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Delphinium2

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2 Posts

22865

September 27th, 2018 01:00

AC511 Soundbar, no longer working

I have an AC511 Soundbar connected to my desktop. It used to work fine. But now although it is connected okay, the drivers are installed, the device is recognized by windows (and I have tried uninstalling and re-installing the drivers) there is now sound from it. I can even change the volume using the dial on the soundbar, but now sound from the bar itself.

Help!

DELL-Jesse L

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September 27th, 2018 11:00

Delphinium2,

The warranty is 1 year from the Dell order date.

Below are troubleshooting scenarios and resolutions for the AC511 sound bar.

Dell - AC511 / Stereo USB Sound Bar - Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

The most important aspect of troubleshooting AC511 SoundBar is understands that it, receives its power from a USB power coming from the platform.

Common symptom What customer may experience Possible solutions
Sound Bar not functioning properly Sound Bar not detected or sync.
  • Once the USB Cable is plugged into the USB power source, observe if white LED light on the right of the Sound Bar lights up.
  • If the LED is not lighted, check if the USB extension is faulted. Replace the cable with a known good USB cable, or directly insert the Sound Bar USB cable into the USB power source.
  • If the LED lights up after replacing the USB extension cable or directly plugging the Sound Bar USB cable into the USB source, the first USB Cable is defective.
  • If no light is observed, after replacing the USB extension cable or directly plugging in the Sound Bar USB Cable, then the Soundbar is defective.
  • If light is observed, and you still have a problem of not having the Sound Bar function, remove or unplug the Sound Bar from the system and re-start the computer.
  • Plug in the sound Bar again and check if the LED is lighted.
  • If the Sound Bar still fails to connect, check if Sound Bar is present in device manager.
  • Swap the USB Sound Bar to another USB port.
  • If the other USB port works, means the first USB port maybe faulty.
  • If the other USB port does not work, proceed to next step.
  • Swap with a known-good USB Speaker or device (eg. Keyboard) or try the problem Sound Bar to another system.
  • If there is no other mouse or system available to test with, use a known good USB Keyboard (or other USB device) to see if it works on the same USB port.
  • If known-good USB device is not working on the same port or the original Sound Bar works properly on another system, the former system's USB I/O maybe defective.
  • If known-good USB device works or the Sound Bar does not works properly on another system, replaced the Sound Bar with good one.
No Sound Speaker has power - power LED indicator is on.
  • If playing through USB streaming, ensure that a music file is playing from the platform and the volume level is not 0%.
  • If playing through an external music devices such as MP3 player, iPod/iPad/iPhone or other Android phone, make sure that the Aux-in cable is properly connected.
  • Make sure that the external music device volume is not 0%.
  • If playing through USB streaming, set all Windows volume controls to their maximum.
  • Play some audio content on the computer (for example, an audio CD, or MP3).
  • Turn the volume to higher level by rotating the Sound Bar volume knob clockwise.
  • Clean or reseat all cables again.
  • Test the Portable Speaker with a different music source (for example, a portable CD player).
  • Go to the control panel of the computer and click on Sound. Try different ports. Reinstall the on-board drivers or the sound card drivers. Restart the computer. Try with a speaker that is known to be good.
Distorted Sound Computer's sound card is used as the audio source.
  • Clear any obstructions between the sound bar and the user.
  • Confirm that the audio line-in plug is completely inserted into the jack of the sound card.
  • Set all volume controls to their midpoints.
  • Decrease the volume of the audio application.
  • Turn the volume level to lower setting by rotating the Sound Bar knob counter-clockwise.
  • Clean and reseat all cables again.
  • Troubleshoot the computer's sound card.
  • Test the Sound Bar speaker using another audio source (for example, a portable CD player or MP3).
