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8509
Inspiron 6400 no sound
I'am running XP. I have loaded and reloaded the drivers at least 6 times. I get no sound at all, even if I use headphones. When I run the diagnostic tests it plays the songs. All of a sudden yesterday the sound started to play, when I rebooted no more sound. I have removed the drivers in add & remove programs, and in device manager, and deleted the file using windows explorer. I have downloaded the new driver each time I reinstalled it to make sure it wasn't messed up. I have gotten a window that opens sometimes after I have reloaded the drivers. It says Audio system event, Location Right Panel, Description Back Jack. It asks me to choose,Mic, Line In, Control Panel or take no action. I have tried all the choices but still no sound. I know I can get a USB sound card but I rather fix this thing. It belongs to my teenage son and he loves his music. And I really don't feel like spending $300.00 on a new motherboard when that might not even be the problem. It seems to me something just isn't loading. Any help would be good. By the way my warranty is over.
Jim Coates
4 Operator
4 Operator
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13.6K Posts
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May 4th, 2008 02:00
Try using System Restore to get the Registry back to a time before the problem first occurred. In XP, go to
Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore
and tick 'Restore my computer to an earlier time'.
Go to Start/Run and type "services.msc" then hit the 'Enter' key (or click 'ok'). The Services window will appear. Scroll down until you find "Windows Audio" towards the bottom of the list. Check that it is enabled, set to automatic, and running. If it isn't, double click on it and change the Startup type to Automatic, then click Start, Apply, and OK.
You said you ran diagnostics, but I'll paste this in just to be thorough.
To check for defective hardware on the motherboard, run Dell Diagnostics interactive audio test. To run Diagnostics restart the computer and as soon as it starts to boot up hold down f12. Select 'Diagnostic' from the boot menu. The computer will run its pre-boot assessment tests for 3 or 4 minutes before the Dell Diagnostic starts. These pre-boot tests play some beeps and tones through the system speaker but this doesn't test the rest of the audio hardware adequately, so you still need to let Dell Diagnostics run after the pre-boot tests finish.
When Dell Diagnostics opens, select 'custom', then the audio test. This will test your audio system independently of Windows and drivers, meaning it doesn't matter if they are working correctly or not. Alternate between using headphones and listening to speakers in case only one is working.
[If you have ever reformatted your hard drive then the Diagnostics partition might have been wiped off.]
Dell Diagnostics will play some audio and ask you whether you heard it. If you answer 'no' then the test generates an error code that means you indicated you did not hear the sounds it played, but it doesn't pinpoint the exact component that has gone bad.
If you do hear the audio that means the hardware is okay but there is a problem with the software or configuration.
Jim
tyger427
2 Posts
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May 4th, 2008 03:00
Jim, thanks for the help, but no luck. My system restore doesn't go back far enough. Like I said it is my sons laptop and this happened a while back and I just got it to fix. Windows Audio was on and set to automatic, so that wasn't it.
Still hoping someone will come up with an idea.
Philip_Yip
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
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16K Posts
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May 12th, 2008 19:00