Stereo Mix drivers for Precision M4400

Dell if there is a driver please point me to it or provide a sensible solution.

This is a user-to-user forum. You need to contact Dell directly to get their answer, or your Dell salesperson. If you talk to tech support try to get to a higher level right away. Level one won't have a clue.

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Your audio system is designed on the Intel HD protocol. None of the Dell laptop Vista (and presumably Win7) or XP drivers for HD have stereo mix except the Sigmatel R171789 audio driver. It is an XP driver. Many Dell models that can use that driver when running XP can also use it while running Vista, by loading it into Vista using "XP compatibility mode". However your audio system uses an IDT HD audio driver and so the Sigmatel HD driver almost certainly will not load onto it (despite the fact that Sigmatel is now owned by IDT). If you want to try anyway, here is the method:

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1. Delete the Vista driver. (Uninstall and choose the option to delete the files.)

2. Download the Sigmatel R171789 audio driver.  This is an XP driver.

3. Unzip the folder but cancel the installation.

4. Go to the expanded folder and right click on the setup.exe file. Click the compatibility tab and select XP(SP2 or SP3) Compatibility Mode.

5. Double click on the setup file to install. When you go into the audio properties you should have Stereo Mix.
(Forum member RascallyRob posted this tip on 1-06-08.)

 So far this is reported to work on

Inspiron E1505/6400,1520, 1720 and 1721
Latitude D620 and D630
Vostro 1400 and 1500
XPS M1330, M1530 and M2010

Forum member mom2mac posted that this also worked with an M1530 running Windows 7. She used the compatibility mode for XP SP3.  -- tip posted 8-8-09

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I think your options are these:

> Return the laptops if still in return period and replace with ones that have stereo mix. I don't know what models Dell is currently selling so I can't say if there is one with stereo mix.

> Get an external sound card that is known to have stereo mix that works with Vista. Supposedly the Soundblaster XFi Notebook card still has whatuhear and works with Vista. This might be the best solution if you don't want to use the jumper cable method.

> Try internal routing via third party as you suggested. Software that other forum members have used -- mainly for recording streaming audio-- are:

Freecorder Toolbar   http://applian.com/freecorder3/download.php
Total Recorder  http://www.totalrecorder.com/
Virtual Audio Cable  http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19117024/19240010.aspx#19240010
Super MP3 Recorder Pro
AML Easy Audio Recorder  http://www.soft32.com/Download/free-trial/Easy_Audio_Recorder/4-190038-4.html

I don't know how well these work.

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I see no reason the soundcards on the Precision M4400 should not be able to provide stereo mix.

Dell's explanation was provided in a blog after Vista came out. The explanation was widely disbelieved because the XP-compatibility-mode trick seemed to directly contradict it.

I signed up for Dell forums after having success with RascallyRob's fix... THANK YOU!!!!  Big ups, Rob...record what you hear may not have been very popular, but I use it all the time for audio production.  You can find anything on the net and the ability to record snippets of anything--FOR FREE--is invaluable.  Now I can go and take back the $150 external card I bought that didn't do what I wanted...

So, I am running a Latitude D620 with Windows 7 and a tech preview of Office 2010.  I use Sound Forge for most "What You Hear" recordings.

From my experience, here's a few tips for you Windows 7 users...
- Follow above steps...
- You will be asked to restart after uninstalling the "correct" driver.
- Upon restart, the driver will automatically reinstall.  Don't panic!
- I went to uninstall it again and it was a different process, no restart required.
- THEN, double click on Setup.exe and you will be told that the driver is not the right one and that installation has cancelled.  I did this twice before the "...didn't install correctly..." window popped up.  I chose to reinstall using recommended settings and it took a minute or so, but it successfully installed.
- Opened up Sound Forge and tested,,,WOILA!!

Again, a lifesaver!  Thanks to all and I hope the time I took to document this helps someone else =)

~B

Thanks for the feedback. I wish the original poster had replied at some point to let me know what he finally did. if anything, to resolve the problem.

There is a significant difference between the original poster's computer and yours. His has IDT audio and yours has Sigmatel, so you were able to use the Sigmatel driver. I would like to comment that if you uninstall and delete the files (as per step 1), the Sigmatel driver cannot reinstall because the files used to create it are no longer on the hard drive. The only drivers that can automatically install then are either the Intel HD driver that is built into Windows, or a different Sigmatel driver whose files are still on the hard drive. If it is the Intel driver there is no need to uninstall it before installing the Sigmatel R171789 audio driver.

These are the models on which Rascally Rob's tip is known to work:

Inspiron E1505/6400,1520, 1720 and 1721
Latitude D620 and D630
Vostro 1400 and 1500
XPS M1330, M1530 and M2010

Forum member mom2mac posted that this also worked with an M1530 running Windows 7. She used the compatibility mode for XP SP3.

I'm going to add your confirmation that it works with a D620 running 7. Thanks.

OK, but there was no option to "delete the files", as noted in Step 1.  Did that make a difference?

