Aspire R7-571, Windows 10: Sound is tinny, low quality after upgrade

b9chris
b9chris Member Posts: 34 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
in 2015 Archives

The driver/software package on this laptop includes a Dolby Surround Virtualizer.

 

I've noticed while this was Win8 that if I had 2 things playing sound, one would be favored and would virtualize Surround Sound, making it much louder, and pretty quality sound. Any second, third, etc sources of sound would sound tinny, about half volume, and quieter.

 

I assume the Dolby virtualizer does this. With Windows 10 it would seem something is constantly taking that primary slot, because now everything gets that background, tinny sound. I can turn the Dolby thing completely off, on, virtualizer on and off, restart, etc etc, nothing fixes this. I'm guessing maybe Cortana is causing this? Whatever it is, some sort of tweak needs to be made to how this works on Windows 10.

Answers

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    Try to update the Realtek drivers:

    http://station-drivers.com/download/Realtek/audio/realtek_hda_7576_dolby(www.station-drivers.com).exe

     

    double click the exe and when asked where to unzip, add realtek name (\relatek) at the end of the string, so it will unzip inside a folder named Realtek.

     

    once done, look for setup.exe inside the folder and run it.

     

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • b9chris
    b9chris Member Posts: 34 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    Hmm so I've tried updating these drivers before, past what's on Acer's site (which is quite dated - 2013), and got similar results. Not only did the audio not improve, but things appear to have gotten worse. I no longer have the Dolby icon in my taskbar with which to modify the way audio plays (equalization, virtual surround). I dug around and it's not in Settings or the older, hidden, Control Panel, either. It's also not in Sound. There is a tab for Dolby in Sound, but it's got a single power button, On/Off, that makes absolutely no difference whatsoever.

    Thank you for trying. Unfortunately this made things worse not better.

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    uninstall that driver and try this from Acer R7-371T for windows 10:

    http://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/Driver/Audio/Audio_Realtek_6.0.1.7553_W10x64_A.zip?acerid=635736475889825344&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=ASPIRE&Step3=ASPIRE%20R7-371T&OS=10M1&LC=en&BC=ACER&SC=PA_6

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • b9chris
    b9chris Member Posts: 34 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    Hmmm it sounds like you're guessing. Installing drivers for one system on another can be quite dangerous - it can destroy your system if you aren't careful. I won't be doing that.

     

    It appears Acer needs to release a new version of the Realtek/Dolby sound driver and config arrangement.

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    LOL

     

    no guessing at all but sometimes you need to try a few drivers to suit a system....since i don't have your PC under my hands. Smiley Happy

     

    by the way, it's you PC and it's up to you the decision to install it or not.

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • b9chris
    b9chris Member Posts: 34 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    Right and if it destroys my system, my fault not yours right? That's why I won't be installing it.

     

    Guessing to determine whether another driver for another machine might work is fine in a testbed with a lot of machines to throw away if it turns out badly, a situation testers at Acer might find themselves in. But the one machine I have, no.

     

    Acer, please release an update to the Realtek Audio/Dolby drivers for Windows 10 64-bit, for the Aspire R7-571. The current setup isn't working properly.

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    it's a driver man....it's realtek Audio driver and it's compatible with other thousand models.....

    it's not a nuclear plant.

     

    sorry if i hurt you.

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • b9chris
    b9chris Member Posts: 34 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    Right, my machine wasn't harmed, but that's in part because I didn't try a driver for a random other laptop. So, no harm was done here, but I'm a relatively technical person who knows better. I would caution you against giving the same advice to others if you have no evidence those other drivers will resolve things, because less technical people will just try it and, if their machine is then broken, then what? Will you say... you decided to install it so it's on them? Acer isn't gonna fix it since they broke it themselves.

     

    So, just be mindful of giving that kind of advice in the future.

     

    Acer - please fix this driver for Win10.

  • b9chris
    b9chris Member Posts: 34 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    I have a partial solution.

     

    Go to Settings, hit Devices, hit Device Manager at the bottom of the first screen in the righthand pane, find the Realtek driver in "Sound, video, and game controllers," right-click it, and hit Update Driver.

     

    When it's done, let it restart like it asked, then right-click your audio icon in the systray and hit Playback devices. Click Speakers then hit Properties. In the Dolby tab if it's not already On, hit the giant Off button to switch it to On. Virtual Surround works again.

     

    realtek-device-update.png

     

    This fix is incomplete because the Dolby software itself is still missing.

     

    It appears this can be resolved relatively simply - the Dolby software is technically separate, not a driver and not particularly risky. If Dolby offered it for direct download it'd be simple as that. But they don't - they actually link to acer.com/support, with no direct link to download the software. It appears Acer doesn't offer it separately for download - hoping I'm wrong about that. So if Acer can put that download link up, I can piece things back together.

    Of course the real solution would still be for it all to be in one driver update release by Acer.

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