Everything is turned up , but you can tell when you look at the bouncing bar that it's not using hardly any of it's power. Wierd

I had that issue with my eepc netbook.  It was a driver issue. New drivers and all of a sudden it worked great.

turn your hearing aids up

Drivers? I know not this computer speak

Depending on which version of Windows:

Click Start or Funky Windows button in left lower corner, then click on Settings, then Control Panel. Find Windows Update and run it. Also depending on Windows version, drivers are listed as Optional updates or as something else, brain fart=can't remember.

OR

Open Internet Explorer and under Safety Buttton, click on Windows Update (Latest Versions of Internet Explorer only I believe..)

Good Luck!

Drivers; I remember them as another word for updates. Its easier for me to think of them in this way.  Every little thing that your computer runs, like sound, operating system, graphics, etc. need updating from time to time and these updates AKA drivers.  You need to go to your computer companies website and look for support or help button and go to download new drivers or updates.  See if your particular Operating system (windows 7, mac, etc.) has updates.  OR you can just run an update check from your desktop somewhere, I do not know where without being on your system.

OR THE BEST OPTION

Call the 1 800 help line that came with your system and ask the customer service where to go to update all your drivers on your system and where to get your system updates from.

Drivers and Updates are not interchangable terms its just how I learned them, when you call make sure you use the Drivers Term.

Good Luck

NO, do not do this. Never let Windows Update install or upgrade your device drivers.

Go to the manufacturer's website and get them there.
Asus Drivers

Not just netbooks, lots of laptops are like this also.

Only thing you can do is find a source with a higher gain or output it to speakers or headphones.

To each there own....Never really seen too much problems with Microsoft Certified Drivers, but like I said, to each his own.
(ETA: Never seen too many problems with Lenovo laptops running the Microsoft Certified Drivers. Not to say that bad drivers haven't been released into the wild before, as it has happened. But once in ten years that I can rememeber didn't seem to bad.)

Hope the OP gets the problem figured out..

It's not that the drivers are bad but that they are not the latest and often times are generic drivers which may not function correctly with his specific hardware.

Asus's website for new drivers is what I would try first