Sigmatel XP 64-bit Drivers. Where can I get them?

Martin,

It is the Sigmatel R181712 page under Audio on the M1730 downloads page. Remember to follow the order of installation or else the Sigmatel will not install.. With XP SP2 you might have to install the UAA patch but not for SP3.

BTW Jim, what is the UAA patch? I know the UAA entry under sound in Device Manager, but there's a patch? Didn't see it anywhere..

I installed the chipset and then video drivers before trying to install audio, so it should be OK, no? Odd though that one set of drivers I tried do install but I get an error message 'The device cannot start (Code 10)'

M.

But those are the XP 32-bit drivers - I tried yesterday just in case, but the setup won't run.

Martin

But those are the XP 32-bit drivers - I tried yesterday just in case, but the setup won't run.

Does it say somewhere that they are 32 bit? I checked before I put in that link and the compatibility lists for the 3 you need for audio (Notebook System Software, Chipset & Sigmatel) all show as being for 2000, XP and XP x64 -- and the chipset software is also for Vista 32 & 64. By the way the Notebook System Software has to be installed before the chipset software in XP. It doesn't matter in Vista.

I don't know much about that R181712 driver because it is only compatible with the XPS M1730 so I have not seen many posts about it. The only thing I have in my notes is that one person used this UAA driver:

http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/SOUND-CARD/OTHER-SOUNDCARDS/Microsoft-UAA-Bus-Driver-for-High-Definition-Audio.shtml

The UAA patch I meant was here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888111. But I might need to update my information now that Microsoft has stopped supporting SP2.  It is already in SP3 but ironically SP3 seems to be harder than SP2 to get the audio driver to install.

Sometimes it is better to just unpack the driver files after sownloading the R package but don't install the driver. From Device Manager "update" the sound controller (or PCI device with a mark) by browsing over to the driver's WDM subfolder (c:\dell\drivers\R181712\wdm).

Thanks for the reply. I can only try again, but as I saw no other drivers I did try running the setup R181712, but I got a message saying the drivers weren't for my PC.  I did find other XP x64 drivers which may or may not work with the M1730 - I haven't had the chance to try yet.

If not, I can unzip the 181712 package and point Device Manager to the folder, see if that works any better.

I'll investigate the UAA patch too - thanks for the link. I am also going to wipe the partition and try starting from scratch. I still have some other missing x64 drivers, but I'll post separately. I'll get back here with any results.

Martin

Success! Found an earlier driver on the Dell site (why on earth didn't I try this before??!!), R171789. This installs fine and on reboot I have sound. No idea why R181712 won't run (I don't even get the typical R******.exe icon on the exe file (the blue square with a hammer in it), just the default blank blue square, so the system obviously doesn't like it. Downloaded the same several times (though it might be a corrupt download, but no - and as I say, the error message says that the file 'is valid').

Never mind, R171789 works fine (so far).

Thanks for the advice,

Martin

It's odd that the M1730 is the only model that is supposed to use that R181712 driver, whereas the R171789 applies to over 40 models -- almost all of the ones that have Sigmatel HD audio. Glad you got it working and I am going to update my notes re the M1730.

Do the mic work with the older driver?