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.

Surface | Other

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

336 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2013-11-27T12:28:57+00:00

    I had to do a refresh this morning....I can't seem to use anything but the 8/14 driver..if I uninstall the 8/14 and force the 10/13 driver my sound stops working and won't install. The only way to get it to work again is to refresh.

    The 10/22/2013 hardware update installs successfully... and I see the 10/13 driver there if I click on let me pick from a list... when I select it it says it installed, but the properties still say 8/14...argg...I HATE RT drivers.

    I must be doing it wrong, right Microsoft Surface Team?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-27T12:15:59+00:00

    So last night, even though I had the "System Hardware Update - 11/12/2013" hidden, it automatically installed it, forcing 2 restarts. It did indeed kill the enhanced audio again so I did the usual uninstall device and delete drivers, but this time it froze twice on startup then gave me the special boot screen. I told it to restart and it had sound surprisingly. Checked the driver info and it was set to 8/14 driver. I tried to update it and there was no 10/13 driver to install. Checked for Windows Updates and found "System Hardware Update - 10/22/2013" was now available. Installed, restarted twice and the 10/13 drivers were installed. Checked Windows Update and don't have the "System Hardware Update - 11/12/2013" available like I normally would when running the 10/13 driver.

    Also had a lot of Office updates install last night along with the "System Hardware Update - 11/12/2013". I wonder if they went back to the 10/13 driver, reworked and re-released it.

    A quick sound check and it does sound better. Still scratching, but now on male voices rather than female voices... but only a lot at 100% volume, 80% I only heard a small scratch that was barely noticeable. 

    I don't have the 10/22 but I have the 11/12 😐

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2013-11-27T12:01:17+00:00

    So last night, even though I had the "System Hardware Update - 11/12/2013" hidden, it automatically installed it, forcing 2 restarts. It did indeed kill the enhanced audio again so I did the usual uninstall device and delete drivers, but this time it froze twice on startup then gave me the special boot screen. I told it to restart and it had sound surprisingly. Checked the driver info and it was set to 8/14 driver. I tried to update it and there was no 10/13 driver to install. Checked for Windows Updates and found "System Hardware Update - 10/22/2013" was now available. Installed, restarted twice and the 10/13 drivers were installed. Checked Windows Update and don't have the "System Hardware Update - 11/12/2013" available like I normally would when running the 10/13 driver.

    Also had a lot of Office updates install last night along with the "System Hardware Update - 11/12/2013". I wonder if they went back to the 10/13 driver, reworked and re-released it.

    A quick sound check and it does sound better. Still scratching, but now on male voices rather than female voices... but only a lot at 100% volume, 80% I only heard a small scratch that was barely noticeable.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2013-11-27T04:40:05+00:00

    I refreshed my surface 2. Now it's got a better volume level. If you refresh, you'll lose some of your customizations, like background and tile sizes. To refresh, right swipe, settings, PC settings, update and recovery, recovery then refresh.

    Its a temp fix until MS can give us a working update.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2013-11-27T03:29:48+00:00

    Hi guys,

    I bought a surface anout 2 weeks ago. Started experiencing problems with sound levels on the speakers. The level dropped pretty low a few days ago. Difficult to hear anyrhing unless the room is comp,etely silent. I get a message from the tablet saying that the enhancements are causing the problem and can be turned off to stop the problem. I didn't but...

    What I did was to refresh the tablet following instructions from tips.

    When it re-started the loud clear tok tok of the typing returned. Seems like the volume is ok now (for now?)

    Would also like to add that I first had trouble when I plugged in external speakers into the headphone jack. I think that's when the issue started and just got worse. At that time I was using youtube. Yhen after that youtube just went naywire and would not respond and started flickering. That also coincided with the speaker issue.

    Since then I stopped using external speakers.

    I will try youtube again later and see what happens.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments