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

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-12-31T11:08:59+00:00

    thanks. mine is from august and currently i see no way to update.

    so ms is probably working on new drivers that will hopefully be released soon....

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-31T10:55:27+00:00

    NVIDIA Tegra Audio

    Driver date: 26.11.2013

    Driver version: 9.17.13.2774

    Signal amplification is aktive.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-31T09:52:27+00:00

    whats your nvidio audio driver version now?

    thanks for sharing.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-12-31T07:38:33+00:00

    Hello together,

    I also had problems with the sound which was much too quite. Since a few weeks I got a replacement from MS which works now very fine. My sound is OK and very loud, I never had sound driver problems again even by changing sometimes to headphones. Therefore I am not sure if this is a hardware related bug. However I am really happy now with this device and I advice you to exchange your device to a new one. The only thing that I had with my new device was a loose volume control button in case of shaking the device. I fixed it with a little bit of glue like I read in then internet.

    Greetings

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-12-31T03:45:05+00:00

    Well this is true... 

    Apple's single greatest achievement is not the iDeviceXXX, but the way they make their users feel that any fault, any crash, any bug, any problem, must surely be the user's fault. The OSX spinning circle triggers the thought "oh, what did I do?" but in Windows if there's a problem the user thinks "Oh, Windows has crashed again". In truth, when you consider the amount of hardware makers, component manufacturers, PC builders, Premium and Budget Brands, Desktop, Laptops, Netbooks, it truly is to Microsoft's credit that Windows will run on almost anything you could possibly get your hands on.

    However...

    The Surface, in all its incarnations, replicates the Apple Mac/Macbook model, of a small range of similarly specced devices to ensure software, hardware, drivers and firmware are rock solid and reliable. Here, the Surface fails and thus Microsoft fails. The Surface is Microsoft through and through and it's full of bugs, which sort of proves Apple right when it comes to their "it just works" catchphrase. I love my Surface 2, I really do, but every day i'm wondering whether one of the following might happen:

    1 - Will it wake up or remain in the "Sleep of Death", forcing a hard reset?

    2 - Will the audio drivers load properly or will my device be completely silent?

    3 - Will my Mail App settings have reverted to a default that I did not create, meaning none of my accounts can sync and I have to remove them and re-add them?

    4 - Will the touchscreen respond for the first 20 seconds after the device has booted?

    5 - Will my audio pop, crackle and whistle, or will it be so quiet I have to angle my hands around the top corners of the device to hear anything?

    6 - Will I have to perform a complete system reset because my most-used Apps are crashing?

    7 - Will the Windows button simply stop responding when I use Facebook or Twitter, among others, forcing me to close the apps down and, probably, reboot the machine?

    8 - Will I have to dig around the Control Panel to perform a workaround for a bug that hasn't been fixed 2 months after this device and 14 months after the Surface 1 was released?

    9 - Will my touch cover put the device to sleep or not when I close it against the screen?

    I do not believe these things happen with the iPad. It may not be as versatile a device, but it just works. I hate saying these words but they appear to be true. My personal opinion is that the original Surface should've launched with a slightly modded Windows Phone 8 OS, with more tiles on the screen. The Lumia 1520 is proof that it can work. WP8 has much better app support (though not 100% from devs) than Windows RT. However, the advantages of having a desktop cannot be underestimated so I understand why RT was created. When you boil it all down though, a thread like this simply should not exist because any beta tester with half decent hearing can tell you that it's too quiet and that the audio "enhancements" are awful, resulting in volume bursts and dips when you start playing a new song in XBox Music. Simply not good enough.

    If ever a device needed to excel it's the Surface. Apple have all the media goodwill these days and will be routinely forgiven for pumping out endless tweaks masquerading as "innovations" in their annual updates for the iPhone and iPad. They don't do anything new any more, but other than when you have to upgrade your iOS version (when all **** can break loose!) their products generally just do the job. The Surface is more than capable of matching, even beating the iPad in terms of range of software and hardware, but when the basics aren't right it stands no chance and the press are right to say that Microsoft hasn't learned any lessons after the original Surface was released.

    I'm probably going to have to send my Surface back and get it replaced because i've had enough of messing around; I want it to work or i'll find something else that does instead. I shouldn't be a beta-tester after spending £439, I should be paid £439 to list the bugs!

    Apple users are stupid enough to believe they're holding their device the wrong way...and Apple will carry on dumbing down as long as Android remains as fragmented as it is (don't upgrade, your apps will stop working!) and Microsoft keep screwing up their new releases. If my replacement Surface has even one of the bugs listed above it's going on eBay and i'll have to look at one of the full Windows 8 tablets from Asus, Samsung, Lenovo or Toshiba...I trust my Windows Phone only because it's a Nokia device not a Microsoft device, a fact I am loathe to confess.

    Early adopters are silent when happy and deafening when unhappy...and twice in a year they have been unhappy about the Surface and unhappy about Microsoft. We can mock Apple all we like...they replace faulty items instantly in-store where we have to do it via phone or online because there are no stores, and nobody in the world is sat down with their iPod right now wondering how to sort out a "sleep of death" or touchscreen response issue. It's just taken 36 seconds for my Surface to wake up (I've just tried it right now) and for the touchscreen to respond so I can type in my password. 36 seconds, and my Modern UI background picture has been replaced with a wall of grey...will have to reboot because now there's a message on the desktop about a shortage of available memory and the need to shut down some apps, even though nothing is running...

    It's like Vista all over again only with greasy fingerprints instead of CPU spikes.

    This is what I believe. For MS this is a new adventure and they are in a learning process. So far they were making an OS and some generic drivers. Now they are making the Hardware, the OS and they have to deal with a 3rd party company to make specialized drivers. A completely different situation.

    It's a total different situation with Apple with everything is controlled and made by Apple. There is nobody else to blame.

    I believe that in two month we are going to be looking back and feel that all we are suffering today was just a bad dream.

    And I believe all that because in my own experience with the Surface RT, there were a lot of issues with the first generation after the release and after to months of patching and fixing the Surface RT was a super stable unit using Windows 8. It was slow but stable.

    The good thing in all this is that we don't see anybody coming from MS to say that all is happening is our fault.

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