The driver doesn't have an equalizer of its own.
>I don't see how it is a "common" problem
Well, it is, whether it be due to the software or a limitation of the speakers. Of the five different laptop models I've tried turning up to max volume, two of them were quiet (one of them being the Lenovo T61, the other being some sort of Acer Ferrari). I don't know about the Acer, but in my case it's a software limitation, making the problem theoretically solvable. The speakers are not busted; as I said, they play loudly if the source is loud.
>The laptop model (Lenovo ThinkPad T61) should be able to play sounds with a decent volume (so this is not a problem of your speakers not being able to play loud enough, it is a problem of what you are playing or how you've set up the drivers, an equalizer is not going to fix that).
No it ain't, it's a problem with the (preinstalled and correct) driver and not the way I've configured it. I'm not the only Lenovo T61 owner with this problem. Reviews confirming that the speakers are quiet:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=...eview=ThinkPad+T61 (search for 'quiet')
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=123374 (search for 'quiet')
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-IBM-Lenovo-Th...tebook.3972.0.html (search for 'Speakers'. "During DVD playback the maximum volume was just sufficient")
Come to think of it, the audio on this system also tends to glitch a few times a minute, so the driver sucks in several ways..
For any other T61 users who happen to read this: Apparently the only known workaround for this is to use playback applications that have an option to turn up the volume. For WAV/MP3, Winamp is a good bet. For DVD/AVI, PowerDVD can be used as it has a 'laptop option' that boosts audio by 25%.
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