Inspiron 7500 LOW sound

I just reinstalled Win98SE on my 5-6 year old Inspiron 7500.

Reinstalled all the drivers from the Dell cdrom.

NOw, my sound is LOW, lower than dirt.  Used to be really good and loud.  Now at full voume, it's so low, I'm gonna burn up my speaker system.

I downloaded the ESS Maestro-2E ES1978 PCI AudioDrive soundcard drivers form Dell's website, same ole same ole.

I downloaded/installed the drivers from www.esstech.com and NO sound at all!

I had to reinstall Win98SE, then reinstall the audio drivers from the cd to get the sound working again, but LOW.

Any suggestions on upping my volume?

Thanks.