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Inspiron B130-No Sound
My Dell Inspiron B130 sound isn't working.
1) The sound does work off of the Diagnostics Partition. The diagnostics program finds no conflicts and gives the sound system a perfect bill of health. I can hear the sound just fine out of the built in speaker. I can hear sound through the headphones when I plug them in as well.
2) Out of Windows XP I hear nothing. The driver seems to be correctly installed, and no errors are in Hardware Manager. The mixer and audio software comes up and nothing is grayed out. I tried both the installed driver and the updated driver but was not able to hear anything through the speakers or headphones.
3) In desperation I did a reimage--still no sound. I updated the driver--still no sound.
I've never heard the sound work on this laptop. Is it possible that the sound driver is wrong on the image and the website? If sound works off of the diagnostics partition, shouldn't it work in XP as well?
Jim Coates
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May 16th, 2013 16:00
There are 2 drivers that have been used extensively and are proven reliable, so I don't think that is the problem. They are the Sigmatel R171789 and Sigmatel R122161. The main difference between them is that R171789 has stereo mix and the other doesn't. You have probably been using these.
As far as the image, I don't know. If you used the original image on the hard drive, called Dell PC Restore, it would have been okay. it also would have fixed any software problems and the remaining problem would be hardware.
Except for not getting audio through the headphone jack, your issue has a similarity to the sense pin failure as described in the Headphone Jack FAQ .You don't seem to have the correct symptoms for sense pin failure, but if you read the article you will see how it is possible for the audio to work in Diagnostics but not through the speakers when in Windows, due to a hardware failure that is undetectable by the Diagnostics.
I would try re-installing the Dell System Software -- and reboot.
Then the Intel Chipset software -- and reboot.
Then reinstall one of the audio drivers.
That might not help but it will eliminate a possible issue.
Another thought is that when you re-install or re-image the OS, that process does not affect the BIOS. Rick, do you know of anything in the BIOS of the B130/1300 model that is related to audio? I am not familiar with that BIOS.
PudgyOne
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May 16th, 2013 14:00
Mark Rittman,
Hit the Windows key and the R keys at the same time. Type
services.msc
Hit enter. Look for Windows Audio. Make sure it's set for Automatic and restart the service. Audio should work.
If not, maybe someone else has a suggestion.
Did you recently install/reinstall the operating system?
Rick
Mark Rittman
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May 16th, 2013 19:00
Rick, I restarted the service, but it made no difference.
Jim, I reinstalled the system software and drivers as you suggested with no luck. I also read through the Headphone Jack FAQ. If it is a sense pin failure, wouldn't sound come through headphones? Right now, sound is neither working in headphones nor speakers in Windows. Sound does work in diagnostics though.
What is my next step?
Mark
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May 16th, 2013 20:00
Jim,
My Dell Inspiron B130 did not have a factory image. I wonder if the image Mark has may not have the drivers. He'll need to install the Notebook system utility and the chipset drivers and then the drivers you suggested.
I feel Jim will help you, Mark so please folloe Jim's instructions.
Rick
Mark Rittman
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May 16th, 2013 21:00
No, my image did have drivers. I have already said that I have installed the notebook utility and drivers as Jim suggested. Now, I am asking for the next step.
Jim Coates
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May 16th, 2013 21:00
I am not nearly as confident as Rick because I can't think yet of what is causing the issue.
That is correct -- you don't have the normal symptoms of sense pin failure. I pointed you to that article to try to answer your question of how you can have audio working in Diagnostics but not in Windows. In the case of the sense pin issue, it is because there is a failure of hardware that only matters when running Windows based software. You could have a similar problem but the sense pin issue is the only one of its kind that I know of.
I think that most of the models don't have a setting in the BIOS for audio, but it wouldn't hurt to see if there is an option to turn off the modem. If it is off try turning it on. The modem connects to the same audio bus as the audio and on some of those old models it would affect the audio if turned off in BIOS.
Gotta go to bed now. Will try to think up something else.
Mark Rittman
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May 16th, 2013 21:00
Jim. I was able to disable the modem in the BIOS, but still no audio.
Mark Rittman
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May 16th, 2013 22:00
If the sense pin is broken (and the headphone jack is broken) then I would have the symptoms I listed in windows. I will verify that I was able hear audio through the headphones using the software in the diagnostics partition.
Jim Coates
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May 17th, 2013 06:00
From the first I have been trying to formulate something along the lines of compound hardware issues producing your combination of symptoms. But I keep running up against this: if the headphone jack were physically broken (in addition to sense pin failure) then it wouldn't work in Diagnostics.
Since it works in Diagnostics then to go forward with the compound issues theory one would have to posit a software issue that cuts off the signal to the headphone jack. As far as I know, the switching circuitry does not do that, it only cuts off the signal to the speakers. However I can't rule out the possibility of an unknown (to me) issue where sense pin failure cuts off audio to both speaker and jack while in Windows.
Most other issues I can think of are configuration issues that would have been fixed either by the re-imaging or by re-installing the audio driver. The primary reason we tell people to re-install the driver is because that process restores the configuration to its default settings.
So when you look at your audio properties, you do see the word "Sigmatel" there?
BTW, I meant that the modem should be enabled in the BIOS to avoid a possible problem with the audio system.
Mark Rittman
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May 17th, 2013 08:00
Thak you so much for your help!! Yes, the software looks fine and does say Sigmatel.
It is my son's laptop and I asked him about it this morning. He told me that he remembers that at one point sound was coming through the headphones even after it quit working from the laptop speakers. Later, he said, sound quit coming from the headphone jack as well.
I listened to the headphones again in diagnostics. The sound is coming from the speakers and not from the headphones. So, there is no indication that the headphone jack is functional.
Based on the most recent information, I'm figuring that I have a hardware failure in both the sense pin and jack.
This isn't a critical problem as USB sound cards are inexpensive these days.
Jim Coates
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May 17th, 2013 20:00
Mark, thanks for the update.
This thread is locked, due to age.
If you need assistance, please create a new thread in the proper Dell Support Forum
Thank you