Vista - Tinny Sound from Laptop

I'm not an audiophile but I would like to hear a full sound from the music coming out of my laptop with no external speakers. This is a new Dell Studio 1737 and the sound is very tinny and "blank" sounding". My old Dell Inspiron gave me great quality sound with no speakers. I thought I was purchasing a sound blaster card with my laptop. It turns out it was only sound blaster software. I have removed it and now the sound is a little better. Dell wants to sell me a soundblaster kit - X Fi Express card with wireless receiver. I don't need sound anywhere else in the house but coming out of my laptop. Does anyone know if this will do the job for me? thanks

PC

its either a driver or a config issue. can you go into device manager (type that in search) go to the audio/sound tab and sevice you device is listed and insatalled correcty. If it either is not there or has a yellow triangle on it the driver is not installed correctly

If this is ok then its probably a donfig issue.

let us know the results

ken

Thanks for that reply. I checked the device manager and found no triangles . The devices listed are: IDT High Definition Audio CODEC - working properly and Intel(R) High Definition Audio HDMI - working properly. I haven't touched a configsys in years and probably wouldn't know what to touch. Thanks

PC

could you use the built in snipping tool (type snipping insearch) to make a screenshot of the sound control panel. to upload it use the attachment icon (shaped like a paperclip) in the reply form

thanks

ken

I found the snipping tool. Where do I find the sound control panel?

go to the start button>then control panel>then sound. take one snip of each tab.

ken

Here goes -

PC

Under speakers>configure> there may be adjustments for room size, boost, etc. check to see what you can change


ken

I have no external speakers. The only configuration is for additional speakers or surround set ups. The tinkling sound that comes from my laptop speakers during that configuration tests sounds ok. but that is not the sound I get when I play my iTunes.
If I connect speakers directly to my laptop the sound is great. But short of adding speakers will the sound blaster X Fi express card make any difference or is adding speakers (wirelessly) my only option?

PC

do the headphones sound the same or are they oK?