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
    2015-10-12T02:46:15+00:00

    Date is 10/11/2015.  

    Surface 2 (RT, not pro) - all updates applied (including optional updates).

    The amazon video issue is fixed for me as of this evening - I went into the IE settings and turned off "Do not track" under "privacy".  The updates alone did not fix the issue - but for some reason this extra tweak did.

    Under the settings on the Amazon site I have checked the "silverlight" option as the preferred player.

    working now very well.

    XFINITY on demand seems to be working pretty well too, but the ads are often black (w sound).  

    HBO GO still stutters and is un-watchable.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-07-19T00:20:04+00:00

    Hello!

    I had the same. But... i think ist a software problem. So, not too much but it will be betten when you go to the Sound settings, and the Nvidia Tegra 4 speaker. In the Settings Disable Softaware Buffering, and thats all.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-12-12T15:31:02+00:00

    MurphT replied on

    This is so frustrating.  I bought my Surface 2 specifically to watch streaming video from Netflix, HBO Go, Xfinity on demand, etc.  Problem is that xfinity on demand and HBO Go both have the bad, never ending, crackling and popping sounds while playing the video.  The programs cannot be watched with the noise.  Netflix, NFL Now, and other streaming sites work fine.  I can't believe Microsoft allows their hardware/software, or whatever the issue is, to not work with such big websites for such a long period of time without explanation.  This issue will probably push me to buy an Android tablet within the next year if Microsoft doesn't resolve the issue.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-11-27T20:01:25+00:00

    This happens to me alot whenever I connect then disconnect the HDMI or Headphones. To fix I just restart the surface but it will come back if you connect then disconnect again. There needs to be a fix soon.

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-09-08T19:15:38+00:00

    This is sad, after almost 1 year, this issue is still present on my launch day Surface 2. Sound Still crackles when streaming content online.  I guess the speakers just suck in it. To top it all off, my Surface 2 registration has somehow been removed from my account so I can't even setup a simple exchange. Too bad for me I guess.

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