Disabling Conexant SmartAudio headphone limiter

[lti]

Re: Disabling Conexant SmartAudio headphone limiter

It looks like I'm using the latest driver. The driver on Toshiba's website has the same version number as the driver that's currently installed (8.51.2.51). Strangely, Toshiba has two downloads that list the same version and a few older versions. All of those drivers are older than the computer, so it should have had the latest driver from the factory. With my luck, switching to a different driver will either make the sound so bad that I can't use it or it will not mute the speakers when headphones are plugged in, and the sound still won't be any louder.

I remember the sound being louder when this computer was new, but I don't remember if that was caused by all of the stupid "enhancements" being enabled or if it was something Toshiba did when I had to send this computer back for repair. The enhancements are not something I want and only make the sound worse.

Is there a legitimate purpose for the software-controlled headphone and speaker switching? I don't see any point in making speakers and headphones play sound at the same time or forcing one program to only use one output (speakers or headphones). I just want the speakers to mute when headphones are plugged in like they're supposed to, and I'm afraid that switching to a different driver will break that basic functionality and defeat the purpose of using headphones.

Also, I'm surprised by the amount of people who plug speakers into the headphone jack on their laptops and then complain that Windows says headphones are connected. Do they seriously expect the computer to detect exactly what is connected to the headphone jack?

[lti]

Re: Disabling Conexant SmartAudio headphone limiter

From what I can tell, there is a version of the driver where this limit can be disabled, and sometimes the limit is still enabled with the generic driver. If there is a driver that allows the limit to be disabled, I would like to know about it. I don't know the exact part number of the codec used in this laptop.

I don't want to mess around with a workaround like an external amplifier (which would need a ridiculous amount of gain to get a line-level output) or a USB audio device (although I would like a line-level input on this computer). If the sound quality is as poor as it appears to be, I would have to get a USB audio device, but that would take up one of my computer's three USB ports, two of which are unusable because they are in the way of my mouse.

[lti]

I want to remove this stupid limit on the audio output level so I can connect my laptop to an amplifier without needing to turn the amp's volume up so high. I don't see any way of disabling it in the special SmartAudio control panel. I have seen people say to click on the big headphone icon in the SmartAudio controls, but no headphone symbol does anything when I click on it.

Using the Windows generic audio driver is supposed to fix this, but I don't know if it will break the headphone and speaker switching. I don't know why that is controlled by software now. I don't have any need for the special "enhancements" or an equalizer, so the generic driver would be fine for me. I just need a good quality audio output.

Also, I've recently noticed that the audio is really badly distorted, but I don't know if that is caused by my headphone amp or the computer's audio hardware. I don't know why I never noticed it before.

This is the same old Toshiba Satellite L750 piece of junk running Windows 7. I don't know if there is a different audio driver (newer or older) from Conexant that allows the stupid limit to be disabled without breaking the headphone switching.