Notebooks & Netbooks

[SteveInUtah]

I have an Aspire E1-572 that is five months old, running Win 8.1.  I've loved the notebook to this point, but now the speakers have quit working completely (the headphone jack still works).  I called tech support (welcome to India) and they had me delete and reinstall the driver (Realtech high definition audio), which made no difference.  

She then told me the next step is to refresh my Windows installation, which will apparently blow away everything I've installed since it was new.  I declined to do that because I really don't want to spend an entire day reinstalling all the programs, even though I have the data backed up.  Is this truly the only way to make a final determination if it's a hardware or software problem?

After I determine whether this is really required, and if it is, I plan to "ghost" the entire drive before I call tech support to work through the process, so I can restore the entire drive after it's been returned from warranty service.  Any problems anyone can see with this plan?

Thanks!

[Sharanji]

hi...

By default Windows does route sound to the internal speaker,  however you may check the sound settings.

Press Windows key + X ,   click on "Control Panel",  

With the Control Panel in "Control Panel Home" view please click on "Hardware and Sound"
Where it says "Sound" in green letters there are three options below that are in blue click on "Manage Audio Devices",  This will bring up a window labeled "Sound"
On the "Playback" tab there is listed the sound options available to you. One should read "Speakers" Click on that.
There should now be a check mark on that option, make Speaker output as default . The Sound should then play through your Speker.

If the issue persist, first uninstall the Realtek high definition audio under "Sound, video and game controllers" in device manager

Then restore the Realtek driver from Acer eRecovery management.

Use the following steps to reinstall a driver or application on your computer:

Press the Windows  key to open the Start screen, Type Recovery in the search box.

Click Acer Recovery Management in the search results, Click Reinstall Drivers.

On the Contents tab, locate the Realtek driver you wish to install and click the Install icon.

Follow the prompts to install the driver.

[SteveInUtah]

Thank you, but that did not work either.  The speakers were already selected and the uninstall and reinstall made no difference, and is essentially what I went through with tech support yesterday.  Using the method you suggested, I was able to see all the old files removed, then did a reboot, the new files were installed, and then rebooted again, but do difference.

What's next - do I call for a warranty return authorization?  Or do I need to do the system restore, which I understand will remove all my installed programs but leave the data?

[SteveInUtah]

I did verify with Acer that I will lose all my installed programs when I do the system refresh, but they insist it is necessary to be sure it's not a corrupted system file causing the problem.  I maintain three websites and am not crazy about likely being without my computer while it is sent in for repair (probably 3 weeks by the time I get it back).  At this point I'm considering just attaching external speakers & not buying another Acer product.

[nason1410]

Just bought an Acer Aspire E1-572-6870 as well.  About  week into using it, my speakers have stopped working as well.. Same problem as you .  Did the reinstallation of drivers and did a system restore (thought not a complete restore, just the OS).  

Did you end up resolving the issue somehow?  Or did you send in your laptop?

[SteveInUtah]

I ended up sending it in to their service facility in Texas because nothing I tried, including the system restore made any difference.  According to the service order they "Replaced mainboard and speakers, updated bios/DMI.  System checks OK."  Seems like they got it in and out in about a day, the majority of the time was shipping.

Of course, you lose everything, so I recommend a clone of the hard drive before sending it in.  Worked fine for me.