2018-10-08 23:11:51

Now that I've completed setting up my new system with 64 bit Windows 10 Home, I have discovered an annoying problem hopefully somebody has encountered and found a solution for.

If I use any of the TTS voices that came with Windows they are fine, no problems that I can detect, but if I use Eloquence, either the one that comes with JAWS, or Code Factory's version for Windows, the volume is all over the place, it plays at one volume level one minute, then seemingly at random it starts playing at a higher or lower volume level for a while, then, again, it starts playing at yet another volume level. It's really annoying, to the point that I have switched to Microsoft's David until I can find a solution.

This was never a problem with my old system which ran 32 bit Windows 7 Home Premium using just the Generic audio drivers that came with Windows. After hearing some people complained about RealTech's High definition audio drivers as well as Dell's audio drivers, because of this, I was hoping that Windows 10 would also just load and use generic audio drivers, but found that the Dell audio drivers had been installed instead.

I have to agree with whomever it was that said they didn't like the Dell audio drivers, which appear to be based on the RealTech drivers, the audio quality I got from the generic drivers that Windows 7 used was far superior to what I'm getting from the Dell audio drivers.

Question: If I uninstall the Dell audio drivers, will Windows revert to using generic audio drivers, or will it just reinstall the Dell drivers, and if it insists on the Dell drivers, does anyone know of a solution to this poor audio quality I'm experiencing?

Thanks!

2018-10-08 23:45:25

it will redownload the dell drivers ,but you can go in and select generic drivers, problem is, it will most likely sound like complete and utter garbage. The speakers might have a constant crackle, as if something were physically wrong with them, etc. You also will lose the support for switching to headphones when you plug them in.

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2018-10-09 00:28:10

Yeah, I noticed that, unlike my old laptop, plugging headphones into this new laptop's headphone jack doesn't necessarily turn off the internal speakers unless software does it for you. Not something I'm particularly fond of, but I'm not going back to that old laptop because of this, I'll get used to it.

Besides, I put a new HDD into the old laptop and installed a fresh Windows 10 Home on it, it's going to my syster who doesn't have a computer right now and can't afford to buy one. For what I'd likely get for it, I'd rather help out a family member than sell it to a stranger.

2018-10-09 01:51:01

This sounds like a case of the dreaded audio enhancements. It'll be that dell wave audio or whatever it's called. My dad's dell laptop had it, and jaws sounded like crap til I got him to uncheck all those crappy so-called enhancements.

2018-10-09 03:38:02

I'm also having the same issue. And never found a solution to it though.

2018-10-09 07:47:42

Hello,
I think Dell must have created a dedicated application to customise the audio quality where you should find all the presets and enhancements. Basically, there should be three enhancements: Music, Voice, and Movie. The names are self-explanatory : Voice customises the audio quality so that it allows for a clearer sound, coming either from speakers or headphones. Music lets you better hear parts of the track which aren't otherwise heard when using the generic audio driver (I highly doubt this); and Movie, creates a movie-like experience so that all the effects are clearly heard.
Out of all these three, I have found out that the movie enhancement doesn't overload the audio system when using speakers. When using headphones, however, it drops the volume to at least 50%  as compared to when using speakers.
The music enhancement is fine for general use and that's what I've been using since I got my HP laptop running the DTS audio control pannel. I think all manufacturers today use a similar interface and that should be the case with Dell as well.
Now, to fix your problem, I think you should try decreasing the volume of Eloquence, which ever eloquence you are using. Eloquence is generally a loud TTS and runs in a low frequency. This gives the TTS a little more bass than this DTS audio studio or Dolby digital sound, or whatever it is called tolerates. It leads to an unclear and sometimes distorted sound. Mine sounds like I have set the volume of JAWS to 200%

2018-10-09 14:29:43

@Flackers

Thanks for that!

Years ago, before I lost my vision, when I first encountered RealTech's High Definition drivers, the sound was so bad that I started turning off every little feature I could find in the drivers, that improved things a lot, I then discovered that I could remove both tray icons from the startup menu because they aren't really needed. Finally acceptable sound! The only downside was that plugging in headphones wouldn't switch sound output to them, who ever thought that was a good idea needs to be shot in the head to put him out of the misery of not having any brains.

I will try that first.

2018-10-09 15:00:26

Refer to the audio section on this page, you will need some sighted help.
https://github.com/distantorigin/XPS-Enhancements

2018-10-09 17:22:58

Thanks, I called Aira and went through all the audio settings I could find, The only one that wasn't already turned off was the power management option, what a big difference turning that off made. Not only is the constantly changing volume level problem gone, I can now hear all that Eloquence is saying.

RealTech's hardware might be pretty good hardware considering how many manufacturers use it, but their drivers are complete crap. That is one feature that Windows 7 has over Windows 10, no RealTech drivers, it just installs generic drivers which work far better than the RealTech ones do.

2018-10-09 17:42:46

I am not sure about  what realtek drivers one uses, but I do use their sound card, and have had no issues thus far, and surprisingly, not sure what software mine comes with,  althought he primary software is not exactly accessible, when I plug anything into my computer, it pops up a dialog and I can select what it is I plugged in,  and it doesn't matter to what jack, so technically speaking, I can have 4 line-ins using the extra jacks on my unit, although I never tried this.    I know for sure I can run at least 2 line-ins, for that I have tried.

My problem though is, when it comes to  dedicated  drivers like Dell, or HP, ro whatever, they tend to have different names for different things  like enhancements could be  features, which we can see how that is confusing seeing as those, to me, are two very different things.

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2018-10-09 17:56:19

Ah, yes, there is an option to enable or disable that device plug in pop up, since I very rarely plug anything like microphones or external audio devices into my computer, I disabled the pop up.

I have also found that I could stop the launching of the two system tray programs that Dell Audio has set up to start when Windows does with no ill effects. I also found that the RealTech Audio service wasn't needed either so I disabled that as well. So now all that should be running Dell and RealTech wise are the drivers themselves. Not as good as what I had in Windows 7 but better than what I started with.