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30528
June 12th, 2012 23:00
No Audio Device
My attempt to most precisely describe my problem.
Control Panel / Sounds and Audio Devices indicates ‘No Audio Device.’ :emotion-7:
Model: Precision M4300
Came with Vista, swapped for Windows 7, then XP with Service Pack 3 + latest updates.
(Windows 7 was a nightmare for me—utterly unsalvageable, may have been buggy.)
However the sound definitely worked under that OS.
I have no Drivers and Utilities Resource CD, so cannot run the diagnostic.
Unsure whether the fix described in the following Audio Driver FAQ applies to my situation:
12. Crystal Drivers for Inspirons 8200 & 2650, Latitude C840, Precision M50 & Others
No Events found!
Jim Coates
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13.6K Posts
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June 13th, 2012 07:00
Hello. No, it is for some ancient Dell laptops that had Crystal AC97 audio. "Crystal" was the brand name of the audio chip on the motherboard, and AC97 was the name of the type of audio supported by those motherboards. Your M4300 model has Sigmatel HD audio, where "Sigmatel" was the name of the company that made the chip and "HD" (high definition) is the type of audio that your motherboard supports.
Both Vista and 7 have a native HD audio driver built into them. That means that you could have basic audio even if you did not install the manufacturer's (Sigmatel) audio driver. However, the XP operating system does not have a native HD audio driver, so you cannot get audio when using XP unless you install the manufacturer's audio driver. The Sigmatel R171789 driver that Roshan L linked to is the appropriate one for your laptop, BUT -- in XP, the audio driver will not install unless 2 other items have been installed first. You might already have the other items, but just in case here is the correct order of installation.
a. Download and install the Dell Notebook System Software R181862. Then restart the laptop.
b. Download and install the Intel Mobile Chipset software R153997. Then restart the laptop again.
c. Download and install the Sigmatel audio driver R171789. Restart.
You probably know this, but to find your other drivers go to the Drivers & Downloads Product Selection page
and select "Choose from a list of all Dell products", then click "Continue". (I suggest that you do not enter your Service tag because you will only get the drivers for your original configuration.)
On the next page select your product type, which is "Laptops".
On the next page select your model line, which is "Precision".
On the next page select your model name, which is "M4300".
On the next page select your XP operating system in the drop down box.
Jim Coates
4 Operator
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13.6K Posts
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June 14th, 2012 22:00
Sorry, in hindsight I see that my phrasing was ambiguous. I just meant to show you the path to your drivers & downloads page for any additional drivers you might need in the future. Because you were only asking about audio I did not realize that you still need most of the other drivers. I didn't mean that you should download all of them.
If you are not seeing all of your devices in Device Manager, go back to the path to drivers but this time enter your Service Tag number. You will see the device drivers for your original configuration and from that you should be able to get an idea of which drivers you need in XP since your hardware has not changed. Or use the System Configuration tool which will show you your current configuration if it works.
The reason you see so many drivers when using my path is because it shows all possible current drivers for the M4300's. Some would have had different hardware than others which accounts for multiple drivers in a given category.
DELL-Roshan L
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4.4K Posts
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June 13th, 2012 03:00
Hi Bitor,
Welcome to the Community,
Have you checked in Device Manager to see if the Audio card is getting detected there? Go to Control Panel,Device Manager,expand Sound,video and game controller and check if Audio Device is listed there.If it is not listed does it show Other Devices with Audio Controller listed ?
If it shows Other Devices with Audio Controller listed,than install the Audio driver from the link below:
www.dell.com/.../DriverFileFormats
Hope this helps,
Thank You
Bitor
6 Posts
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June 14th, 2012 20:00
Thanx to Jimco for his concise response of downloading 3 programmes in order. However, a novice might have been thrown by Roshan’s advice to ‘Go to Control Panel, Device Manager, expand Sound, video and game controller.’ This omitted a couple of steps that I fortunately knew of: System \ Hardware. This action revealed 7 devices flagged with yellow question/exclamation marks:
After the 3rd download, the 7th yellow question/exclamation mark adjacent to a sound device labelled ‘IDT High Definition Audio CODEC’ got swapped out for ‘SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC’ without any mark adjacent. I also heard a computer generated sound, suggesting audio problem solved. Thanx. :emotion-2:
Jimco’s 4th suggested download, (which he assumed I knew of but did not) consists of 66 programmes, including the audio driver I had just downloaded. Looking at those under communications, I became dubious about downloading what seemed to be multiple drivers for different web connection devices (such as):
Question: Which one of these is relevant to my Precision M4300?
In the meantime, I’ll download the other programmes. Hopefully my video card will see some improvement (graphics are practically dot matrix poor and scrolling makes me seasick from the waves).
Bitor
6 Posts
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June 15th, 2012 15:00
Thanx again. I attempted and failed to enter my service tag and get a list of original config drivers. :emotion-7: There seems to be some problem with this element of the Dell website. Once the code is entered and the go button is clicked on, nothing happens. Best I can do is try again periodically, hoping this gets fixed at some point.