Inspiron 2305 Volume Buttons not working

Hi tschmitzer,

I would like to know if the volume buttons are not working with a particular application or any application installed on the computer. Let me also know if the buttons look physically damaged.

I suggest that you reset BIOS defaults. Restart the system and at Dell logo tap the F2 key every two seconds to go to the BIOS screen. Press F9 to load defaults and F10 to save and Esc to exit from the BIOS screen. This may fix the issue.

Thanks for the quick response.  No luck on the BIOS.  I guess I should have added a bit more data to the first post.  The buttons worked fine in the original Dell OEM installation. But as i bought this device used,  I am doing a fresh Win7 64bit Home Premium install to wipe and clean up everything... And as a part of this fresh install I added all of the software available on Dell's site for this particular device... but there seems to be a tweak or software piece missing that enables these buttons to work as a HID or something.  Device Manager shows no devices that are unknown.  So I'm a little perplexed, but pretty sure this is a software/config related issue and not HW but cannot find any data on the topic.

Hi tschmitzer,

I suggest that you flash BIOS from the following link:

http://dell.to/17zJMAw

In case the volume buttons are still not responding, I suspect it is a mechanical failure.

Please click on the link below to check the warranty of the system. In case the system is under warranty, send me a private message with the system service tag to assist you further.  Please click on my name and click Start Conversation to send me a private message.

http://dell.to/12Bz4Il

Bios is reflashed, but was at current version anyway.

Again, this is *not* a hardware problem.  The button s worked just fine prior to a reload of Windows.  That reload of software is not going to break these buttons.  There is something in configuration or device drivers that is missing between a stock Windows load and the addition of the dell drivers on the website versus the OEM image that is put on the device out of the box.

I appreciate your efforts, I really do... I see several links to people with the exact same problem online:

 http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-pictures/volume-adjust-buttons-on-inspiron-one-2305-do-not/65dfeec4-e612-403c-97dd-120fd32c15ef?msgId=657acbf9-129b-408c-ab60-c7df5fcf15b2

http://www.helpowl.com/q/Dell/InspironOne2320/Troubleshooting/volume-controls-working/224490

All of which have no answers to them.  Do you know what the device ID information is for these buttons so I can verify that they show in Device Manager and maybe I can try removing them and letting them re-enumerate?

Hi tschmitzer,

I checked with my internal team and there is no known issue with the volume buttons. It is just a coincidence that the volume buttons failed while reloading windows. As already requested, kindly send me a private message with the system tag if the system is under warranty.

Sujatha provided this link which fixed my issue:

http://dell.to/1158WBm

Thanks for posting!  I had to reinstall Windows 7 after a harddrive crash and had same issue.  This solved it!

If anyone else has issues, I didn't know how to get the volume keys to work but I found the solution at windows mobility centre, changing the Fn keys setting to multimedia, on my Dell inspiron 15  with windows 8. :)