Hello, I purchased my laptop less than a month ago and have been having this problem since the day I received it.  The audio will malfunction and so far the only way I have been able to get it to work again is to reboot my laptop, however today even after rebooting several times the audio still has not returned.  Upon clicking the audio icon which has a red X situated next to it I get a message from windows saying troubleshoot cannot fix the problem.  When I hover over it it tells me "No Audio Output device is installed."     I'm not sure what to do at this point, I've been having many other problems as well with my device.  Earlier this evening none of my 3 browsers were functioning properly, giving me the message that adobe shockwave player wasn't working and then shutting down.  Sometimes my laptop will randomly shut itself down.  Sometimes it has troubles staying connected to my router.  I've had a virus scan performed, adware/spyware scan performed, overheating test performed and everything is fine.  I can't seem to figure out what the problem is, I'm beginning to think I should just return it.

Since you just bought it and it's under warranty I would suggest calling tech support. It's much easier to trouble shoot over the phone plus they can send out a tech with parts if it turns out you need something replaced.

Grats on your new Alienware! Hope everyone is resolved quickly.

hancid,

Discussion: The Audio codec suddenly dissappear from the device manager and the computer stays without audio device. The issue appears randomly.
Solution: Reinstall the System Bios Alienware M14x-R2 A03 http://dell.to/NCxYo2

I am having this same issue and have had no luck with the provided solution. I am calling customer service within the hour to get an answer for the problem but I think it would still be nice to have an answer posted here for others who have the same issue.

I am having the same problem and I've only had the laptop for about a week. The offered bios reinstall solution did not work for me either. This might be a design flaw they need to look at. 

Ok. Did you both try reinstalling the audio driver, then restarting the system to see if it corrects the issue?

I did. But just now I called tech support and they worked on it remotely and fixed it. Just glad I didn't have to send it in.

Exactly how did they fix it?

Yes, i even tried a system restore to a previous date. I will also be contacting technical support to have the issue resolved. Mine had corrected itself after a few days but just today the issue arose once again. I hate how half of the tech support is with dell while the other half is with alienware, you constantly get the run around until you eventually have to get angry to get any real progress. 

Wow, It's almost a relief to see I'm not the only one experiencing this problem. I literally just received my laptop the other day and I've had non-stop audio problems. After system restoring it and losing everything it started working but then other programs refuse to work. It's been such a hassle. I had high expectations for Alienware and I've been nothing but disappointed. I'll call tech support tomorrow and hope it works - I'd hate to have to return it. 

Tried the Reinstall of the system BIOS and I get "IHISI: Flash write error in SMI! - SMI Return Code: 0x25"

Fixed by installing the latest BIOS for my system

www.dell.com/.../alienware-m14x-r2