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Editor’s Note: Backstage Technicians are here to help and in this ongoing series, they’ll offer me their favorite tips and provide answers to some of the most common service related questions they hear at both the call center and in Sony Style Stores.

Experiencing PC audio playback issues and need help getting sound to play again from your computer?  More often than not, problems with audio playback often stem from a user inadvertently disabling a drive or changing a setting.

In this quick tip, we’ll review the top three most common fixes our Backstage℠ Technicians have found to help solve the case.

• Check the jack your headphones are plugged into. They may be plugged into the wrong spot (such as the Line Out or Microphone port). Note too that most computers will cut the sound to its internal or external speakers as soon as headphones are plugged in.

• Be sure your speakers are plugged into a working power source, turned on and that your system volume is up appropriately and not muted.  To check your system volume open Volume Control.

a)    To do this, click the Start button, and select Control Panel, then Hardware and Sound.

b)    Under Audio Devices and Sound, select Adjust System Volume.

c)    Under the Main Volume, move the slider up or down to raise or lower the volume.

• Be sure your computer has a properly functioning sound card – a small piece of hardware within your PC that translates code into sound.  You can check the status of your sound card within the Device Manager.

a)    To do this, click the Start menu, type Device Manager and hit enter.  Enter your PC’s administrator password if prompted (Vista & Windows 7 only).

b)    Expand the Sound, video and game controllers category – you can do this by double clicking the category.

c)    If there is an audio device listed (for example it may say, Intel High Definition Audio Device), then your PC has a sound card. If no sound card appears in the list, you will need to install one – for most users, especially laptop owners, leave this installation to the experts.

d)    If a yellow question mark appears next to the name, it indicates there might be a problem with the sound card. Right-click the name of the sound card and select Properties.

e)    Click the General tab, and look in the Device Status box to view any problems.

f)    In most cases, you may need to update the sound card’s driver.  To do this click the Driver tab, then select Update Driver.

g)    It’s possible you may have also updated the sound card with a driver that’s incompatible with the OS or PC’s BIOS.  To revert to the previously working driver, simply click the Driver tab again then select Roll Back Driver. If this option is greyed out it means you have the original driver installed and that no previous version is available.

Again, our Backstage Technicians have found these three simple tips to solve most issues with PC audio playback.  However, if you’re still experiencing problems with playback, don’t hesitate to reach out to your local Backstage Technician for more advanced troubleshooting or jump over to our Forums to get additional tips and technical advice from other users.

For a list of SonyStyle stores near you that offer Backstage services, check out the store locator page here.  And as always, be sure to share your tips below – you just might have the perfect solution no one else has thought of.

Editors Note: Backstage Technicians are here to help and in this ongoing series, they’ll offer me their favorite tips and provide answers to some of the most common service related questions they hear at both the call center and in Sony Style Stores.

When sitting at the computer, it’s important to optimize our comfort level since we’re often in the same position for hours on end.  Things to consider include how our chairs are adjusted, the position of our hands, head and legs.  The comfort of our eyes though is just as important and often overlooked.  In fact, a few minor adjustments to the brightness of your screen can help reduce eye strain and enhance your overall viewing experience.

Keep in mind not every situation calls for your screen to be at its maximum brightness.  For example, if you’re watching a movie – by all means max your display brightness out and enjoy.  On the other hand, if the light around you is dim a bright screen could be hard on your eyes, whether you realize it at first or not.

Your display also consumes a lot of battery power – the brighter the display setting, the more power it draws.  So if you’re watching that same movie on a long flight, you may want to consider dimming your screen to ensure you get to finish it with plenty of time to spare for other things.

That said, adjusting the brightness of your screen is simple.  In just a few quick steps, you can easily adjust the brightness of your display, improving both the quality of your viewing experience and the life of your battery.

You may already know how to adjust the brightness of your display through Windows, by selecting Control Panel => System and Security => Power Options, then adjusting the slider from left to right.

But did you know your VAIO PC makes this process even easier?  Your VAIO is designed to give you quick access to some of the most common function shortcuts.  You can find these shortcuts on the Function keys along the top row of your keyboard.  Simply select and hold the Function key (“Fn”) and F6 to make the screen brighter or F5 to dim the screen.  You can make changes to your screen’s brightness on-the-fly as you watch a video, browse the web, read a document or look at pictures, without disrupting your onscreen experience or PC’s performance.

You can also create brightness and power presets for the various situations you might find yourself in.  Let’s go back to the in-flight movie example.  Instead of manually making adjustments to your VAIO each time your on a flight and wanting to watch a movie, you can tweak a pre-existing power preset.  That way, when your VAIO determines you’re running on batteries but watching a movie it will automatically make all the necessary adjustments for you.  Here’s how:

1. Select Control Control Panel => System and Security => Power Options

2. Select the present you want to tweak.

• 1. For the in-flight movie example, select Interevideo WinDVD (this preset correlates with the use of the WinDVD application)
• 2. Select Change plan settings

2. Tweak the power and brightness settings as you see fit under the On battery column.

Even better, select VAIO PCs include an ambient light sensor, which detects the ambient light around your computer and adjust the screen’s brightness accordingly – taking the guess work out of setting the optimal screen brightness for your situation.

For even more tips on preserving battery life, jump over to Backstage Quick Tip #2:  5 Ways to Maximize Battery Life.