Sound isn't as loud as XP

Hi everyone,

this is my first post on these boards. I have a problem with my sound card... the sound simply isn't as loud as what it was with windows xp. Back to then I had my old pc I tried to install windows vista (with audigy 2 soundcard) and had the same problem... the playback sound isn't loud... I'm using my headset, everything is maxed and it feels like something is muted, it is nowhere from being loud.

Now I just bought the an Acer PC with Q6600 CPU and Realtek HD audio on-board sound. I formatted the drive and installed my own win vista 64-bit (to remove the 32-bit version) and it's the same, it's not loud at all.

Can anyone help me, thanks!

I just got a Toshiba Satellite laptop with the RealTek sound also, and I noticed the same thing. When I use Skype to talk with someone, I have no choice but to attach speakers. I would be interested in knowing if this is a universal problem with Vista. It doesn't seem to be the speakers themselves, because when I go through the diagnostics, the sound comes out fine.