Re : No audio output device

I don't know what the return period is but as I bought the machine on March 17 and reported the problem on March 24I assume I'm covered.

I don't know what Dell's return policy is in the U.K. In the U.S., the return period is typically 21 days from the date on the invoice, and might not be extended by reporting a problem to tech support. Within the return period, a unit can be returned for exchange or refund if it has a hardware defect; if no hardware defect then there is a hefty restocking fee. After the return period, returns are not accepted. Any or all of that could be quite different in the UK.

Regardless of that the UK has pretty consumer laws...

I'm envious. We consumers here are pretty much on our own.

The machine bleeped so it is capable of producing sound.

What I wrote in my previous post was based on the assumption the laptop had produced no sound during the test, so I'm afraid I'm now going to sound more like tech support. It's difficult to give recommendations because I don't know what model you own, the specific symptoms you have, the circumstances of the audio failure, or what you have tried so far to resolve it.

What is the model of the laptop? The most recent Inspiron 15 3000 series models are: 3555, 3559, 3565, 3567, 3568. There are some others that are more than a year old.

Take a look in the Windows Sound properties and report what it looks like. You should see something like this:

The exact list of devices might be different on your screen, but at least you should have "Speakers -- Realtek High Definition Audio", and it should be selected as the default device. When audio plays, the meter on the side should show some activity.

Test the audio through the audio port (the headset jack socket). Plug in a set of headphones, earplugs, or powered external speakers into the audio port. Press the plug firmly into the socket. You might see a popup dialog on the screen. Select the device. Open an audio file (wav, mp3, wma, etc.) that resides locally on the laptop -- a music file on the hard drive, for example -- and play the file. Listen through the device connected to the audio port and notice if you hear audio. If you do get audio through the port, but not through the speakers when unplugged from the port, then  you might have a particular hardware failure within the port, that prevents audio from going on to the speakers. With that particular type of failure, you could have it and yet hear the beeps through the speakers in the color bar test.

Regardless of the result of the audio port test, download and install a fresh copy of the Realtek audio driver. The exact driver depends on which model you have. This is the driver  <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell> for the  3567 and 3568 models. Do not use it if you have a different model. This one is for the 3565.

Installing a fresh copy of the driver will have 2 results: it will reset the audio setting to the default configuration, thereby correcting any mis-configuration of the settings, and it will fix any possible corrupted files in the driver.

If still no audio through either the speakers or audio port, go into the BIOS settings and look for an audio setting. If there is one, make sure it is on. Some BIOSes have the setting and some don't.

Can I take it that there is no further software solution.

The gold standard of software repair is to perform a system recovery, meaning revert the laptop to the exact configuration it was in at the time it left the factory (Factory Image). Doing that will fix all software issues that have developed since that time, and any issues that remain can be assumed to be caused by faulty hardware. I would definitely do it if none of the above suggestions helped (or provided further information to explore). If you do it, best case is that it will fix the issue; worse case is that you will have more leverage with tech support, and can convincingly argue that the machine is defective.

What I wrote about the U.S. return policy is for units bought directly from Dell. Dell products bought at a retail store are subject to the store's return policy.