Sound unbalanced

[beluga25]

Same problem was posted about a week ago, but 'supermoderator' told him it was a hardware issue
and there were no other responses.

Anyway, on speakers the sound is much louder in one (left in my case) channel than the other and no amount
of sound control re-balancing, driver updating/reinstalling, etc. helps. I think this is some kind of Windows
driver issue as I have had the same problem on other (but not all) laptops I've had. Sometimes this imbalance
is due to bad subwoofer or main speaker placement but the SB has no subwoofer and the speakers are
equilaterally placed from center.

Searching online, this seems to be a not unusual problem but no one seems to have a solution other
than mentioning the speaker placement when that is appropriate.

Headphones balance is fine.

I have the I7, 16Gb, 512 SSD.

 

[leeshor]

Open the volume mixer (from the speaker icon) click on the speaker on the left then speaker properties and level. See if it's balanced there.

 

[beluga25]

Thanks. I meant I did that when I said "sound control re-balancing". Basically it just sounds like you have one speaker,
even though the right one has some sound coming out of it. Changing the balance all the way over to the weak (in this case,
right) side and cranking up the gain really does nothing for any kind of normal stereo effect. If I really want good sound I use
an external USB DAC and good headphones but this is still annoying for casual/background listening or just if I'm watching a
video right in front of the screen and don't want to mess with all the "audiophile" stuff. It doesn't work correctly and that's crazy
for a $2500 Panos-promises "ultimate laptop". Well, at least it doesn't do all the crazy stuff the first one I had to return did, lol.

 

[leeshor]

You may in fact have speaker issue. (hardware) from your explanation.

 

[beluga25]

Yup! Do I need to return it a second time?!? Lol--I suppose I can live with this if nothing else happens.
The SB is not my primary mobile music source, just irritating when MS's QC is not what it should be.

Just makes me wonder though when so many people report this on forums and the common factor seems to be Realtek and Windows--not hardware per se?? Since the repairability site just gave
the SB a 1/10 I don't think I'll try to take it apart to check the speaker!

 

[leeshor]

If you bought it at a MS Store I would at least make them aware and they may even have a solution. The techs there are pretty good.

 

[beluga25]

Well, thanks again. I pre-ordered mine online as soon at it was available to do and thus received it early and have had enough time
to already return it for frequent freezing and get the present one. We're "lucky" enough in our state to have one MS store 180 mile
round-trip away which I may resort to if nothing else works. I'll take you up on your comment and hope the MS store techs
are not only "pretty good" but also not pompous airbags like the Apple "Geniuses"--"Oh my goodness, Apple products never break."
I'd rather deal with the rotten speakers than that.