Audio Issues with Optiplex 580

Check the Dell downloads at  www.support.dell.com   for any updated sound driver.  Also, make sure you are using the Dell  Realtek ALC269Q-VB3 sound driver and not a generic Windows installed driver, or a non-Dell Realtek driver which we find does not work properly.  Check the Device Manager and if it shows "HD Audio Codec" that means the generic Windows installed sound driver is being used. 

Thanks Fireberd. I will check the driver. Have you found that this was a solution to a previous issue, or are you just covering a base?

Just covering a base.  On this forum we have found over the years that if the Dell integrated audio driver is not used, either the sound will not work or there will be problems.  I also provide audio section input on the Windows 7 forum and we have basically found the same thing there.  If someone has audio problems and we find they are using the generic Windows installed HD Audio Codec driver the first thing we suggest is to uninstall that and install the PC or motherboard vendor (as applicable) sound driver.

Thus the first step is to confirm what driver is actually being reported/used by the Device Manager.

Had a new case of this issue just now. The narrative I have put together looking at the event log, and my own testing.

Computer went to sleep due to system idle last night.

It then went into hibernation.

I came in and pressed the power button to wake it up.

Logged into computer, didn't hear any sound.

Checked Driver.
 

Sound indicator in lower right hand corner showed that the playback device was fine. 

I unplugged the classroom equipment from the computer and then plugged it back in with no success.

I plugged the classroom equipment into my phone and was able to play audio

Plugged my headphones into computer, wasn't able to produce sound.

I plugged the classroom equipment back into the computer and put the computer to sleep.
When I woke it back up, it was finally able to produce audio.

Very strange stuff, any ideas? 

I am going forward assuming that that "hibernate after sleep 360 minutes" setting is causing the issue. I didn't know hibernate was enabled by default. I will be sending powercfg -h off to all my machines and see if that resolves the issue.

I am getting choppy audio after the re-install of windows XP on a Dell Dimension 8400!  However, went to the Dell site and down loaded and re-installed ALL the audio related drivers.  The problem has NOT gone away!  Any suggestion or help would be appreciated.

David