singbelcanto,

When you installed Windows 7, did you install the desktop/notebook utility and the chipset drivers first? If not, the rest of the drivers will fail to install. How to Download and Install Drivers in the Correct Order If you cannot find Windows 7 drivers, then try using the Vista (or XP) Drivers and install them in the Compatibility mode, just make sure to use 32-bit drivers for Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit drivers for Windows 7 64-bit.

Rick 

In addition to PudgyOne's advice, for specific instructions on installing the Sigmatel audio driver into an XPS M170 with 7, see section 9 of the Audio Driver Facts FAQ. That section is entitled "You Installed Windows 7 But Can't Find a 7 Version of Your AC97 Audio Driver".

The XPS M170 had the old AC97 audio codec on the motherboard instead of the newer HD codec, so when you read anything in the Laptop Audio Faq's make sure the section applies to AC97.

try to update from device manager

Hello JohnFellow. I don't know exactly what happens if you do it that way, but for sure you would have to let the computer connect to the internet to search for a driver. That is because 7 (and Vista) do not have a generic version of an AC97 driver incorporated into them, only an HD driver**, so it would have to find one elsewhere. But it still would not find a Sigmatel AC97 driver for 7 because Sigmatel went out of business before 7 came out. Any Sigmatel AC97 driver it finds would need to be installed in compatibility mode and I doubt that 7 does that automatically. It would be an interesting experiment to try.

** On models with HD audio, if one installs 7 (or Vista) but not a specific audio driver, when you boot up then 7 (or Vista) will install its generic HD driver. But this does not happen if the machine has AC97 audio.

Contrarily, XP does have a native AC97 driver (Intel) but not an HD one, because HD was developed after XP came out. For reference, see section 6 of the Audio Driver Facts FAQ, "How to Install the Generic Audio Driver".

Thanks guys. I followed some directions on another post here and I just change the audio drivers compatibility to vista and it worked. However it was obvious that the video driver (niVida) had the same problem so I change that also but when I rebooted everything frooze and the timer just didnt move and I couldnt do anything.

Now what people?

singbelcanto,

You should be able to restart your computer, tap F8 and get to the safe mode. You can run system restore from the safe mode.

Rick

This is out of my area of knowledge but while waiting for a better reply from the others I would boot into safe mode (F8) and remove the bad driver (using "rollback driver" or system restore) or return to last known good configuration.