OT Computer hardware advice please

I bought a used HP Pavilion ZE4500 from a friend at a really decent price. She included most awesome software and everything. The only thing wrong with it is the volume control button to turn it up seems to be broken. It is loose and pushes in on the one side. The volume level is ok for now, but if we want to watch movies, I might need this fixed. Does anyone know about this stuff and how much something like this could cost? Is it easy enough to replace yourself? What would I even buy? Thanks in advance! Terri

Terri, if you're using Windows XP you might see a little speaker icon in the lower right side of your screen next to the time and date. If you double click on that it will open a software volume control. if you don't see it, click on your START button (bottom right on your desktop) and go to Control Panel (if you're using win95 or 98 it's SETTINGS and then CONTRL PANEL) and in your control panel you'll see a choice for SOUNDS SPEECH AND AUDIO DEVICES or just SOUNDS AND AUDIO DEVICES (depending on how your system is set, if you see the Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices you will see SOUNDS AND AUDIO DEVICES on the next screen) go ahead and open the Sounds And Audio Devices. Here you'll see a choice for Volume where you can adjust it and can also check the box that says "place volume icon in the task bar" so that from now on you'll be able to find it on next to the date and time. Hope that helps, i made it sound far more difficult than it is as i wanted to cover all possibilities. Most likely you'll just see the icon by the time and date.

I did all that prior(sorry for not noting that). It just seemed much louder before I turned it down with the volume button. I think it will only go as loud as the button is set at.

well i don't know for sure about your pavilion but i'm typing this on a HP Pavilion DV8120us and on mine the hardware volume switch does the same thing as the software. If you adjust the hardware switch with the volume control open you can actually see it slide along with it. the harman kardon speakers on mine just don't get that loud so i like to use external speakers when watching movies. I usually just plug the S-video into the tv and the headphone jack to the stereo when i watch movies. Have you tried the volume in your media player? and you've tried the main volume as well as wave volume? if you need a new switch you're probably going to have to go through HP support and hope it's something you can replace yourself. good luck.