Annoying Issue with ME2LE on Laptop Speakers

So I've been playing through the trilogy on my Asus Vivobook Pro with Windows 11, and I got through ME1LE without a hitch, but now as I'm trying to play ME2LE I'm having strange issues with the sound quality.

Just about half the sound effects are quiet enough to be silent, and any squadmate banter/dialogue coming from behind Shepard (ie, pretty much all of it) is either completely silent or sounds as though it's coming from another room. It feels like the game is trying to play my audio in surround sound when all my settings are on stereo. I tried switching to headphones but had the very same problem. I've found various threads of people going through the same problem but no one seems to have found a solution. Can anyone help with this? I just want to continue my playthrough, but this is honestly ruining my enjoyment and frustrating me to no end.