Old IBM ThinkPad volume far too low.

Ezzy__

Commendable
Nov 5, 2016
1
0
1,510
I'm having a weird problem with my hand me down laptop. The sound is virtually nonexistent. The only time I can get any sound out of it is if I plug in my headphones, and turn the volume to 100%. The physical sound buttons seem to do nothing, except while the computer is booting, I can use the ThinkVantage button to interrupt normal startup. After it starts, however, the button seems to be disabled.
 
Hello.

What is your model? It usually is written next to the Thinkvantage icon, such as T23, or R61.

These old laptops sometimes will have sound issues after a few years...such as broken audio cards and faulty capacitors. An external sound card is an option if it is hardware related.