Lenovo TIO Speaker issues

[HCHTech]

/Rant On

We've been recommending the Lenovo Tiny-in-One solution (22 or 24" monitor, M70q or M90q computers) for about 3 years now and have quite a few of them in the field. The only thing that has ever failed on these guys is the built-in speaker unit. We've had 3 of the TIO monitor units replaced under warranty in that time because the sound suddenly became very distorted, and worked perfectly fine with a set of external speakers. We don't use the 27" units, D&H never seems to have those in stock; I'll bet they use the same speaker unit, though.

Lately, we've been getting complaints that the volume of these things isn't loud enough for zoom calls & such. We just did a 7-unit install at an attorney's office and 5-unit install at an accountants a couple of weeks ago and I have 3 separate complaints about this already. Lenovo does make a separate USB speaker bar, but I don't know if it's mountable to the TIO units or not, plus, it shouldn't be necessary. A review of these units shows that the volume is maxed in Zoom, the systray control and in the Windows sound mixer. The volume is also low in Youtube, so it's not related only to Zoom. We're using the latest Lenovo Drivers via the Vantage app. Plugging in an external speaker leads to easily a doubling or tripling of the volume, so I think it's just that the units themselves are crap.

Now, I'm wondering whether I need to start ordering speaker bars to head off this complaint in the future... C'mon, Lenovo - we're paying good money for a system that is in most other ways unbeatable - this nonsense is just a black eye on your brand.

/Rant off

 

[britechguy]

Well, issues of quality aside (which is a legitimate rant) I have often found "tiny speakers" (whether on laptops or otherwise) to be inadequate for use in even kinda-sorta slightly noisy environments. Even with my hearing aids on (and I have only mild hearing loss) trying to hear the sound from many laptop or other tiny internal speakers is very hit or miss, even at 100%.

While there's no excuse for the internal speakers to fail like they seem to have been doing lately for you, I'd still recommend finding an external speaker setup you can live with, be it a speaker bar or otherwise, for machines in any office setting. Within reason for a computer (we're not talking stadium filling here) a bit bigger is pretty much always better when it comes to speakers. Having ones that actually aim at you rather than projecting from underneath or behind is also really important, too.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

We had a few of those happen with a handful of clients, the older gen3 and maybe into the gen4 monitors. Have not had it happen with the Gen5 monitors. None on the 27" monitors, we always do the 24".

Yeah sounds garbled like..speakers under water.

Totally powering down the unit 100%...and powering it up..gets rid of the symptom. But it seems to creep back on that small handful that have the issue.

Much as I love the TIO setup, and the TIO monitors are nice, and for built in speakers..they are decent....for some clients that I know are heavy conf app users (Teams, Zoom), or...some offices or staff are heavy music listeners at the office, I'll do the T24i monitor with the old Logi 940 cam up top and a nice set of Creative Labs Pebbles USB-c powered speakers.

 

[HCHTech]

Yep - though these units are aimed right at the user since they are forward-facing along the bottom of the monitor, they just seem too anemic. Which they shouldn't be considering they are built for the enterprise market and sold as an "all in one" solution. Web cam on top, monitor with included CPU mounting bay, speaker on the bottom. Not to mention the better part of $300 wholesale price:

 

[fincoder]

We're using the latest Lenovo Drivers via the Vantage app.

Check the Lenovo website for newer drivers that the Vantage app might not be delivering. Note that the TIO would be getting its audio signal via DP, so I think it's the GPU driver responsible for the sound.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

You should be finding them in the mid to upper 250-ish range.
Trying to think of a quantity of them that have acted up, I'd say out of...eh..uhm...not sure, over 500, maybe 5 or 6 have given that symptom. But I have not seen that symptom in a while...not since deploying the Gen 5 units. (I do have 1x Gen4 TIO left on the shelf if ya want it!)