Surface 2 Speaker/Sound Problems

Anonymous
2013-10-23T17:22:07+00:00

I just purchased two new Surface 2's and I am noticing a significant reduction in volume from the speakers compared to my old Surface RT.  The speakers also lack any kind of bass.  They are very "tinny" and shallow sounding.  When using headphones, there is plenty of bass sound and the volume level is not an issue.

I am also experienceing a significant amount of sound crackling (from the speakers and attached headphones) when streaming video from Amazon Instant Video using both the desktop and metro versions of IE.  I do not experience this crackling problem with other sound sources like Xbox music, gaming, or other website streaming video (i.e. YouTube).

Since I was experiencing this on two different Surface 2's, it seems unlikely that this is a hardware issue.  This is most likely a software/driver issue.  Is there anything that I can do to resolve this problem, other than wait for a possible software or firmware update?

Thanks.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-11-21T08:51:01+00:00

    I received a second Surface 2 yesterday and the issues still remain on both devices. Steaming Flash video causes stuttering/popping and playing any audio source at volume 80 or above with audio enhancements enabled results in distortion. The audio enhancements do make the audio louder so it could just be crossing the threshold where the speakers will distort.

    The distortion at high volume only occurs through the speakers, headphones sound fine.  The flash problems are the same through both speakers and headphones.

    To be thorough I tested the new Surface both pre and post updates.

    When I had the problem it was affecting every single sound, XBOX, Youtube, Games, Video, etc and all of them were crackling, low, one speaker louder than the other.

    If your problem is only happening with an specific application, then it might be the app itself, or the video source or even network.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-21T08:43:22+00:00

    Sound is great even when compared with my old Surface RT. The driver version for NVIDIA Tegra Audio is 9.17.13.2757 dated on the 23/10/2013

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-11-21T04:44:45+00:00

    I received a second Surface 2 yesterday and the issues still remain on both devices. Steaming Flash video causes stuttering/popping and playing any audio source at volume 80 or above with audio enhancements enabled results in distortion. The audio enhancements do make the audio louder so it could just be crossing the threshold where the speakers will distort.

    The distortion at high volume only occurs through the speakers, headphones sound fine.  The flash problems are the same through both speakers and headphones.

    To be thorough I tested the new Surface both pre and post updates.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-11-21T01:19:17+00:00

    Guys, my replacement arrived yesterday and after installing all updates sound still is amazing. I now need to send my 'broken sound' Surface back to Microsoft and I did a full format to delete all my stuff, and after the format sound is still bad.

    I don't think this is a software issue and a replacement will be the only solution. I'm not saying get one now, if you are ok to wait then do so, you still have like 11 months of warranty.

    how long did it take to arrive? I'm waiting on my replacement from MS too. Hope I get the same results as you!

    I reported the issue on Friday, got a email saying the new Surface had been dispatched on Monday and new tablet arrived on Tuesday by UPS...

    And the replacement, the sound is good?

    If the sound is good, could you post the version of the sound driver?

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-11-21T01:09:18+00:00

    Guys, my replacement arrived yesterday and after installing all updates sound still is amazing. I now need to send my 'broken sound' Surface back to Microsoft and I did a full format to delete all my stuff, and after the format sound is still bad.

    I don't think this is a software issue and a replacement will be the only solution. I'm not saying get one now, if you are ok to wait then do so, you still have like 11 months of warranty.

    how long did it take to arrive? I'm waiting on my replacement from MS too. Hope I get the same results as you!

    I reported the issue on Friday, got a email saying the new Surface had been dispatched on Monday and new tablet arrived on Tuesday by UPS...

    And the replacement, the sound is good?

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