Connecting laptop to stereo problem

[gecko18000]

Hi,

In the past I've connected my PC to my stereo with no problems, in order to listen to mp3 through my stereo speakers. However, I just tried to do the same with my laptop (using a 3.5mm to dual RCA red and white jack cable) and the sound is almost inaudible. Even when I have sound on my laptop and media player on full, the sound coming out of the stereo speakers is very quiet, with a bit of white noise/ speaker hiss, at a volume where on the radio it would be very loud. Please can anyone help or make any suggestions, it's driving me mad.

Thanks

John

[osprey4]

Hi John,

Welcome to TechIMO.

Can you tell me the make/model of the laptop, and exactly which output jack you are using? Are you sure the output jack is enabled in the laptop?

[gecko18000]

Hi, and thanks. The laptop is an old Dell Latitude D610 (bombproof, it's outlived its successor).

As for the output jack, I'm using the headphone jack, which was working with a set of small laptop speakers, and works with headphones.

[gecko18000]

Also, not sure if it's relevant, but there is also a big discrepancy between radio and CD playback volume, for example if '10' is a good volume on radio, I'd have to go to '20' on CD playback to get a similar volume. Thanks

[osprey4]

Have you checked the volume control dialog box? There are separate volume settings for CD, wave, SW synth, etc. Have you got all of the sliders turned up there?

[gecko18000]

Yes, all volume settings are set to the maximum level, but there is still this big discrepancy where I need to turn the volume up so high to listen to media from my laptop (with associated speaker crackle and hum) that if I then switched to radio it would be deafening! Thanks for your help

[osprey4]

Does that happen with headphones as well?

[gecko18000]

I'm not sure what you mean... because if I put headphones into the laptop jack I would not be able to compare the difference between the radio volume direct from stereo system and the volume of media played through the laptop. Sorry if I'm being dumb and having a logic fail!

john