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Low Speaker Output Volume after O/S reinstallation

I recently wiped my hard drive on a Panasonic Toughbook (CF-50) that has a SigmaTel C-Major sound card (embedded, I think). Before the wipe, the sound components worked fine (I have the laptop connected an amplified Boston speaker set). After the O/S reinstallation, the volume level coming out of the speakers is significantly reduced. With the max volume setting on the computer, paired with the max setting on the speakers, I can hardly hear the sound (it is present, though). I reinstalled the drivers for the SigmaTel card, and made sure that the volume settings were at max. No dice so far. Anyone have any experience in such a phenomenon?
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Wesley Lennon
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Was the OS Installtion from the Panasonic Restore Disk?

What OS was on it before:
Did you do a Clean Install or over install/upgrade to existing OS?

Donwloads for the Toughbook CF-50:
http://tcc.toughbook.com

There is a January 2005 Chipset update, these (Chipset/CPU) are critical updates. (Take note of the OS's these updates are for, some are NT/Win 2000/WinXP

**Try || Start-->Control Panel-->Double click the Sounds and Audio Devices Icon, make sure all the sliders are up to the maximum, click on Advanced for other options.
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bosswhaler

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wlennon -- answers to your questions:

-OS Intsall was NOT from Panasonic restore disk

-OS Before: Windows XP Home (SP unknown)
-New OS: Windows XP Pro (SP2), Clean install

-Already downloaded and installed SigmaTel driver from support site (http://tcc.toughbook.com) and installed it with no luck.

-Would 1/2005 chipset updates fix this issue? I'll try this...

-Volume control is set to maximum for all output devices (WAVE, Line Out, etc)...
You can also go to the Device Manager (Right Click on My Computer or Control Panel, system, then Device Manager), click the + next to Sound, video and game controllers.

If there is a yellow exclamation or question mark, there is a problem with the controller/driver and can choose properties by right clicking and Update Drivers and have it point to your unzipped drivers you downloaded.

The device manager view doesn't have an exclaimation mark next to the SigmaTel icon in the "Sound, video and game controllers" section. I installed the new driver by going through the device manager to install a new driver for the device.

The other symptom that may, or may not, be relevant is that when the apmplified speakers are unplugged, there is no audible sound coming from the laptop built-in speakers. Shrug...it's as if the output level is so low that you can't hear anything except for sounds coming out of amplified speakers at high volume/gain.
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Wesley Lennon
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That info may also be found in the Device Manager...
Sorry for the lagging response....vacation sometimes slows these things down.

I tried the aforementioned suggestions to no avail. I have yet to seek Panasonic tech support, but may try that if my troubleshooting fails....