These instructions are for a situation where an operating system has already been reinstalled and everything works except the audio driver will not install ... usually you get an error message, because the NSS and chipset drivers were not installed correctly and the audio chip on the motherboard is not recognized. In this situation "usually" a fresh install of the OS is not required, just re-installing the NSS and chipset correctly. If that doesn't work then a full reinstallation may be necessary.
After you have performed an Operating System re-installation, install the audio driver following this order of installation:
a. Install Dell Notebook System Software (on your downloads page expand the System Utilities category). Restart.
b. Next install the Intel Mobile Chipset driver (expand the Chipset category). Restart.
c. Install the Sigmatel audio driver (expand the Audio category).
Rarely there will still be a problem with the installation at this point (in XP). In those cases follow this tip from forum member rpilT2005: check in the Device Manager for a "PCI Device" with a yellow question mark next to it, under the "System Devices" grouping. Hit 'update driver' on that one, and it should find the driver.
Can I attempt to re-install all of those things even after I've tried doing it now? Out of order, I guess you could say? I mean i've installed several different drivers in different orders, can I just start from your step 1? Or should I re-install windows first?
Give it a try by uninstalling the Audio Driver rebooting and then installing Dell Notebook Software, the Chipset Driver and then the Audio Driver. If that does not work, do a full reinstall (including windows and Dell Media Direct Disc).
I will give you full reinstall instructions:
For XP
Insert media direct disc and switch off your 6400 press and hold F12 whilst powering up and select selection 1 or 2 (1 is recommended unless you want to create another partition)
Now when the discs finished and prompts you to change for your XP disc do so and as it reboots hold down F12 and start reinstalling windows:
Meanwhile... Download the following onto another machine and copy to a CD/DVD flash drive or external hard drive:
Copy the following to a CD or DVD or external hard drive.
Ok now install all the drivers in the order I specified. (13. - 17. Optional) Restart and load up windows, now insert you dell media direct disc and it should prompt you to install if not go to my computer and double click the disc to install note install while on the windows desktop or you'll format your harddrive again.
Once thats done press the dell media direct button, note do not do so before this stage. Set it up for configuration and go to update note you will have to go to update 2 -3 times to get the latest version which I believe is 4.7. Once thats dome power down your computer and press the media direct button and smile since it should be working.
Then go to xp and install all other such as antivirus and office programs copy music and documents over etc. Be sure to go to windows update to get internet explorer 7 aswell.
For Vista
Insert media direct disc and switch off your 6400 press and hold F12 whilst powering up and select selection 1 or 2 (1 is recommended unless you want to create another partition)
Now when the discs finished and prompts you to change for your vista disc do so and as it reboots hold down F12 and start reinstalling windows:
Meanwhile... Download the following onto another machine and copy to a CD/DVD flash drive or external hard drive:
Copy the following to a CD or DVD or external hard drive.
2. Dell System Notebook Software Under System Utilities
3. Both the Chipset drivers
4. Then the Intel Video Driver (or ATI or NVIDEA depending what you have)
5. Then the two Conexant Drivers Under Communications
6. Then the two Broadcom Drivers Under Network
7. Then depending what you have Dell Wireless Card or Intel PROSET Wireless under Network
8. Then the Sigmatel Driver under Audio
9. Then Synaptics Touchpad under Input Devices
10. Then the Dell Quickset under Applications
11. Bluetooth Driver under network if you have Bluetooth, will be a Blue Light if switched on if you have a bluetooth card. (Had to XP install Bluetooth driver afterwards aswell to get it to work)
Ok now install all the drivers in the order I specified. Restart and load up windows, now insert you dell media direct disc and it should prompt you to install if not go to my computer and double click the disc to install note install while on the windows desktop or you'll format your harddrive again.
Once thats done press the dell media direct button, note do not do so before this stage. Set it up for configuration and go to update note you will have to go to update 2 -3 times to get the latest version which I believe is 4.7. Once thats done power down your computer and press the media direct button and smile since it should be working.