  • Ensure no loose objects are touching the speaker.
Distorted Sound Other audio source is used.
  • Clear any obstructions between the USB Sound Bar and the user.
  • Confirm that the USB Cable or audio line-in plug is completely inserted into the jack of the audio source.
  • Decrease the volume of the audio source.
  • Turn the volume level to lower setting by rotating the Sound Bar knob counter-clockwise.
  • Clean and reseat cables again.
  • Turn the bass or wave setting lower.
  • Turn the "Wow Surround" setting lower.
  • Ensure the Sound Bar speaker is attached on the monitor.
  • Ensure no loose objects are touching the speaker.
Unbalanced Sound Output Sound from only one side of portable speaker
  • Clear any obstructions between the USB Sound Bar and the user.
  • Confirm that the audio line-in plug is completely inserted into the jack of the Sound Bar or audio source.
  • Set all Windows audio balance controls (L-R) to their midpoints.
  • Clean and reseat all cables again.
  • Troubleshoot the computer's sound card.
  • Test the Soundbar speaker using another audio source (for example, a portable CD player or MP3).
Low Volume Volume is too low.
  • Clear any obstructions between the portable speaker and the user.
  • Turn the volume to higher level by rotating the knob clockwise.
  • Set all Windows volume controls to their maximum.
  • Increase the volume of the audio application.
  • Test the Sound Bar speaker using another audio source (for example, a portable CD player or MP3).
Buzzing Noise from Sound Bar Speaker Is the Sound Bar Speaker properly attached to the Monitor and no obstruction.
  • Make sure that the Sound Bar speaker is attached to the Monitor and no loose objects is hanging or touching the Sound Bar.
  • Try reducing the volume to low level by rotating the knob counterclockwise.
  • Make sure the wires does not interfere with the speaker.
Aux-in No Sound Is the Aux-in Cable plug in.
  • Ensure that the Aux-in cable is properly plug in Sound Bar Aux-in jack and on the Aux-out jack of the Audio Device.
  • Try using different or known good Aux-in cable.
Aux-in No Sound Is the External Audio Device Turned On or is Playing Music.
  • Check if the Audio Device is turned On or is playing music.
  • Ensure that the Audio Device volume is not set to 0% volume level.
  • Try replacing the Audio Device with known good Audio Device.
Aux-in Distortion Is the Aux-in Cable properly plug in.
  • Clear any obstructions between the USB Sound Bar and the user.
  • Confirm that the audio line-in plug is completely inserted into the jack of the audio source.
  • Decrease the volume of the audio source.
  • Turn the volume level to lower setting by rotating the Sound Bar knob counter-clockwise.
  • Clean and reseat cables again.
  • Turn the bass or wave setting lower.
  • Turn the "Wow Surround" setting lower.
  • Ensure the Sound Bar speaker is properly attached on the monitor.
  • Ensure no loosed objects are touching the speaker.
Headphone Jack No Sound USB Streaming or external Audio source not playing music and volume is 0%.
  • Check if the platform Music Player or external Audio Source is playing music.
  • Check if the Audio Source and the Sound Bar volume is not set to 0%.
Headphone Jack Distortion Is the Headphone Aux-in cable properly plugged in.
  • Check if the Headphone plug is properly inserted into Sound Bar Headphone jack.
  • Check if the Headphone plug has not shown intermittent connection.
  • Check if the music file is not distorted when playing without the headphone or connecting a known good headphone.
Cable not long enough and extension cable cannot connect to speaker USB cable or spoilt USB Extension Cable.
  • Check if the 300mm USB Sound Bar cable length is not enough to connect the Sound Bar to the USB port, use the USB extension cable to connect the SB to the USB port.
  • Check if the USB cable is not damaged.
Sound Bar cannot mount onto monitor T-Hook.
  • Check if the T-Hook is not missing.
  • Check if the T-Hook is not damaged or broken.
  • Check if the Monitor/LCD Sound Bar slot is open and no Mylar cover or obstruction.
Missing items Packaging check.
  • Open the box on top and check if the USB extension is present inside the package.
  • Check if all packaging literature are present inside the package.

Straters

1 Message

October 14th, 2018 02:00

I have the same problem. 

