I have an Acer Aspire purchased in February that came with Vista, and I have
had sound problems. I also have the most current sound drivers.
This may not be the same problem, because my sound worked out of the box but
then stopped working and was very, very quiet as you said. I have exta
speaker jack outlets in the computer designed for surround sound. I moved my
single speaker jack to one of the other outlets and the sound is now pretty
normal.
I still have frequent popping sounds out of my speakers. Acer is sending me
new speakers but I am wondering if I have a bad sound card. Some days the
sound card is just not found and I have to reboot to get sound at all. I am
hoping that subsequent releases of sound drivers for Vista will solve my
problem. Hope I didn't get a lemon because I let 30 days pass.
Sorry if this isn't helpful to you, but you are not alone in having problems.