Sound advice on Sound

As the title suggests, this post will be all about sound, good or bad, on the S10.

The first time I heard the S10 sound, I felt that it was too soft even for a tiny netbook. So I went to the Speaker icon (for volume) on the system tray to access the Master Volume dialog box and adjusted it to full volume but it was still soft. Later I found that you have to increase the Wave button volume and also the SW Synth button volume in order to get a decent level of sound. Now it is not too bad for its size.

There is an audio beep when you connect or disconnect AC power to the S10. This is good as you will be alerted if someone disconnected your power but the beep is way to loud. In order to reduce this, you access the same master volume window at the system tray and set the PC Beep button to a lower volume or mute it altogether.

By the way, there is no shortcut mute button (Fn +) on the S10 so stop looking for it. You have to reduce the volume by pressing the Fn + Left Arrow key repeatedly.

There is another speaker icon in the system tray, a more stylish one and you can access this to tweak the Realtek audio driver. Click on this and you can set the sound effect, adjust the mixer, the mic, etc. You can also run the 3D audio demo to impress your friends with the S10, if nothing else.

Another complaint is that the click button on the touch pad is too loud. If you want, you can open up your S10 and dampen the sound by using some tape or something similar but that is too much work. The easier solution is to use the tap to click on the touch pad itself and not to click the button physically. It's much simpler this way. By default, the tap to click is enabled but if for some reason this is not, you can access the Synaptics Touch Pad setting screen to enable it. Refer to my earlier post on the Touch Pad.

Finally the sound topic that has the most number of complaints in the S10 forums is about the cooling fan, that it is making loud annoying sound ever so often when it is on. Personally I do not find the fan 0n my S10 to be annoying and it does not come on that often. Yes it is louder than my Dell laptop but it is not as loud as my desktop so it is some where in between and definitely tolerable. Not sure if I am lucky or my hearing is bad!

If you find your fan on the S10 loud and annoying, there is no quick fix. Some users have tried different ways to reduce the noise - upgrading the BIOS (some reported no effect), removing the wire mesh, reducing the voltage to the fan, and one even disconnected the fan!

If it is really that bad, take in back to Lenovo for them to fix it. Otherwise, just get used to the sound. You may eventually like it. Cheers.



Ronald Kwok
http://cbpirate.com/s/cbp/ronaldkwok

Complaints about the Lenovo S10

My affair with the Lenovo S10 is now into the third week and I have nothing to complain so far. Meanwhile, I've been following the posts in the independent Lenovo Ideapad S series Forum which focus on the S10. This is a good Forum if you want to learn more about the S10. There is another Forum, Lenovo Forum for the Ideapad , that is run by Lenovo where the S10 belongs but since this covers all the Ideapad models and not just the S10, it is less focused but you can also find some additional information about the S10 if you do some searching.

There are some complaints raised in the former Forum so you may want to check out these areas and test your unit if you intend to buy the S10 to see if any of these is a problem for you. Here's the summary.

1. The fan noise. Some find the fan noisy and disturbing but to me it is OK so this is very much a personal thing. The fan in my desktop is definitely more noisy! However, I tend to notice the fan noise more on the Lenovo S10 than on my Dell Inspiron laptop so it is not the quietest one out there.

2. Keyboard. The arrangement is not the best and one must bear in mind the limited space that is available to fit in the keyboard. You have to sacrifice something if you want portability. The size of your hands (and fingers) will determine if you're comfortable typing for long periods. Once you're used to the arrangement, you can touch type quite normally. Do test out each key individually to see if any is defective. Also test the Function key combinations to see if they work as intended.

3. Touch pad. Again small because of the space limitations and need some time to get used to it. The click buttons are rather stiff and need some force before they are activated. Do test out both the left and right buttons since there were some reported cases of defective buttons.

4. Battery. There are many posts on the 6 cell battery not charging properly and low capacity compared to what is advertised but these generally refer to the 3rd party replacement battery. If you buy the S10 currently (in Malaysia, at least) you should definitely get the one that comes with the original 6 cell battery so you should not have any problem. Some of the problem arose because the user insert or remove the battery while the set is still plugged into AC power. Not sure if the original will suffer the same fate so never, never inset or remove your battery while you S10 is till plugged into AC power. This is really common sense since we were always taught to power off before we meddle with any electrical items.

5. The Lenovo logo on the cover. Some found the letters dropping out, especially the letter "e". Not a major issue but may be of concern to ladies who must have the perfect look!

So it seems Lenovo need to tighten their quality control but there may be similar complains about the other netbooks and certainly, the Lenovo S10 is not the worst. It is one of the easiest netbook to upgrade the RAM or the HDD, if not the easiest. It serves its purpose well as an ultra portable laptop for Internet usage and minor office task.

If you did not get a S10 as a Christmas gift, there's still hope yet; you may still get one as a 2009 New Year's gift. Just drop some hints to your girlfriend or boyfriend or simply refer them to this post!

Happy New Year!

Ronald Kwok
http://ronaldkwok.atomicblog.hop.clickbank.net/