Hardware problem? Sound returns when I tilt the screen down....

There is a problem with the speaker wires breaking in the 700m. The sound through the speakers stops working but often you can hear some audio through the speakers when the screen is partially closed. The sound should still work okay through the headphone jack. There are a bunch of threads about this. Most people with this problem consider it to be caused by the flawed design of the computer, but Dell does not acknowledge that this is their fault and will usually not correct this unless you are still under warranty.

 

One of the victims of the poor design was Luke Miller who has a web site with great photos showing how to disassemble the computer enough to get to the broken wires.
http://www.lukemiller.org/journal/2006/06/broken-speaker-wires-on-dell-700m.html

 

After the speakers and wires are exposed you can either repair the wires or replace the speakers with new ones that have unbroken wires. The problem is that Dell does not sell the speakers w/wires as a separate part (you have to buy the whole lcd display for over $500 to get the speakers) so finding the speakers to buy is difficult. Sometimes they are available on ebay when someone is selling off parts of a junked 700m.

 

Jim 

Thanks Jim for your valuable insight. I am so appreciative, of your quick reply!

 

Fortunately I am 2 months within warranty, so I will see if I can have this fixed.  Otherwise the information you've provided is worth a shot. 

 

Thanks again,

 

Tracy

i have the same problem expect my sound doesn't come back when i tilt the screen. i have tried everything to fix my sound problem and nothing works, ive already opened it up to check the wires and to my surprise the wires are in good condition, none are broken so Im stumped if anyone can please help me i would very much appreciate it

Try running the audio test in Dell Diagnostics to determine whether it is a hardware or software problem. 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, so you still need to let Dell Diagnostics run after the pre-boot tests finish. Dell Diagnostics plays an instrumental piece of music complete with drums, so if you only hear some tones then you have only run the pre-boot assessment test.

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.

[If you have ever reformatted your hard drive then the Diagnostics partition might have been wiped off. If the Dell Diagnostics option fails to open, run it from the Drivers and Utilities (Resource) CD if you have one.]

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 and cannot 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 

Yes i have tried all that as well but i don't have the the Drivers and Utilities (Resource) CD. so i cant run it...anyother things i can do...good thing is that i know its not the speakers wires so it must be software or something..if there something else i can do please let me know..thank you

 It could be a loose connection, a bad headphone jack, or the wires could be broken inside their sheathing.

 

Link to get the Resouces cd

 

Or you can go to the 700m XP drivers downloads page and download Dell Diagnostics to a bootable flash drive and run it from the drive following these instructions.

 

If you think the problem is the software then use System Restore to go back to a time before you first noticed the problem.

 

The Sigmatel audio driver is the main cause of software problems. It might be not installed, incompletely installed, or corrupted. Often there is no way to tell if the driver is defective except by uninstalling and reinstalling it and then trying to use your audio again. Go to Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager. Find the audio driver under Sound Controllers, right click on it, and then click Uninstall. Restart the computer. Windows should automatically detect your device and display a wizard that helps you reinstall the driver for it.

A better way is to first delete the driver files from your computer to ensure a clean new driver installation. Go to the "Add/Remove Programs" in the Control Panel and remove the current Sigmatel if it is there in the list of programs and restart the computer. (Vista users go to Computer> Uninstall or Change a Program.)

If 'Sigmatel' is not listed there, go to your hard drive, c:\Dell\Drivers\R...(Sigmatel driver file name) and delete the folder.  Next download and install a new audio driver from the 700m drivers downloads page. Expand the 'Audio' category and download the one named Sigmatel.
 

 

Jim 

ok i have a usb and unziped all the files but when i try to boot off of usb it tells me "missing operating  system"..so now what do i do im??

It needs to be a bootable flash drive, i.e. with the boot sector files on it. Making a bootable flash drive is a little complicated. You can google for instructions like these.

 

Jim 

Wow ive tried some and its very complicating can you help me through it or one of them which ever is easier in English ha cause what i read on there is just hard.Thanks

MetalMan I am sorry but I cannot add anything to the instructions ... it just is not an area that I know much about. I suggest that you either get the Resource cd from Dell or treat the problem as a software one. Have you tried the suggestion about deleting the old driver and downloading a new one?

 

Jim 

ya ive tried to uninstall and reinstall.. im 100% sure its a software problem, when i try to install the sigmatel audio driver it wont let me it tells me "divice object not present" and theres a sigmatel drive on here, i installed it from a cd. it installs fine but when i look at device manager i see the sigmatel drive and theres a yellow excalmation point and i read it and say "error Code 10 this divice can not start" and thats as far as i can go

Please start a new thread and put all of those facts in it along with the operating system name. If you have recently reinstalled the OS please say so. The problems you revealed in your last post are entirely different from the topic of this thread. I'll answer on your new thread. Please give all details. Thanks,

 

Jim 

ooo sorry about that jim, ill post in new thread..thanks