Soundbar was working without any problems for 1.5 years and 2 weeks back it just stopped working (I guess it has something to do with some of the updates).

Light is on, I see that it is receiving input from laptop (under "Volume"), and if I change to other speakers it works just fine, but AC511 does not. 

I noticed that under PC and Devices, it is telling now that Dell AC511 USB Soundbar Driver error. I reinstalled it a couple of times, but I guess I am doing something wrong.

P.S. Do you have some sort of online support where I could connect live as I am re-reading the same general advices that just does not solve the problem. Thank you in advance! 

Tesla1856

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October 14th, 2018 09:00

@Straters wrote:

I have the same problem. 

Soundbar was working without any problems for 1.5 years and 2 weeks back it just stopped working (I guess it has something to do with some of the updates).

Light is on, I see that it is receiving input from laptop (under "Volume"), and if I change to other speakers it works just fine, but AC511 does not. 

I noticed that under PC and Devices, it is telling now that Dell AC511 USB Soundbar Driver error. I reinstalled it a couple of times, but I guess I am doing something wrong.

P.S. Do you have some sort of online support where I could connect live as I am re-reading the same general advices that just does not solve the problem. Thank you in advance! 

 

Since this one only requires a USB connection, that means there is a "sound card" inside the unit. That means it requires a Windows driver for this audio-device. Interesting that the posted troubleshooting chart just kinda skips-over all that. Think of it like a pair of USB (Digital Audio) Headphones ... it needs a driver.

I've never had one of these AC511, but it appears to be a "Digital Audio" version of the older "Analog Audio" model (which I have a couple of). That older model also attached nicely to select Dell monitors, but was based on analog-audio, so it required no drivers (instead, used the computers sound-card).

Delphinium2

1 Rookie

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2 Posts

October 15th, 2018 01:00

Thanks all. I've checked all the "common reasons" list - but critically it has been working fine beforehand. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, etc. The only thing I haven't tried is re-installing windows, but I don't really want to have to do that! 

I think it must be some kind of driver incompatibility with the latest builds of Windows 10, the speaker works if I plug headphones into it, the volume lever works, the light works. It just doesn't produce any sound! 

I think I'll just bin it as a bad buy and get a replacement.

Puneetxp

1 Message

November 23rd, 2019 08:00

Spoiler
 

Why even bother this is already in manual.

This serious driver issue now my one have broken only play with aux try different thing but nothing work just firmware available for it and re flash can. Easily solve problem. But i cant get it online. If anyone now how to flash this device. Let me know or how to reset firmware

Nothing is online about this thing. This is what i see every time if you in warranty then you get free replacement but if you are not then it just brick and dell make more waste because they can't give the firmware that can bring new life in it. It don't look hardware issue for me as by aux it play well.

I have similar issue but it run fine by a little hack disable and enable driver but that not work now anymore.

15745255498953471930640943578598.jpg

This speaker is not good compare to other but look good with my monitor and now i have missed something with extra cable for the aux input. And aux cable have sound quality issues. USB quality used to is better. I like to have it back again if anybody know to bring it back from dead let me know.

kdawson001

1 Message

August 28th, 2022 15:00

I'm having the same problem!   It worked perfectly for 1.5 years and now sound output is working but no input at all despite power lights on and volume to max - cannot get sound input to work. No solutions through troubleshooting.  If anyone has a solution, please let me know. Thanks!

UNP

1 Rookie

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1 Message

April 23rd, 2026 07:05

Win11Pro / i7

Same problem, soundbar would not appear under "Sound" but would appear in device manager. under sound, video game controllers. Soundbar light would power on, and USB sound would come on connect / disconnect. 

Soundbar worked on another PC without any problem.

The solution, surprisingly, came from the old Windows troubleshooter. It recognised that driver update was set to "never" and it enabled driver updates. I don't even know where to turn this on or off.

Long story short, troubleshooter asked me to restart which I did, and the Soundbar is working now.

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