Sound has disappeared

Further to this saga....I contacted Dell support, they went through what I did, install drivers from sigmtel, even sent me the disks to try again at home, as it didn't work when the dell man tried...I reinstalled the drivers..no luck.

If I use the Media Direct button on my Inspiron 6400 then I can hear & play music & videos but if I use my laptop correctly I have no sound at all. I can't use skype etc with or without headphones. If I check Control Panel/Sound & Audio Devices it states no audio device....the soundcard is working cause the man at Dell tested it.....Please can anyone suggest any further diagnosis?

Try this way of installing the Sigmatel audio driver. It might work.

1. Go to c:\Dell\drivers\R171789 and delete the R171789 folder. This is the current Sigmatel driver.
2. Go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888111 and get the UAA driver. Install it and restart the computer.
3. Download Sigmatel R171789 from the 6400 downloads page (in the Audio category ... ignore the Creative Labs items).
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 drivers and don't let windows look for drivers on the net or automatically. Browse to
c:\Dell\drivers\R171789\WDM

With any luck it should detect some new hardware and one of them should be your Sigmatel audio system.

Hi Jimco

Thank you for your reply. I am running Windows XP with Service Pack 3....this isn't mentioned in respect of the UAA driver, it only covers SP1 & SP2, should I go ahead or not?

Kazzybee

Yes, I would. This might not work but it can't hurt.

Scanned for malware lately??

Before you get too fancy, try doing a System Restore using latest date available when you know the sound worked correctly. Personal files will be ok but you will have to reinstall any software or updates that were originally installed after the date used for the System Restore.

Click Start>Help & Support

Click "Undo changes..."

Follow the prompts and choose latest date when things worked ok.

If that doesn't help, you might want to download the Chipset driver onto your desktop from the drivers/download page for this model. Reboot in Safe Mode and then double-click on the chipset file you downloaded. When it's done, reboot normally and test sound again.

My System restore will not let me go back to a previous month, so I can't do that. I have checked through Device manager, System Devices, System Speaker and found that there are no drivers installed for this bit. Its  this (Intel(R) 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Controller - 27B9), am I safe to download it? but I can't find it on the Intel site.....would this be anything to do with my loss of sound?. I am still confused because I can hear my music if I go through the Media Direct button but nothing using my laptop as normal.

Thank you in advance, I hope!

I would install the audio driver. That might not be the solution but it is the normal place to start when System Restore does not help.

Go to the drivers&download page for your system and look for a Chipset driver. Download it onto your desktop. Reboot in Safe Mode (F8 before XP starts to load) and double-click on the file you downloaded. When it's done, reboot normally and try the sound.

If sound still doesn't work, install the correct audio driver, and then reboot again.

Ron

This sounds a lot like the problem I had.  I went through much of the same proceedure that has been suggested here.  Do you have sound through your earphones?  In my case the plug-in post was bad.  I wriggled a toothpick inside and restored sound momentarily.  Then I sprayed some rubbing alcohol into the post.  Unconventional, but it worked.  The sound came and went for a while but the longer I played music the better it got.  Tomorrow I intend to stop at Radio Shack and see what kind of spray they recommend.  They used to have a spray that was intended for all electrical parts.  I even used it on my car's electrical.

Go to the drivers&download page for your system and look for a Chipset driver. Download it onto your desktop. Reboot in Safe Mode (F8 before XP starts to load) and double-click on the file you downloaded. When it's done, reboot normally and try the sound. If sound still doesn't work, install the correct audio driver, and then reboot again. Ron

Thanks for this but again nothing has worked. Does anyone know where my files are stored, I am no at the stage of reinstalling, when the laptop arrived it did't come with discs cause it said everthing was installed on the laptop but when I search My Computer I have Main Dive C & Drive D but none of these have the reinstall files/folders etc. 

> PC Restore

When your computer was shipped from the factory there was a hidden partition on the hard drive with an image of the hard drive at that time. The purpose of the image is to allow you to return the computer to the state it was in when it left the factory if you ever should have unresolvable problems. I would use that image now, but if you have ever reformatted the entire hard drive the image is gone and there is no way to get it back.

To use PC Restore first backup your files to a separate drive, then restart and press Ctrl + F11 during the restart process and it should take you to the "PC Restore" menu. Anything that doesn't work afterwards either wasn't working when the computer was shipped or is the result of hardware malfunction. For that reason PC Restore can serve as an excellent diagnostic tool.

See page 104 of your Owner's Manual to read more about PC Restore.

Just to add a teeny bit of clarity to jimco's instructions. When you back up your files, be sure to back them up on external media. Your D: drive is likely just a partition of the hard drive and anything on C: and D: will be lost when you run PC Restore.  Don't forget to backup your address book, and browser favorites list..

Also remember that your system probably came with XP SP2 and that's what will be reinstalled when you run PC Restore. So as soon as PC Restore is done. get your firewall and antiviral software running. Then go directly to the Microsoft site to download/install all of their updates and fixes for XP (eg XP SP3), Office, Internet Explorer, etc. etc.

Ron

Ron, thanks for the clarification. The next time I will phrase that better by saying to back up to removable media or an external drive. I assumed that  the D drive is the optical drive as it normally would be, so "separate" meant to use something other than the hard drive. But yes there is the slight possibility that somebody created additional partitions on the hard drive of KarenBee's computer and so D might no longer refers to the optical drive.

KarenBee, "removable media or an external drive" means CD's, DVD's, flash drives, external hard drives ... anything except your computer's hard drive.

Then go directly to the Microsoft site to download/install all of their updates and fixes for XP (eg XP SP3), Office, Internet Explorer, etc. etc.

KarenBee, I would first make sure that everything is working correctly, particularly the audio since that is what we are talking about on this board. If all is working okay then cross your fingers and start getting Microsoft updates. Those updates are not always friendly to the audio on Dell laptops, so periodically check to make sure audio is still working. If it stops then you can use System Restore or PC Restore again but next time skip the update that killed the audio. However if you feel you need SP3 but it turns out to be the update that kills the audio, the solution should be to reinstall the Sigmatel audio driver using the method I outlined earlier in this thread, where you get the Microsoft  UAA driver.

I hope you are not getting confused by the different advice we are giving. Ron and I have different ideas about how to advise you, which is okay, but thankfully this situation does not often occur here on the Laptop Audio Board.