Any chance of help?

I'm sure you saw this in my thread Choppy/Skipping Audio Workarounds:

Lower Volume.  On an Inspiron 1520, maximum volume can cause skipping or freezing. Lower the volume level to below 80% of max and compensate by raising volume of external speakers.

(Forum member Eng.A7md posted this tip on 10-28-08.)

Of course that is the same workaround you are using, not a solution, but I have not heard of a solution for this problem. It has to be either a hardware or software problem, but because you are out of warranty you are limited to attempt to find software solutions. If you still had Vista you could install the generic Intel HD audio driver and either confirm or eliminate the Sigmatel driver as the cause. Because you have XP, you might try a different Sigmatel driver if you have not already done so.

The XP driver you probably have now, Sigmatel R171789, is used on a couple of dozen Dell models without problems on most of them. I suspect that on the 1520 and 1720 there is a hardware configuration causing the problem. But it won't hurt to try the Sigmatel R153908  which is a driver from the Latitude D8 30 that Inspiron 1720 owners used until Dell supplied an XP driver for their model. I would delete the R171789 folder from the hard drive, c:\Dell\drivers\R171789 before installing the R153908.

A poster named quandtj D830 had a problem with the Sigmatel R153908. Here is what he wrote: "After reloading XP on this computer, I initially couldn't get the SigmaTel audio to work. The problem is with the Windows Audio service. After you install the latest audio driver (R153908) and run it, don't immediately restart. Go into the c:\dell\drivers\r153908\wdm directory and run suhlp.exe. Then your SigmaTel audio will be detected and run properly."  I would follow that advice.

If still having problems with the installation do this:

1. Delete the R171789 and R153908 folders.
2. Go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888111 and get the UAA driver. Install it and restart the computer.
3. Download R153908 again or re-use the previous download if you still have it..
4. After it finishes extracting the files and begins to install, cancel.
5. Open Device Manager and expand System devices near the bottom. If you see a PCI Device entry with a ? next to it. Go to the properties and choose to update the driver. Choose to manually find the driver and don't let windows look for it  on the net or automatically. Browse to c:\Dell\drivers\R153908\WDM
With any luck it should detect some new hardware and one of them should be the Sigmatel.

If you still have the problem after installing R153908 then you can probably rule out the audio driver as the cause. After the audio driver I would suspect the graphics card or its driver as the cause.

Thanks for replying back, was getting worried no one was ever going to.

I remember installing the old driver along time ago when I first got my laptop where you had to go in there and manually do it through device manager. The problem was there then the problem is still there now.

Later today or tomorrow ill get the laptop out and try those drivers you posted. I won't be able to get to it today, going to be busy. I will ask though you give me a link to R158235 but the guy is saying R153908. So which one should I try? I'll try em both if I have to.

Sorry, I was thinking of too many things at once. I have edited my post to have the link I meant, to the R153908.

I have rethought what I wrote before about suspecting the graphics card or driver. I have my doubts now about that being true because your problem does not occur when using headphones/external speakers. That would seem to confine the problem to audio hardware or driver and the Registry values as entered by the inf files of the driver.

Thanks for replying back, was getting worried no one was ever going to.

Well, you have been searching for an answer for a long time. Dell is not going to update drivers for XP anymore, and you have probably already learned everything that is known about this by forum members. I haven't ruled out a hardware problem in the light of the fact that apparently this does not happen on most 1720, but there doesn't seem to be anyway to check for that. So I am thinking if installing different drivers does not help you probably should resign yourself to turning it down.

I installed the R153908 and I want to say it sort of helped it cause it seems like I can play songs on a higher volume but the problem is still there cause I ran a test on it and the problem is still there.

I will add this. I had Linux Ubuntu on my 1720 before and it completely fixed the problem with my sound. I could crank up ANY song I wanted to max volume and I mean it was even louder than what windows could go up to. I had no skips, loops, freezes, lock ups while playing music of any sort in Linux. Does this rule out the hardware problem maybe? Is it a software problem with Windows? Could it be that the software does HD audio when the chipset or whatever for the integrated audio cant handle the HD audio frequencies of some sort? Faulty hardware that dell doesn't care a bit about? I don't know im just ramblin on about the possibilities.

Oh and sorry for taking so long on a response I have been busy this past week.

Does this rule out the hardware problem maybe? I

I would think so. If you ever put Vista on it then you could use the Intel HD audio driver in Vista instead of the Sigmatel driver. It would be interesting to know if that would work better.

I've had Vista on it plenty of times. Are you talking about the default driver that just comes with a fresh Vista install? Cause in Vista the sound works right out of a fresh install. If that's the one your talking about I have left it on there + disable the enhancements and it seems to help the problem with the sound and all but I have had the problem still occur in Vista though.

Yes that is the one.