Dell AC511 not recognised on Windows 10 Technical Preview

Hi LibertyNoir,

Job well done on the troubleshooting part. As for the Windows 10 technical preview, this is only the BETA vesion and drives for the same are not available as of yet. You would have to wait for the complete windows 10 version to get the drivers from the manufacturer.

Further to the previous response, I did check with the concerned team and for the AC511 sound bar the compatible versions of operating system are Windows 7 & 8.

Thanks very much for your replies. I understand that drivers for Windows 10 TP might not be available, since the OS is in Beta (hopefully they will be available on full release!).

However, I would still like a copy of the driver for Win 8, so that I can attempt to roll back the present Win 10 driver to what it was previously, which I imagine was a Win 8/8.1 driver. This did work very well on earlier, less stable, builds of Win 10, for several months.

WHQL drivers are great because they involve no fuss etc, but it would still be good to make downloadable versions available for manual install in the event of problems.

These drivers are native and are not downloadable. Thank you for the feedback on the WHQL drivers. We will surely have this passed on to the technical teams for future improvement.

The problem continues as of this date 12/17/15.  I have a new XPS 8900 running Win 10 Pro and same monitor (U2424H) & soundbar (AC511).  Numerous attempts to get the soundbar working by Dell tech support have been unsuccessful.  BTW, the sound bar works great on my old XPS 410 running Win XP Pro.

I also have the new XPS8900, Windows 10,U2414H monitor with Dell AC 511 USB Soundbar, the soundbar is recognized properly by windows upon plugging into the usb port on the moitor but is immediately followed by "driver error", further troubleshooting indicates configuration error, reinstall of the driver does not correct the problem, deeper into the analysis indicates configuration error and further resolution needed, the real irony comes from the final recommendation to go to the manufacturer's website for possible resolution.  Of course, since Dell has the soundbar as a plug and play device there is no driver from them and they indicate it is a Microsoft problem which of couse is is based on MS own troubleshooting facts.  Until the driver configuration problem is corrected the soundbar will not work as designed, after spending 3 sessions with MS Chat it is still left up to me to resolve the issue which of course is not possible because I am not able to alter the configuration code which is causing the problem.  I have seen this similar problem posted from numerous users and still no resolution from MS, what does it take to get them to fix an obvious problem identified by their own troubleshooter?

After a month of continuous complaining about my XPS 8900 with U2414H Monitor and AC 511 Soundbar, Dell finally sent me a second Soundbar to try and guess what...THIS ONE WORKED!

I don't know if revisions were made to the Soundbar or if the one I first received was defective.

Thank you for the info, yesterday I ordered a new soundbar from Best Buy which should arrive in a couple of days.  I will be interested to find out if I have the same good fortune you did with a new soundbar.  I will be happy to return the defective one to Dell and get them to admit the device driver error is indeed caused by a defective soundbar.

The USB soundbar uses WHQL drivers.  There is no defective based on WHQL drivers of the Generic USB Audio.

Preview versions of windows 10 are Not WHQL certified and therefore will not have drivers.

Dell NCW95  AC511 USB Soundbar has passed WHQL logo testing by Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Labs. For windows 7 and 8.

There is an additional cable that goes from the monitor to a usb port on the computer.  You must then turn it on and adjust volume.

http://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_electronics/esuprt_speakers/dell-usb-soundbar-ac511_Owner%27s%20Manual_en-us.pdf

 There is an issue based on USB3 but this is up to microsoft to fix.

More of a work-around. First, connect the speaker to the monitor hub, then plug the hub's USB cable into a USB 2 port (not 3 !!) on the computer. Windows should then recognize the soundbar and may, if necessary, install a driver. Next, launch Windows control panel and select the "sound" dialog. The soundbar should appear on a list of playback devices. Click on it to set it as the default system speaker. A green-circled check mark will confirm this. Click "OK" to close the dialog. The  soundbar should work now.

After spending weeks trying to resolve the no sound from the Dell AC 511USB Soundbar (3 separate 2 hr sessions with Microsoft Chat) plus hours of personal time, I decided to order a new soundbar from Best Buy, same device, arrived yesterday, installed in 2 minutes and had sound.  Unfortunately the MS troubleshooting software is not able to recognize a defective soundbar and it is only through a process of elimination that one has to assume the soundbar is defective.  I am well aware of the cable arrangement between the monitor and computer and separate USB port on the monitor which supplies power and sound to the soundbar,  Also, the work-around suggested makes no difference as to USB2 or USB3 connection, they both work the same and it is possible to activate the soundbar from the audio list regardless of the USB source from the computer.  In any event, I am returning the defective soundbar to Dell, perhaps they will be able to figure out the problem because I assume other users are faced with the same situation. 

Fantastic!!! Glad to hear that new AC511 worked.  After mentioning in an earlier post that replacing the sound bar did the trick for me, it occurred to me that a replacement could have the same problem.  I don't know if the problem is random or linked to a specific production run.  Regardless, final quality control checks were not adequately done by Dell or their contract manufacturer.

Given that this is quite mature hardware that came out as early as 2012 there is no reason to believe that a hardware change was needed.   There may have been a driver update on the Microsoft Side.  I have noticed this on other hardware where initially there was no driver for my Optiplex 745  G965 video but after a few hours online a WDDM 1.1 WHQL driver downloaded adding functionality back to my ancient INTEL graphics.   There was no driver on INTEL's site to fix this for windows 10 and the driver that came from microsoft was whql for windows 10 TH2.

Speedstep,

FYI: When I had two AC511 Sound Bars on hand and only the replacement sent by Dell worked, this clearly indicates the original Sound Bar was defective.  I even swapped them back and forth a couple of times to make sure.  Tiger recently reported the same problem and his replacement AC511 functioned properly where the original shipped with his computer purchased from Dell did not. 

My AC511 Sound Bar (shipped directly from Dell) stopped working after 3 months.  I ordered a new one only to have original Sound Bar "come back to life".  I returned replacement and now, one month later, the original Sound Bar has stopped working a second time. 

It suddenly failed to power on and has disappeared from the device list.  (Brand new Latitude laptop connected to wireless docking station and monitor, running Windows 10.)

I will call is see if I can get a replacement due to warranty.