Sue,

Have you tried earphones with the laptop? At least this will get you away from those little speakers. And for what it is worth every recording now on my site has come from my laptop played right into a Boss 1180 recorder. Also I have used a few different laptops for live gigs (still use an old IBM Thinkpad) plugged right from earphone jack to PA and I am very satisfied with the sound. My bet is that it is just those tiny no range speakers on the computer.

Later,