What exactly did you do to "set everything to the highest levels"? What OS are you running? Is this a laptop or a desktop? Is the sound normally produced by built-in speakers or what?

Sorry for the lack of details. It's a laptop. Windows XP. I went into the Control panel, then Sounds and Audio Devices. On the Volume tab, set the volume slider all the way to the right, clicked Speaker volume and set the sliders all the way to the right. On the Audio Tab, set all the volume sliders to the top.

There wouldnt perchange be a little volume wheel on the side of the laptop that was turned down

I don't see any external volume controls.

What make and model is the laptop

Weird, because just about every laptop I have owned, has had a volume wheel on either the sides of the laptop or on the front. Take a close look. Supplying the make and model would sure help

I checked the control panel settings to make sure it is using the correct driver.

It's a Dell Inspiron 1000. There's no volume wheel on it. I don't know what you mean when you say to take a close look. There are two sides, a front edge and a back edge (and top and bottom). If it's not on any of those surfaces, I don't know of anyplace else to look.

The volume control in some MP3 players overrides the Windows volume setting. If you have been
listening to MP3 songs, ensure that you did not turn the player volume down or off.

The Dell Inspiron 1000 has a blue Fn button in the lower left of the keyboard. There should be a blue, speaker volume increase (and a decrease) symbol on the top row of keys. While you have some sound playing, hold down the Fn key and tap the volume increase button to see if that helps make it louder. Also, what kind of sound do you get when you plug earphones into the mini-jack?

I don't think she uses anything other than iTunes to listen to MP3s. Actually, I think she only listens to tunes she bought on iTunes (AAC, I think) or transfers from CDs into iTumes and I think the default for those are also AAC. I'll check to make sure, but I'm pretty sure the only other program she has used to listen to music is Windows media player for CDs

Kudzu9--I didn't see your suggestion before my last post. I just tested that and it's just another way to change the volume. If I set it all the way down using the Fn-F11, then look in control panel, the volume slider is all the way to the left.

I haven't tried any headphones, but they're basically just another variation of an unpowered speaker, so my expectation is that they'd be pretty much inaudible. Since she wants to use the laptop to play audio books while in several rooms, headphones wouldn't be useful to her anyway.

I suggested the headphone experiment just to see if there was a difference in the signal level to the headphone jack compared to the signal level to the built-in speakers. If there was, that could help narrow this problem down.

Good call, Kudzu. The music blasted me through headphones.

Headphones and powered external speakers work fine. Unpowered speakers and internal speaker are both really quiet. The internal speaker used to be good enough on its own and as far as I know, she never used any speakers or headphones before she asked me why it was so quiet now.

If it helps, it's far from being a new laptop. It has to be at least three years old.