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23 Posts
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31741
{MOVED}No sound on my new Alienware
I turned on my barely over a month old Alienware today only to discover the sound is completely gone. I've tried everything in the troubleshooter and I still have no sound. The driver is up-to-date and so is the BiOS. Tried rebooting a few times and still nothing. I can't find anywhere to report the problem that doesn't involve installing Dell diagnostic software or calling the support line. When I try to email I get an error message about my service tag even though it's correct. Could someone please advice me on how to procede? I want the sound back. No games tonight without it.
jimco
30 Posts
0
April 24th, 2013 13:00
Have you tried listening through headphones to see if there is audio at the jack?
rain0922
23 Posts
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April 24th, 2013 15:00
Yes. Not a sound. No speakers, no headphones, no system sounds. Nothing. Worked fine yesterday.
jimco
30 Posts
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April 24th, 2013 16:00
1. Try System Restore -- sometimes fixes a problem. In 7, type "System Restore" into the Start menu search box, and then, in the list of results, click System Restore. Probably about the same in 8.
2. Re-install the audio driver. not to update but to reset its settings to their defaults, in case something got out of whack. Just find the driver in Device Manager and right and select to uninstall but don't select the options to delete the files or completely remove it. When you reboot it will be re-installed from the files on the hard drive.
To get someone from Dell to assist you, contact any of the Dell people who post on these boards, via private message and include your Service Tag number so they can find out what's going on with that. Some of the names are:
DELL-Rajath N
DELL-Sujatha K
DELL-Nikhil De
Dell-Rajesh R
DELL-Roshan L
DELL-Prateek K
DELL-Kiran K
DELL_Abhishek_B
A particularly good resource for you is the Alienware Club.
en.community.dell.com/.../default.aspx
It might be a good idea to contact that board's moderator, Chris M.
en.community.dell.com/.../default.aspx
rain0922
23 Posts
0
April 25th, 2013 08:00
Still nothing. Guess I'll have to phone tech support. Hate talking to techs on the phone. They always want you to restore your computer to factory settings which in my experience never solves the problem. This is the second brand new computer I've had problems with within the first month or two of having it. You would think a $2000 computer would wait at least 6 months before messing up!
NataliaatAW
835 Posts
0
April 25th, 2013 12:00
Hello rain0922,
What's the model of your system?
And what BIOS version are you running?
jimco
30 Posts
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April 25th, 2013 13:00
If the audio was working initially then restoring to the original factory configuration would fix the problem unless a hardware failure has developed since you got the laptop. So from that perspective doing a restore is a diagnostic tool for separating out software from hardware failure. Another tool that is good at doing that is the Dell Diagnostics audio tests, but Dell is no longer including that utility on all new models. I don't know if it is on the Alienwares or not.
rain0922
23 Posts
0
May 1st, 2013 15:00
So the tech from Dell came this morning and fixed the computer. He said it was "cranky driver". He was wrong. I shut it down to go shopping and when I booted it up later the sound was gone again. And every file I downloaded this morning was gone too! What is wrong with this computer. Not only is the sound gone but now it's deleting files by itself! I expected better from a $2000 computer. Pretty unhappy right now.