Then go to vista and install all other such as antivirus and office programs copy music and documents over etc. Be sure to go to windows update to get other vista updates.
"Jim, Can I attempt to re-install all of those things even after I've tried doing it now? Out of order, I guess you could say? I mean i've installed several different drivers in different orders, can I just start from your step 1?"
Yes. It usually works without having to do a full OS re-reinstallation, but if you run into a lot of difficulty you might have to re-do the OS installation.
Jim Coates
4 Operator
•
13.6K Posts
0
August 16th, 2008 11:00
John,
These instructions are for a situation where an operating system has already been reinstalled and everything works except the audio driver will not install ... usually you get an error message, because the NSS and chipset drivers were not installed correctly and the audio chip on the motherboard is not recognized. In this situation "usually" a fresh install of the OS is not required, just re-installing the NSS and chipset correctly. If that doesn't work then a full reinstallation may be necessary.
After you have performed an Operating System re-installation, install the audio driver following this order of installation:
a. Install Dell Notebook System Software (on your downloads page expand the System Utilities category). Restart.
b. Next install the Intel Mobile Chipset driver (expand the Chipset category). Restart.
c. Install the Sigmatel audio driver (expand the Audio category).
Get these from the E1505 XP driver downloads page.
Rarely there will still be a problem with the installation at this point (in XP). In those cases follow this tip from forum member rpilT2005: check in the Device Manager for a "PCI Device" with a yellow question mark next to it, under the "System Devices" grouping. Hit 'update driver' on that one, and it should find the driver.
Jim
onujpt
2 Posts
0
August 16th, 2008 12:00
Jim,
Can I attempt to re-install all of those things even after I've tried doing it now? Out of order, I guess you could say? I mean i've installed several different drivers in different orders, can I just start from your step 1? Or should I re-install windows first?
Thanks for your help. I really do appreciate it.
John
Philip_Yip
9 Legend
•
16.1K Posts
0
August 16th, 2008 17:00
Give it a try by uninstalling the Audio Driver rebooting and then installing Dell Notebook Software, the Chipset Driver and then the Audio Driver. If that does not work, do a full reinstall (including windows and Dell Media Direct Disc).
I will give you full reinstall instructions:
For XP
Insert media direct disc and switch off your 6400 press and hold F12 whilst powering up and select selection 1 or 2 (1 is recommended unless you want to create another partition)
Now when the discs finished and prompts you to change for your XP disc do so and as it reboots hold down F12 and start reinstalling windows:
Meanwhile... Download the following onto another machine and copy to a CD/DVD flash drive or external hard drive:
Copy the following to a CD or DVD or external hard drive.
1. Download XP Service Pack 3:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5b33b5a8-5e76-401f-be08-1e1555d4f3d4&DisplayLang=en
Download the following drivers from here:
http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=gen&ServiceTag=&SystemID=INSPIRONI6400/E1505&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid
2. Dell System Notebook Software Under System Utilities
3. Both the Chipset drivers
4. Then the Intel Video Driver (or ATI or NVIDEA depending what you have)
5. Then the two Conexant Drivers Under Communications
6. Then the two Broadcom Drivers Under Network
7. Then depending what you have Dell Wireless Card or Intel PROSET Wireless under Network
8. Then the Sigmatel Driver under Audio
9. Then Synaptics Touchpad under Input Devices
10. Then the Dell Quickset under Applications
11. Bluetooth Driver under network if you have Bluetooth, will be a Blue Light if switched on if you have a bluetooth card.
12. Install the two Dell Diagnostic Drivers
13. Go here: http://www.istartedsomething.com/20061029/royale-noir/ and you can download a Black XP and XP Media Centre Edition Colours.
14. If using msn messenger download from here: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Chat/Instant-Messaging/MSN-Messenger-8.shtml and download this http://www.apatch.org/ to customise the messenger and get rid of adverts.
