Optiplex GX260 has no sound

My mom has a refurb'd Optiplex with integrated sound that came originally with the NT operating system. Since Mom is not familiar with NT, my sister slicked the drive and installed XP. The box doesn't have sound now. My sister went to the Dell Optiplex sound driver page where she downloaded and installed the offered driver. Still no sound and the driver could not be found during install. We got the same error as many others who tried installing that same flippin driver. Info from the posts I've read on this board say that the chipset needs to be updated to accept the driver or something like that. Ok, this sound problem has now turned from a relatively simple problem into a big pain in the neck. I am not familiar with integrated sound motherboards; never having used or worked on a box with one so I don't know if this is possible...... but can I bypass the integrated sound card and install a PCI sound card on this motherboard instead? Is there a slot available on this motherboard to accommodate a sound card? If I do plug in a PCI sound card, will I still have to update the chipset to get sound?

Mom lives in another state, and I am trying to fix this sound problem of her's over the phone without having the luxury of being able to open the box and look inside. In trying to research this problem before I make the 500 mile trip to visit mom and fix this sound problem, I thought perhaps someone could offer some insight as to the capabilities of this computer and motherboard and possibly a push in the right direction for a fix.

Anyone have any answers?

Responses(5)

speedstep

9 Legend

•

47K Posts

0

May 18th, 2006 20:00

This is not the psychic friends network. The drivers for the Audio are not native to windows and are OS specific. Directx 9.0c , then chipset, then Soundmax drivers.

The dell support site has all of these.

LordBishop

5 Posts

0

August 1st, 2006 07:00

I had the same problem as you're experiencing. This is what I did to fix the audio problem.

I just wanted to say that following SpeedStep's direction will fix this problem. If you have the Optiplex GX260, follow the directions to a T and it will work.

These are the steps I did to get my GX260's sound (and video) to work properly.

A) I downloaded SP2, full install from the Microsoft and copied it to another HD that I have connected to the GX260 via USB (external HD basically). http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=049c9dbe-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a&displaylang=en

B) Downloaded the Audio Driver to the external HD. ftp://ftp.dell.com/audio/R56339.EXE

C) Downloaded the Video Driver to the external HD. http://members.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=426274 *If this link does not work, go to http://www.driversguide.com/ click on the members link in the center of the page (#3), enter drivers for the membername, all for the password then click the login button. On the next page, scroll down until you see:
If you don't want to create your new account, click here to continue on to the site.

Click on click here and continue.

Select Graphics & Video Adapter , then on the next page, select the letter D and find Dell Computer. Select it and click Select Company>>> button.

On the next page, scroll down until you see:

1. Dell Optiplex GX270 May 24, 2005
Select that link and scroll down until you find:

Video_Optplex.zip (Driver)

D) Shutdown the PC, disconnect the external HD and placed the XP Pro disc in the GX260 drive to start the install.

Now for the install

1) On a unformatted HD, install Windows XP

2) After installation completes, use your ADMINISTRATOR password to log on into XP.

3) You'll just see a recycle bin in the lower right corner of the desktop. Reboot #1.

4) Log in using ADMINISTRATOR, see the recycle bin, Reboot #2

5) Repeat step 4 - Reboot #3

6) Your video will be messed up at 640 x 480 16 colors, but don't worry, I have a solution for that below.

7) Access your external drive or wherever the SP2 file is located.

8) Install SP2 (takes about 10 to 15 minutes). After install REBOOT 3 TIMES, and use the administrator account to log in each time.

9) After logging in, access the external drive again, and install the audio driver (R56339.EXE)

10) Reboot - As it's shutting down, you'll now notice you have SOUND!!!! Whoohoo!!!

11) Log in, locate the video driver (Video_Optplex.zip) and install that. Reboot. Your video is now set at 1024 x 768, true color.

Your Dell GX260 is now good to go! You're all set.

Remember, reboot 3 times after a FRESH install of XP, and then install Service Pack 2 and reboot 3 times. Install the audio driver next, reboot, then install the video driver.

The original message, which includes clickable links is here: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=oplex_audio&message.id=4961#M4961

Message Edited by LordBishop on 08-01-200604:12 AM

HTMLDesigner

14 Posts

0

August 1st, 2006 23:00

LordBiship,

thanks for your reply, however this issue has long since been resolved. After the "oh so lovely" reply I got from the resident forum idiot, (who by the way was only able to offer advice on the psychic friends network), I ended up waiting until I could actually look at the box myself. As I mentioned in my earlier post, this box belonged to my mom who lived in another state and I was trying to obtain as much information on this issue prior to making the trip home to fix it. As it turns out, her motherboard was equipped to accept a PCI soundcard which I installed and bypassed all the steps you had to go thru to get your sound working again. Needless to say, things are find and she is now able to listen to her music again.

Thanks again for an honest attempt to resolve my problem. I really do appreciate the fact that you went to great lengths to document the required steps involved to resolve this issue. I am sure that your efforts will help some other person who is having the same problem. :smileyhappy:

~HTML

B

BabySuggs

3 Posts

0

December 12th, 2012 00:00

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