This is an issue that I have had for months, yet had been unable to resolve. There were plenty of other posts around the web about it — tens of thousands, actually. But after reading the first ten or so pages of Google, I was unable to find a workable solution. I know I probably wasn’t the only one experiencing very low sound on Windows 8 (it may just be on laptops — not sure). I was able to replicate the issue on almost every other Windows 8 laptop I came across, proving that it clearly was a design flaw with the sound card or sound drivers.
Fixing Very Low Sound On Windows 8
The fix is actually more of a band-aid than a full-blown solution, but the outcome is full quality sound, so this is the best we can do until Microsoft decides to fix the issue. Follow the steps below to fix your sound issues:
- Right-click the sound icon in the bottom right corner of your screen (on the task bar). Select “Playback Devices”.
- Right-click on the computer speaker device (probably Realtek High Definition Audio on most standard PCs). Select “Properties”.
- Left-click on the “Levels” tab. This should bring up one or two audio sliders. On the one labeled “Output”, left-click the “Balance” button.
- Set both the left (L) and right (R) balances to something lower than 100, but still high. Anywhere in between 95-99 should work.
- Hit “OK”. Your computer should now play all audio at max volume.
Hopefully this fixes your issues with Windows 8 sound being too low. I was able to test and fix four PCs for verification before posting this article, so it seems to be a fix on most devices.
