Volume too low on GS60 2QE 970m 6gb

I recently updated the system BIOS and EC to the latest (10F & 5.06) on the MSI site and also updated the audio drivers to the latest: 6.0.1.7482. After these changes the SB Cinema 2 software threw a message stating "The currently selected audio device is disabled, not present, or not supported by this application. Do you want to select another audio device now?" if I say yes it says, ""There are no supported audio devices available."

Tried rolling back the Realtek driver but the Creative Cinema is still broken. Also tried uninstalling both and reinstalling after reset but no dice. Now overall system audio is very low even at the highest volume setting. Also I cannot open the "Realtek HD Audio Manager" anymore; it launches and shows open on the taskbar but no program window opens and it is unavailable to interact with.

Is there a way I can re-enable the Creative software and get back to volume levels the laptop was capable of? I submitted this problem to MSI tech support but their only solution is to do a full system recovery which I am extremely loath to do because of so many reasons. Any gamer has their system tweaked to their liking and I don't want to start from scratch. I should be able to update to the latest drivers that the manufacturer provides without losing functionality. Thanks for any help.

 

Have you tried installing just the realtek drivers and testing it? Have you tired installing both on the same or different restarts?

 

Hi Meaker. Well I tried different permutations of driver installation/system resets and I did learn one thing.... by uninstalling the latest version and rebooting my volume is back to its previous heights. This seems to have something to do with any later diver version removing the "enhancements" tab from the "speaker properties." In that tab is an option labeled "loudness equalization" which when checked makes the speakers good and loud. With any other Realtek driver installation that tab is just gone and the volume is significantly quieter.

I made no headway with the Cinema 2 software from Creative however. Any number of versions of the Realtek driver + the Creative one just give the same error messages. I noticed on the MSI website that the Creative Cinema 2 utility is no longer available for download (it was there a few weeks back before the latest BIOS update.) There is another audio effects utility listed now called Nahimic that seems somewhat similar in its use. Perhaps the Creative Cinema 2 suite has some licensing tie in with the system BIOS and if MSI has discontinued their partnership with Creative or just plum forgot to include the license in the latest BIOS that would explain my problem?

At any rate I'm somewhat satisfied that my problem is solved; although I should be able to use the latest software updates available from MSI without sacrificing that "enhancements" tab!

 

Hmm, I can't see your image. Do you have that tab with the latest Realtek drivers?

 

We've ran into the same message on several Clevo machines and the fix has always been to leave the SB software installed (or update it first), then re-install the audio driver.

Sorry if I missed this: How is the volume with the Realtek driver installed and the SB software uninstalled?

 

1. Use uninstall a program under Control Panel to remove the existing driver completely, as well as SB Cinema software.
2. Reinstall the latest Realtek driver from MSI.
3. Once finished, reboot the PC, and verify if you can install SB Cinema 2 or not.

 

Hi Prostar, I actually bought this machine on 10-29-14 from you guys! It's had ZERO issues till this speaker thing, and the re-paste I added has resulted in great gaming temps - so thanks! I used the "uninstall" program from the control panel to remove the Realtek audio drivers, then rebooted and installed the 6.0.1.7482 from the MSI site... doing this results in low volume and the removal of the "enhancements" tab on the speaker properties. Using the device manager I can uninstall the driver which causes it to revert to 6.3.9600.16384 after the manager re-detects the device. This driver has the "enhancements" tab in the speaker properties which lets me select "Loudness Equalization" and have a good volume level back.

Now the "Creative Cinema 2" driver installation package that I have came from one of those driver backup websites as it does not seem to be available from MSI anymore. It is version 1.00.06 and will not work with either of these Realtek driver installations. I get the message, "The currently selected audio device is disabled, not present, or not supported by this application. Do you want to select another audio device now?" if I say yes it says, ""There are no supported audio devices available." This is with both Realtek driver installations, rebooting between Realtek/Creative installs and also installing both before rebooting. Thanks for any help.

 

Hello Kevin,

I followed your steps exactly; upon install of the Realtek 6.0.1.7482 drivers (after the removal of the old driver from control panel and reboot) I lose access to the "enhancements" tab on the "speaker properties". As a result I cannot check the "Loudness Equalization" option which results in a pretty low overall volume. After another reboot I can re-install the Creative 1.00.06 Cinema 2 software without issue however when trying to access the Cinema 2 menu from the taskbar I get the message, "The currently selected audio device is disabled, not present, or not supported by this application. Do you want to select another audio device now?" if I say yes it says, ""There are no supported audio devices available." I tried both the 1.00.06 and 1.00.07 Creative packages however both are from an archive driver package website since neither is currently available from MSI.

The Nahimic software that is available from the MSI site installs fine but results in no sound in several games in my STEAM library. Uninstalling the A-Volute Nahimic software solves the no-audio issue in those titles. Thanks for your help too.

 

You need to make sure that you are seeing Realtek High Definition audio in the playback devices. If you don't see it then it's not done correctly.
Does your PC have 9xxM GPU? Note Nahimic will only work on 9xxM GPU.

 

Yes my system has the 6gb 970m, 2QE -064 I think was the model. I took this

Screenshot (5) by Galland posted Jul 2, 2015 at 9:28 AM

screenshot to show the relevant items in play. In this configuration sound volume is very low. I can remove the Creative software and install the Nahimic one; that has a "volume boost" setting that works well but causes a lack of audio in a game I'm playing. Uninstalling Nahimic instantly regains audio in that title.

Here

Screenshot (6) by Galland posted Jul 2, 2015 at 9:47 AM

is a picture of how I'm currently running things. I uninstall both the Realtek and Creative/Nahimic stuff and Windows seems to load a generic High definition audio driver. This driver has an enhancements tab in the speaker properties and after enabling loudness equalization the volume is quite good. The only downside is that I have no simulated surround effects and other digital enhancements provided by Creative and/or Realtek.

Thanks.

 

Interesting. And while it's a long shot: Have you already touched base with MSI support about this? Perhaps this is a known variable that they have a hotfix for.

 

I did, they had me try a series of re-installs using different sequences of un-installing and rebooting. They finally wanted me to try and do a complete restore of the system... that's just not an option for me. I have a great deal installed on it for work and for fun; and wiping everything off to a factory new condition is just not a satisfactory solution. I'm no expert; but I've been dealing with device drivers since you had to load them into DOS's upper memory blocks so I'm sure there's some solution short of the nuclear option for updating audio drivers! It makes me wonder that they may know somethings up since they've since removed the Creative software from their driver/utility update support page for this model. At any rate I have working sound so it's not too bad an issue.

 

Agreed!─the recovery should be a last resort measure, albeit a pretty undesirable one at that. Here's to hoping a future (hopefully sooner than later) driver revision corrects this.

 

Use K-Lite Mega + Normalize audio option for your needs.
However, if we have no other things to try to resolve the issue then recovery is the last option. Sometimes, it is the quick solution to several problems and it may be worthy it, depends on how you look at this. Haven't you already spent a lot of time on this already?

 

Lesson I learned from reading this is don't touch the audio drivers ha...

 

Found this: https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=256778.0 posted on the MSI forums that may solve this issue... It looks like it's the new BIOS that breaks compatibility with the Creative software. A rollback allows one to update drivers and keep the Cinema 2 utility. If I can find my backup of the previous BIOS file I'm going to revert.

 

Here is E16H5IMS.10D, see below link.
Download