I previously had an emachine running windows xp. I now have Vista but the sound output is very faint from the emachine speakers. The volume is on max.

I noticed that I am also having problems running software which was fine running on XP ie Dazzle 90 and Sage Instant Accounts v11. Looks like I need to buy new - not fair !!!. I regret ever upgrading to Vista.

I would check your sound properties via the control panel. It sounds ( no pun intended lol ) to me that your speakers aren't configured properly. If the setting is at say 7.1 speakers and you have a 2.1 set up it will sound like you have mentioned. To do this go to control panel, Hardware and sound and then click sound. In the box highlight speakers and click configure in the bottom left hand corner, change settings to suit your set up.
As for the software, have you tried checking the websites to see if any updates for Vista are available?

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Sounds like it's plugged in the wrong jack on the back of the pc 2 me but what kemical said could also be true.

I've experienced the same thing and configured the sound options every which way but loose. I'd gotten a whole new HP puter system with Vista but was still using my old eMachine monitor and speakers the first few days and having no luck with the sound. I finally got my new monitor with it's built-in speakers hooked up and the sound worked fine - though it's quality isn't as good as my other speakers.