Studio xps 1640--no audio through hdmi

Unlike your cable box or dvd player, HDMI from a computer video card doesn't have sound. Add audio cables from your sound card to the tv and it will work. HDMI from the video card is only video. If you think about it, computer monitors don't have sound. The sound comes from your sound card and speakers.

The question I was asking was intended to find out if you had any unknown devices in the list; things with questionmarks.  On at least one of the laptops having HDMI as an option, there is an additional driver in the graphics adapter driver folder.  That one had a folder marked HDMI.  The solution for the owner was to use the "Update Driver" option to install that driver.

Reading your most recent post, however, it appears you have the drivers.  One suggestion I can make is to connect the HDMI cable to both laptop and display with the power off on both.  Power up the display, and after it has gotten through self test and is operating normally, set it to the HDMI port and power up the laptop.  Sometimes the hardware needs to know its connected to something before the software can detect the connection.

You say you have HDMI marked as the default playback device.  Have you also used the Advanced Option to find out what speaker connection is available?

I don't see anything under any of the subsections of device manager marked with a question mark, would I have to right click and look at every driver too?

And I have tried the restart thing etc. And the configure option for hdmi is not clickable which they said is because the audio is going to tv so there is nothing to configure on the comp's end.

And to the first poster, yes this comp is supposed to play audio through hdmi with everything I have. But what cables are you talking about? I don't have any other ports out of computer that seem to apply to what you are talking about.

Let's try this. If it doesn't work, I will get a 1640 and try to replicate your issue.

1. download and install this driver, then test without making any other changes. (this takes for granted that HDMI is the default audio device)
2. if that's no fix, open device manager, and plus open "Sound, Video and Game Controllers."
3. Look for "High Definition Audio Device" (or something like that. I'm writing this from memory, working on an XP box.)
4. Right click it and choose "Update Driver"
5. Choose the wizard option to install from a specific location (again, verbiage may be different)
6. type "C:\dell\drivers\R219810" without the quotation marks and hit next. Follow the prompts, reboot and test.

Please post back how it goes.

Just in case Dell-Bill B's link doesn't work for you (as it didn't for me), try this one:  XPS 1640 ATI 4670 Driver.  Incidentally, I did look at this one, and yes, it has the HDMI driver contained within it.  Hopefully just installing the driver update per Dell-Bill B's instructions will resolve this for you.

Ooops. I copied the javascript instead of the URL. It's fixed now.

In case that doesn't work, a few more random thoughts:

• uninstall any non-MS or non-Cyberlink codecs you have have installed.
• bring up the sound mixer from the volume control icon in the system tray and make sure no other audio applications are using the HDMI playback device. If one is, you should see a volume slider for it.
• disable Dreamscene if you have it running.
• make sure the HDMI device in the sound mixer is not muted.
• Are you running any of the enhanced sound software suites (Creative Soundblaster HD, etc)?

None of the drivers ended up working from the initial post. I was really hoping they would.:emotion-6:

• uninstall any non-MS or non-Cyberlink codecs you have have installed.

None ever installed.

• bring up the sound mixer from the volume control icon in the system tray and make sure no other audio applications are using the HDMI playback device. If one is, you should see a volume slider for it.

There are no applications in the hdmi section in the sound mixer.

• disable Dreamscene if you have it running.

I have no idea what this is, but I searched to see if I might have it and don't to my knowledge.

• make sure the HDMI device in the sound mixer is not muted.

It is not muted in the bottom of the system tray or in the IDT Audio Control Panel.

• Are you running any of the enhanced sound software suites (Creative Soundblaster HD, etc)?

I have Creative Sound-Blaster X-Fi MB, but I don't believe it runs by default or that it is running now.

...and what's your TV make and model?

Do you have a reinstallation disc for the X-Fi MB software? Don't uninstall it if you do not have it. If you do have it, you might try removing it just to test, and putting it back on if the symptoms are unchanged.

Meanwhile, I have a Studio XPS 13 with Vista at home. I will play around with it and see what I have to do to get HDMI sound. I will post back what I find out tomorrow.

Anybody else want to take a crack at it? Be my guest. :emotion-2:

Alright, i'll look into the situation with the soundblaster. And my tv is a Vizio SV470XVT1A, although the 1A on the end might not be that significant.

EDIT: I don't have the disks for the soundblaster so I guess I can't uninstall it unless I could put the files on a hard drive or something first. Anything else I could do about it?

Sorry I couldn't get to this last night. I'll try again tonight.

Leave the Soundblaster alone. I was just scattershooting there. No justifiable reason to go through the hassle of resinstallation.

It seems inevitable that we were heading toward 3rd party codec packs. I've used Klite before. Give it a shot, but set a system restore point first, just in case they over-write other codecs that are working and render them non-functional. Great post, lymanjt. Thanks for jumping in. We need some help. :emotion-5:

A couple of questions:

What is the file type you're attempting to play (.mp3, .flac, .ogg, .wma)?

Does the issue persist even with other media programs? If you don't have another media player on your computer, go do a google search for "VLC media player." Install and test the same file using that program. Are you still getting the same weird result?

If you are, go out and download the "k-lite codec pack" (without quotes). Install and try to play the file again. Post results.

Also do other sounds seem to work over HDMI? (system sounds, browser-initiated sounds such as audio for a youtube video or playing a pandora radio station)

Nothing comes across the hdmi. And I instaled klite, but I don't know if I did it right. I don't have that player you mentioned installed, but I want to play stuff outside of the player and I don't know if it allows for that. So far as klite goes, I installed it pretty much the way it wanted to be installed. I installed the mega version and the 64bit version, but as I said I'm not sure if I did it right. And it didn't work either way. Thanks for the continued support!

At this point I'm wondering if it's not a problem with your individual system?

I would love to know if anyone else is getting this problem with the Studio XPS 1640.

I'm stumped!