBoy]

Xet wrote:
Thx Pro is not a good solution because you have to change the settings each time you start your computer. With my solution, you do not need to do that anymore 😉

There are versions of it that retain the settings.


The key phrase in your post, though, is "that I have found..." The point is that people really differ in their preferences and perceptions, and some people prefer THX presets, some prefer Realtek presets, some prefer SRS, and some others like to play around and come up with their own settings solutions.

I don't think there is only one really good solution. (Actually, I don't think there are ANY "really" good solutions, since the speakers suck....but there's no one-size-fits-all enhancement solution.)

[WhirledNews]

I think the best solution to all of the speaker problems is to buy some really nice headphones 😛

[huntz]

I am using version Thx trustudio 1.04.04.

When i reboot my g74, it is defaulted to external speaker.There is no need for me to change to external speaker. So i guess Thx Trustudio is the way to go for me.

[jaguar0620]

So, I wanted to share my experience with everyone here in hopes to help some of the new people having the same issues as all of us. I am new to my G74sx and followed these forums with a clean install with AWESOME results, except for the low audio issue.

The only resolution no one spoke about is the allowing of Windows to auto-install the Microsoft High Definition driver v. 6.1.7601.17514 11/19/2010.
I uninstalled the realtek and THX drivers and viola, Win7 64bit recognized and installed the drivers needed. I have no issues with low audio now.

I think I will run like this until I find an issue but so far it's been solid.

I hope this helps some of you like it helped me. 🙂

[BrodyBoy]

jaguar0620 wrote:
The only resolution no one spoke about is the allowing of Windows to auto-install the Microsoft High Definition driver v. 6.1.7601.17514 11/19/2010.
I uninstalled the realtek and THX drivers and viola, Win7 64bit recognized and installed the drivers needed. I have no issues with low audio now.

I think I will run like this until I find an issue but so far it's been solid.

I hope this helps some of you like it helped me. 🙂

Hopefully, that will continue to work well for you. When I have tried this, either running the MS driver alone, or the nVidia HD audio driver alone, I always ran into a situation that called for something in the Realtek driver. As Drew mentioned, you don't get much in the way of audio controls without the Realtek Audio Manager.

I was especially happy with the nVidia driver alone, as it sounded pretty good and didn't require any extra software (it's needed in the nVidia driver anyway). But eventually, I ran into a couple situations where a program wouldn't recognize the audio device, so I gave up on that approach. 😞

BTW, the Microsoft driver IS the Realtek driver.....it's just the bare driver, sourced directly from Realtek as the "MS" component in all of their driver releases. (I think it may be because of this "rebranding" that other programs will sometimes fail to recognize the audio device.)

[jaguar0620]

@BrodyBoy - That's interesting. I didn't know that WAS a realtek driver. I figured it was the microsoft equivalent. Good to know. If that doesn't continue to work I will just reinstall the Realtek and THX drivers. No Biggie 🙂

Thank you all for the input. 🙂

[dstrakele]

Thanks for sharing, @jaguar and @huntz! The low audio issue is specifically caused by the "Built-in Speakers" setting of Creative THX TruStudio.

If you upgrade it to version 1.04.04, it defaults to the "External Speakers setting as @huntz reports.

If you uninstall THX TruStudio, or only install the Realtek HD Audio driver in a new OS installation, you have a configurable equalizer in Realtek HD Audio Manager in "Speakers - Enhancements tab".