Alienware M17x R2 sound problems

will not recognize any audio device connected to it, including the factory installed speakers.

I'm not entirely clear about the symptoms. If one of the devices that is connected that won't work is a usb audio devices, that could be a problem with Windows usb audio driver.

If audio worked okay before the new hard drive but has never worked at all on the new drive then maybe something got disconnected while working on the laptop.

I have the most recent BIOS and audio drivers installed.

If the IDT audio driver installed okay and shows up in Device Manager, and if there is movement of the playback meter in the Sound properties, then probably the audio chip is still working. You can run a test on the speakers (ePSA) to see if they have failed (or disconnected) but even if that has happened you should still get audio through the headphone jack.

You could also run the audio tests on the diagnostics cd that came with the laptop (Alienware 32-bit Diagnostics).

If you could perform a system recovery using the recovery media you made when the laptop was new, that would also be a good diagnostic test because it would fix anything wrong in the software and so any problems that remain would be in the hardware.

I ran the diagnostics and all hardware is functioning  properly.  

The IT audio codec is installed an shows up in the device manager with a yellow triangle, which I think means it does not have the digital signature windows wants it to have.  I disable the feature that makes windows block the installations of unsigned driver because it was interfering with most of the rivers I was trying to install off the Alienware support website.  I have re-downloade an installed the driver from the Alienware website several times and the file was not corrupted.  I do not have any recovery media. 

I do not know what you mean by sound properties but when I look under sound the only thing I see is the HDMI port. 

The IT audio codec is installed an shows up in the device manager with a yellow triangle...under sound the only thing I see is the HDMI port.

Those are symptoms that the audio driver has failed to install correctly. IDT is missing from the Sound properties. The reason that HDMI audio is there is because it is controlled by the graphics driver, not the audio.

Your laptop does not need to have the IDT audio driver installed to have sound because there is a native audio driver in Windows. In Device Manager right click on IDT High Definition Audio Codec and click uninstall, then check the option to remove the files. Reboot and check the Device Manager again for IDT -- to make sure that all versions of it have been removed. If it is still there repeat the process. When IDT is no longer there under Sound...Controllers, look for "High definition Audio Device". That is the native driver. If it does not show up in Device Manager after all instances of IDT have been removed then it is either a problem with the Windows installation, or the audio hardware has failed.

Which diagnostic tool did you use to check the hardware?

That did it.  Thank you very much.