Also, the very first thing I did to try and fix this problem when I started an audio project 2 weeks ago was to install the Vista driver, because Dell's "official" advise re: an updated driver for the sound card for Windows 7 was to try the Vista driver.  I didn't uninstall the loaded driver and it would install.  I tried 3 or 4 times.

Then, just for kicks, I tried the XP driver as that was the one originally loaded on my system.  I tried it maybe twice and didn't uninstall the loaded driver first, and it gave me the same "not right dirver for your system" message and wouldn't load.

It seems to be that the difference was completely uninstalling the original driver and then installing the XP driver with no other driver loaded for that device.  Is that correct?  ~B

Yes, because as long as the files for a Sigmatel driver are in the computer, Windows will try to reinstall the driver. If more than one Sigmatel is there it will install the newest version. Now that I think of it that "delete the driver files" option is a Vista thing. It is not in XP and maybe not 7. There is a different method that I usually use anyway. That is to go directly to the driver's folder on the hard drive and just delete it. That way one can make sure that all of the Sigmatel folders -- if there is more than one -- get removed.

Hi, this problem has been driving me mad for a while now, but thanks guys, the Sigmatel R171789 audio driver.  did the job for me.

I have Dell Precision M90 running windows 7

Thanks for the feedback. I have added the M90 to the list.

Did you have the same problem deleting the driver as the previous poster reported?

No problems deleting the driver. I uninstalled it the usual way through control panel > uninstall a program > sigmatel audio

(there was no `delete the files` option, I had a quick look in program files and there was no sigmatel folder in there)

Thank you.

PS - The above links to download the Sigmatel driver don't work any more - I found it via Google here:

www.dell.com/.../driverdetails

Maybe it's "wrong" ???

I've been trying this on an M4400 running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.  Right-clicking on exe file gives "Troubleshoot compatibility", have tried a few times, set-up runs but stops with a message "Error Device object missing, restart system and try again" (or something like that!).

I have used 2 Dell Alienware M11x notebooks, an oldish Asus G1Sn, an MSI netbook... all running W7, never seen this problem before.  I bought this M4400 specifically for screen-capturing webcams with sound, what a blunder!

Incidentally, I tried the Stereo Mix Plus program, it didn't work with Debut Video Capture software even tho the option to record from it appeared in Debut's settings.

I've ordered a cable to join up the mike and headphones sockets and a splitter for external speakers, hoping against hope that will allow me to record from speakers and hear live sound at the same time.

I'm enraged and frustrated - "Educustomer" must have been STEAMING :-o

I've been trying this on an M4400 running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

As I told Educustomer 3.5 years ago, it won't work on a Precision 4400. Here is a list of models that work with the Sigmatel R171789 driver:

Inspiron 1501
Inspiron 640m / E1405
Inspiron 9400/E1705
Inspiron 1420
Inspiron 1520
Inspiron 1720
Inspiron 1721
Inspiron B120
Inspiron 1300/B130
Inspiron 6400/E1505
Latitude D530
Latitude D531
Latitude D631
Latitude D420
Latitude D430
Latitude XT
Latitude 120L
Latitude 131L
Latitude ATG D620
Latitude ATG D630
Latitude D520
Latitude D620
Latitude D630
Latitude D820
Latitude D830
Latitude D630c
Precision M65
Precision M90
Precision M2300
Precision M4300
Precision M6300
Vostro 1000
Vostro 1400
Vostro 1500
Vostro 1700
XPS M1730
XPS M1210
XPS M1330
XPS/Inspiron M140/630m
XPS M1710

Since I answered Educustomer I learned that some or maybe all IDT drivers have a feature that is similar to stereo mix, called Rec.Playback. Install the IDT driver for your model and open the Sound properties Recording tab.Here is a screen shot from an Inspiron 1545.

If you see Rec.Playback, set it as the default recording device. If there is a problem doing that then you might have to disable the other devices.

If you do not see Rec.Playback then right click on a blank area in the Sound properties Recording tab and select Show disabled and Show disconnected devices and look for it in those areas.

I've ordered a cable to join up the mike and headphones sockets and a splitter for external speakers, hoping against hope that will allow me to record from speakers and hear live sound at the same time.

That will work.

About the link to the Sigmatel driver, this Forum is littered with broken links because Dell continually moves things around and creates an ongoing problem by doing so.

Thank you for all that, Jim.  I am very addled since receiving this notebook with only Windows 'generic' drivers installed, have been feeling my way around and trying to get advice from t'internet :-(

I'm sure I've seen the Rec.Playback Currently Unavailable at some stage but it's not there now :-/  Maybe I need to install the IDT drivers again after messing around.

Thanks for the reassurance that the cable setup will work :-)

UPDATE - Rec Playback isn't the total solution - if the PC's sound is muted (as it might need to be if you are listening to the radio etc in the same room), the recording has no sound.  This does not happen with Stereo Mix.  I'm having to use an external speaker and pull out the plug when I don't want to hear the sound - that way, the capture software continues recording sound.

What a shambles, how dare they have done this AND does anyone know WHY they did it?