Fixing sound performance on an Acer laptop
I bought a new laptop last Friday – and Acer Aspire 5570 – and I’m finally happy with it, but it took a few days. THere was an annoying problem with poor sound and DVD performance, that seemed as if there was a big elephant hoggin memory somewhere. I tried dozens of solutions and finally found this guy, who tried everything I did too, except he solved the problem:
What I did to fix it was to go to the HARDWARE part under the SYSTEM options (Control Painel). Under the IDE Controllers part I had PRIMARY IDE and the INTEL one. What I did was right click and select UNINSTALL on the IDE one… When I rebooted the whole machine was way faster, specially sound playback. Under the IDE Controllers I still get the same icons (Primary IDE and the Intel one) but I’m 100% sure that this was the cause of the fix.
It worked for me as well, and everything just hums now.
[tags] Acer, Aspire, sound problems[/tags]
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Hate to be a predictable marketing snob here Chris, but that you didn’t buy a Mac is rather disappointing…. cheers, cp
For decades now, Apple people have said to me “The Mac is so intuitve.” I heartily believe them.
But when your first PC was an 8088 with two 5″ floppy drives, purchased second hand in 1987, you get pretty set in your ways. For twenty years I’ve owned PCs. Even with everything Mac has to offer, there’s nothing intuitive about them. Buying my second Acer was like putting on an old pair of jeans, but with that new jeans smell.
🙂
I just bough the same laptop and I compeletly agree about the sound. It almost sounds robotic at times.
Can you please give me more detailed instructions on how to fix this?!
Thanks a lot!!
Well, I can’t be any more detailed that what is in the post. Those are pretty clear instructions. If you want more details perhaps follow the link to the forum. But really, this procedure above takes about two minutes INCLUDING the re boot.
Your a genious. Problem was causing me very bad sound distortion as well as modem trouble. Uninstalled the Primary IDE, restarted and hey presto it worked fine.
HI JUST UNINSTALLED THE IDE CONTROLLER ON MY ACER 1640 BECAUSE I’VE HAD CRAP SOUND FOR AGES, IT TOOK 2 MINUTES & THE PROBLEM IS SORTED, THANKS A MILLION.
Excellent…I’m glad people are finding this fix helpful.
i formated my system and i was unable to hear sound from it after the new instalation
cant seem tofind the exact IDE controllers talked about under hardware in control panel
anybody help
Thanks Chris – this fixed my sound and slow start up probem, but after I switch off and then switch on again later, the problem returns until I uninstall Primary IDE again. Is there a permanent fix?
It looks like Acer have a serious problem.
just tried the above fix and it’s worked a treat. all audio playback now sorted – mp3, cd, websites, you tube etc….
THANKS!
i have problem about my Aspire 5315-2713 sound when i open a YM or a online game. my sound also my mic is cut. those over use of laptop has a connection to this problem?
This finally fixed my problem! Thank you! I’m not sure if it’s a related issue, but I started noticing the problem when I installed Itunes7.
Incredible. I am fixing an Acer Aspire 1640 for a friend who inherited it from his father who got rid of it because the sound was unusable and the CD/DVD was suspect. I upgraded his RAM from 512 to 2 Gig to make a proper PC of it, upgraded to XP SP3, installed AVG, but the sound problem had me beaten. I have loaded and reloaded the Realtec drivers about 4 times. I had even lined up a replacement DVD drive on eBay. Then I found this thread. Five minutes later, and 2 reboots – all was fixed. The sound is perfect. The DVD works. Thanks for the advice.
Glad this works for you. I know how relieved I was when I found the solution.
Thank you very much for the solution.
This inspired me to find the solution on an Acer Aspire 7720: There are no more IDE controllers but ATA.
I reinstalled ATA but wasn’t enough so I disabled devices that used the same IRQ as the High Definifion Audio (see System Information) and it worked! Sound problem fixed!
But you were right it has to be the IDE or just say IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.
This is the full story to fix sound distortion on Acer Aspire 7720:
Part I
-Reinstall ATA/ATAPI controllers, SATA AHCI Controller, Ultra ATA Storage Controllers
-you need to restart
-Enable / Check if enabled Ultra DMA on IDE/ATA controllers
-Install (or update) all above drivers (original, WHQL)
-Check if all System Devices are installed (a fresh Windows doesn’t install all of them correctly!!
->check manumacturer drivers: a lot of Intel and Microsoft drivers)
If still not working try the following:
Part II
-Look for resources conflicts/sharing in system information => disable devices that use same IRQ as audio -controller, look in device manager for IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.
-Disable Memory controllers (sticks, SD/MMC, xD-Picture Card …)
=> At this stage there is no more sound distortion (play an mp3 in WMP or something to confirm)
-restart Windows to see if sound is still ok
–> enable the disabled devices => normally no more sound distortion.
For IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
The order of installation is important:
1. High Def Audio Device
2. Memory controllers (sticks, SD/MMC, xD-Picture Card …)
This worked for me (Part II is most important)
Horace
I can not Thank you enough! I’m back in business 🙂
You are most welcome. I’m glad this post has been useful to folks.
Hey Chris,
I have been trying to follow your instructions regarding the sound problem but my thing is I have 2 IDE channels under the IDE ATA/ATAPI control list and one Intel channel. One is at 0 channel and the other is set to channel 1. Which Ide channel should I install?
I have lost complete sound in my Acer laptop. I have tried to update the drivers and computer says its current and working fine but still no sound.
