Laptop volume restricted

[Vintagejock]

I'm not really deep into tech but here goes. I use a laptop to play out music via a mixing desk for a volunteer community radio station. All was well until I encountered windows 10. Plug anything in to the headphone socket and it pulls the level down. Can this feature be overridden permanently?

[MitchT]

Am I right to assume that the problem started when you started using Win 10?
If so, have you upgraded an existing laptop to Win 10 or is it a different laptop?
Are you playing the music from a media player or proper DJ software?
What mixing desk are you using?

[Vintagejock]

Using a laptop that has windows 10. My previous one worked fine with the same equipment. The playout software is virtual DJ, but the same result even when playing a cd. I can dig into the settings and make alterations but it always goes back to default value when you boot it up. While you can override it you get a nagging message about volume levels.

[MitchT]

Sounds like an issue at the output on the laptop if it's affecting everything. I'm not a Windows user so I can't say what might be in the audio settings, or where, that might enable you to establish a good output level and, crucially, force it to remain.

I don't know what mixing desk you have but my solution, assuming there's a gain knob on each channel, would be to turn up the gain on the relevant channel while the fader is at the "0" position. This will enable you to establish the optimum signal strength before the audio goes through any of the other stages in the signal path.

[Vintagejock]

Thank you, under strict instructions not to alter the mixer settings from the management. I've done all I can think of and after talking to colleagues it's clearly a Windows 10 thing. Next step is it's going to have an unfortunate accident.

[MitchT]

All I can say is, if the gain knob on the relevant channel is at zero before you use it and returned to zero afterwards then no one needs to know you ever touched it! Other than that, hopefully a Win 10 expert will rock up soon!

[Mr Pointy]

It looks like it could be a driver issue:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/...

Here's an example of how to remove the driver & make sure it doesn't get re-installed:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/...

[Vintagejock]

Thanks for your help guys, I'll have a go !