15. Download and install windows media player 11 and the Klite Codec Pack:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1d224714-e238-4e45-8668-5166114010ca&DisplayLang=en
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/KLite-Codec-Pack-Download-16475.html
16. Also recommend you download and install Adobe Reader 9 and PDF Creator here in order to read and print PDFs:
http://www.adobe.com/
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57796
17. Page Defrag, finishes the job of Disc Defragmention:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897426.aspx
Ok now install all the drivers in the order I specified. (13. - 17. Optional) Restart and load up windows, now insert you dell media direct disc and it should prompt you to install if not go to my computer and double click the disc to install note install while on the windows desktop or you'll format your harddrive again.
Once thats done press the dell media direct button, note do not do so before this stage. Set it up for configuration and go to update note you will have to go to update 2 -3 times to get the latest version which I believe is 4.7. Once thats dome power down your computer and press the media direct button and smile since it should be working.
Then go to xp and install all other such as antivirus and office programs copy music and documents over etc. Be sure to go to windows update to get internet explorer 7 aswell.
For Vista
Insert media direct disc and switch off your 6400 press and hold F12 whilst powering up and select selection 1 or 2 (1 is recommended unless you want to create another partition)
Now when the discs finished and prompts you to change for your vista disc do so and as it reboots hold down F12 and start reinstalling windows:
Meanwhile... Download the following onto another machine and copy to a CD/DVD flash drive or external hard drive:
Copy the following to a CD or DVD or external hard drive.
1. Download vista service pack 1:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b0c7136d-5ebb-413b-89c9-cb3d06d12674&displaylang=en
Download the following drivers from here:
http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?os=WLH&osl=EN&catid=-1&impid=-1&servicetag=&SystemID=INSPIRONI6400%2FE1505&hidos=WW1&hidlang=en
2. Dell System Notebook Software Under System Utilities
3. Both the Chipset drivers
4. Then the Intel Video Driver (or ATI or NVIDEA depending what you have)
5. Then the two Conexant Drivers Under Communications
6. Then the two Broadcom Drivers Under Network
7. Then depending what you have Dell Wireless Card or Intel PROSET Wireless under Network
8. Then the Sigmatel Driver under Audio
9. Then Synaptics Touchpad under Input Devices
10. Then the Dell Quickset under Applications
11. Bluetooth Driver under network if you have Bluetooth, will be a Blue Light if switched on if you have a bluetooth card. (Had to XP install Bluetooth driver afterwards aswell to get it to work)
12. Install the two Dell Diagnostic Drivers
13. If using msn messenger download from here: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Chat/Instant-Messaging/MSN-Messenger-8.shtml and download this http://www.apatch.org/ to customise the messenger and get rid of adverts.
14. Download and install the Klite Codec Pack for Windows Media Player:
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/KLite-Codec-Pack-Download-16475.html
15. Also recommend you download and install Adobe Reader 9 and PDF Creator here in order to read and print PDFs:
http://www.adobe.com/
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57796
Ok now install all the drivers in the order I specified. Restart and load up windows, now insert you dell media direct disc and it should prompt you to install if not go to my computer and double click the disc to install note install while on the windows desktop or you'll format your harddrive again.
Once thats done press the dell media direct button, note do not do so before this stage. Set it up for configuration and go to update note you will have to go to update 2 -3 times to get the latest version which I believe is 4.7. Once thats done power down your computer and press the media direct button and smile since it should be working.
Then go to vista and install all other such as antivirus and office programs copy music and documents over etc. Be sure to go to windows update to get other vista updates.
Jim Coates
4 Operator
•
13.6K Posts
0
August 16th, 2008 20:00
"Jim, Can I attempt to re-install all of those things even after I've tried doing it now? Out of order, I guess you could say? I mean i've installed several different drivers in different orders, can I just start from your step 1?"
Yes. It usually works without having to do a full OS re-reinstallation, but if you run into a lot of difficulty you might have to re-do the OS installation.
Jim