Inspiron 15R 5520 Internal Audio Isn't Working

For me to listen to the sounds, I have to have external speakers/headphones.

So you are getting audio through the headphone jack? It is probably a hardware problem but you can run through some steps.

First re-install your audio driver. If you have Win 7 then it is this Conexant driver.

If that didn't help then try the native Windows driver. To install the native driver, remove the Conexant driver. Open the Device Manager and expand the Sounds controllers section. Right click on the Conexant and select to uninstall. Put a check mark in the option to delete the files, and then ok. When you reboot, Windows will either install its own native driver or a Conexant driver if there were any other versions on the hard drive. So go back to the Device Manager and check for a Conexant driver. Keep uninstalling & rebooting until Conexant no longer appears under sound controllers. The name of the native driver will appear as "High Definition Audio Device".

If you still have the same symptoms you can rule out a driver issue, and if you get audio though the jack then the hardware is working okay to that point. that leaves either the headphone jack or the speakers. The way to test them is with the PSA or ePSA tests.

Re-start the computer and at the Dell logo screen tap the F12 key until the One Time Boot menu appears (if the computer boots to Windows turn the computer off and try again). At the One Time Boot menu, press the down arrow key to highlight Diagnostics, then Enter.

Look for a "Perform Quick Audio Check" button on the bottom right side of the ePSA main menu screen. Press the button and check if you can hear the beep tones from the speakers.

If you do not have the "Perform Quick Audio Check" button then do this. Start the PSA tests and when it performs the color test it will ask you if you see the color bars on the screen. Deliberately fail the test by answering no (press the "n" key) instead of yes. When you do that the motherboard will emit a series of beeps through the speakers. Listen for the beeps.

If you don't hear the beeps or tones that means that the speakers have become disconnected or have failed.

If you do hear the tones that means that the speakers are working and are connected. In that case probably the reason that audio is not coming through them is that the sensing circuitry in the headphone jack has failed. When that happens it prevents audio from being switched from the jack to the speakers.


These last couple of problems should be referred to Tech Support if you are still under warranty. I believe that on your model one has to replace the motherboard to fix the jack.