Workaround for some W510 Audio Problems. Lenovo, please take a look at this!

Question

Hi all
I believe most or all of the people are affected with poor sound quality of W510. I do believe there are some people who bring their laptops along and not convenient to get a external sound card and external speakers on the road. I am not too sure, but what I think that causes audio problem in W510, T410 or T510 is due to the implementations of Combo Audio/Mic Jack. So far, I have not heard any audio problems from X201 or W701/W701ds with a separate mic and audio jack (1 green and red, instead of 1 combo) Listed machines are using Conexant 20585 SmartAudio HD Sound Card.
The workaround is to force install Conexant 20561 SmartAudio HD Driver through Device Manager
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-73721
Problem Partially Resolved
1. Using Audio Director - Classic mode enables you to use both internal speakers and external speakers/headphone simultaneously. (By right, this should be in Multi-Stream mode, due to this driver not programmed for W510). However, the volume of the internal speaker will be reduced by half if an external speakers/headphone is plugged.
2. The sound quality is improved (tested with internal speakers).
3. Solved Irregular Volume Problems.
Drawback of using this driver
1. Using Multi-Stream mode in this case would not enables you to use both internal speakers and external speakers/headphone simultaneously. However it would just make your internal speaker to be louder. External speaker/headphone would not work if Multi-Stream mode is selected.
2. Custom EQ is not usable, if used, only the right channel of internal speaker, external speaker/headphone would work, and the sound quality will be like a spoilt radio.
3. Only Voice (VoIP) EQ is optimized for external speaker/headphone. Using Off, Jazz, Dance or Concert EQ would make you feel that the vocal (singer's voice) is diffused, blurred like excessive 3D effects.
4. Even if any preloaded EQ is selected, after system has been restarted, the selected EQ would still be saved, but the band (31Hz - 16KHz would be changed back to Off EQ) It is ok as it just affects the graphics, not the sound.
I know that Forum Administrators, Lenovo Staff, Community Moderators, Gurus and Volunteered Moderators/Users would be surfing around and looking for new post. Please take a look and leave a post or PM to me, thank you very much.
It is alright if Lenovo don't think that there is any problems regarding the sound in W510. However, I do believe most users/owners of W510 would appreciate if the sound system could be further improved through a better driver or new revision of hardware to something like a T400 standards or something. Some users would spent so much $ just to get all-in-a-box solution and would not want to invest further just for a external card to sacrifice portability and use more $. Finally, I still do believe that W510 audio problems can be resolved.
Best Regards
Peter

Answer 1

Hi ckhordiasma
Thanks for reviving ths old thread. How about trying Dolby drivers? It sounds great and could possibly resolve those issues without going through too much troubleshooting.
The link is under my signature.
Hope it helps!
Happy 2012! 
Peter
W520 (4284-A99)
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