Any suggestions would be very helpful
Got me…since I posted this I’ve moved on from Acer machines and have Toshiba now. Perhaps others will help you.
hi,
thanks!! exellent!! the solution work 100%
dominique uninstall the primary channel the at 0
Hi, Chris
I can’t believe how easy your fix was, and what a remarkable difference it made in the performance of my Acer Aspire laptop. LIke night and day difference! I was about ready to trash the darned thing, it was totally useless for playing back sound. I even called Acer about it– why they wouldn’t have this solution is beyond me
Anyway, you another VERY satisfed customer!
Thanks
Hey Chris!
I have an Acer Aspire One mostly for taking notes in class but it crashed last semester and shortly after I had AWFUL sound problems, especially when watching video. This totally worked! Thanks so much!!!
Also, for any who have a total of three channels like me (I have the intel, a primary, and a secondary) I only uninstalled the primary. =]
Well I uninstalled the Primary channel about 100 times since I first got these tips back in March and my sound is still distorted and robotic sounding and I have an Aceer Aspire one
this guy is a genious. did the same thing after my audio was running slow in any application and it was fixed. thanks.
Wow, it worked right away!!! Thanx a million. You’re THE MAN!!!
Thanks so much I have an acer aspire one and the sound was distorted thought i would have to send it in to get fixed but figured i would try your way first. I’m so glad I did it worked and didn’t take long at all and it also starts up so much faster thanks again
The most thorough and informative information I have found. Enjoyed it immensely.
My ACER4630z has not detected the sound driver. there is no sound
quick question.. did u install it back again?.. or just disabled it?..
Just disable it, if I recall. I can’t believe that after all this time, Acer computers are still suffering this fate!
thank you!!! I stopped using my acer laptop until now.. thank very much ^^
Hello….my 5720Z Acer Aspire sound is awful:(
The only “Controllers” my laptop finds is “Game Controllers”,help me to get rid of this problem asap and i will send u a beer using UPS:D
Look at the hardware list again. There will be an IDE controllers line. That is the one you want.
First i own an Acer Aspire 5720Z.
Found ATA/ATAPI controllers:
first – ATA Channel 1
second – IDE Channel
third – Intel……..
fourth – Intel ….
……………..
Total 7 controllers
ATA Channel 1 appeared after ive unistalled the first IDE Channel in the list and restart but no change to the sound:(
Right now if i unistall the ATA Channel 1 and restart,computer will reinstall it.Ive unistalled the second IDE Channel and after restart the list changed into:
first ATA Channel 0
second ATA Channel 1
but the sound remains the same!
Am i doing something wrong?
my problem comes from the cpu,when the cpu usage is high (close to 100%)than the sound is terrible….when is normal…you can really listen to music….but most of the time the cpu usage is high…ive disabled some startup programs,done a little cleaning and … big difference!
And Chis the sound is better but i still want to try your method because the sound is not 100% like it should be!
Looking forward to your help:d
Well…my solution was for a computer I bought and set up three years ago, so things might have changed. Perhaps you’ll have to dive into Google like I did to find a new fix.
Chris
I had the same recurring issue on my Aspire One notebook – after doing a complete system re-install, it came back again. Your solution has worked – thanks!
I took the liberty to add some screen shots for those of us who don’t modify the device manager every day – here:
http://rickynotes.blogspot.com/2009/10/acer-aspire-one.html
Thanks again!
I’m running Windows 7 and under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers I have four items:
ATA Channel 0
ATA Channel 1
Intel(R) ICH8M Ultra ATA Storage Controllers – 2850
Intel(R) ICH8M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller
Could you please tell me whch to uninstall. Thanks
Sorry Lisa…I have a Mac now. Perhaps others will help you here.
HOLY S*** I tried everything possible to fix my sound problem to no avail. This was so easy. Unfortunately I had a disk check scheduled when I rebooted so it took about an hour before I could test this fix and Kaboom! it worked. Chris I could almost kiss you you’ve made me that happy. Now I can use my Acer as my car stereo. You ROCK! I normally don’t leave comments but you deserve a BIG thank you. THANKS.
You’re welcome Apaulas! Kisses back!
Brilliant – deleting the Primary IDE Channel worked for me. Thanks!
Thank you.. Legend…
I would never have ever tried this, you have successfully outgeeked every website I have looked on for a week.
Thank u again..
Hi Chris & others,
This is Vicky from India. After using Toshiba, Fujitsu and Dell for last 5 years, first time I went for ACER and recently bought ACER aspire notebook.
Unfortunately, right from day one I am facing exactly same problem mentioned by many of people here – distorrted sound and system getting slow after playing video/mp3.
Tried many solutions. Nothing worked. ACER service center responses are pathetic. Pissed off now.
Tried procedure suggested above.
I could find total 6 entries under IDE/ATA ATAPI controller list.-
2 no of Intel controllers
2 no of Primary IDE channel
2 no of Secondary channel
As suggested above, i uninstalled primary one. But after reboot windows is again installing it. And The problem persists.
Can anybody tell me what exactly should I do to get rid of this problem?? I will be very thankful…
God bless you…man! 🙂
Helped me out with my brothers slowbooting aspire 1640, done in less then a minute !! Tried many sharewareprograms like ashampo winoptimzer etc. but they didnt help.
Thanks a lot 😉
Hi Chris,
I didn’t work for me. My sound is still with a cross. i removed the IDE and when i rebooted it installed ata automatically. but still to no avail. I nearly tried everything. It has been two motnhs now but to no avail
hey chris, i am from Kolkata, India and I,m a bengali. I have did the same thing on my Acer Aspire 5572 but nothing happened!
please help me.
in bengali: aamaar shaahaajo kauro. [please help me].
Dhonnobaad [thank you]
but the chaacters are different in bengali.
🙂 🙂