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January 20th, 2006 23:00
Intermittent muffled sound-low volume
I have a 600M laptop that has a wave player plugged into it and I listen to voice files through a plugged in headset. In Dec 2005, the sound became muffled while listening to voice files. I played a music file through Media Player and it was also muffled. I took out the headset and sound was muffled on the laptop speakers. I plugged in external speakers, plugged in the headset into those and the sound was fine but now with a distinct hum.
At that time I ran a diagnostic through XP and the sound card was "fine". I believe I uninstalled the driver and reinstalled it from the Dell website. The sound worked well for about 2 weeks at normal volume. Now it is doing the same thing. Sound works at boot up but when the laptop is left (breaks) for about 20-30 minutes, the sound becomes muffled again. So, I turn it off, let it cool for a while, turn it back on and the sound works, that is until it is left alone again. Sound becomes muffled with a low volume. Laptop sits on top of a book ledge for air circulation underneath.
Soooooooooooooo, does this appear like the sound card is going out and if so how is this repaired/replaced? Can an external card be used to bypass the current card? Could there be a software conflict? Ideas anybody?
Thank you for your help!
All XP updates are done including SP2.
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Jim Coates
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January 23rd, 2006 10:00
"At that time I ran a diagnostic through XP "
During a time when it is muffled run Dell Diagnostics. If that fails then it is a hardware problem which would need to be fixed by Dell, or you could get an external soundcard. To run Diagnostics restart, and as soon as it starts to boot up hold down f12. Select 'diagnostic' from the boot menu. It will run some tests for a couple of minutes before the diagnostic comes up. When it does select 'custom', then the audio test. This will test your audio system independently of windows and drivers. If this test fails then forget about all the other stuff. Alternate between using headphones and listening to speakers in case only one is working.
If it fails the test by playing muffled sounds then there is some kind of hardware problem which could be anything from a bad headphone jack to the audio chip, no way of knowing from the test. Dell might want to replace the MB to effect a repair.
If it passes the test by playing sounds clearly, but is still muffled when you load up Windows, then you'll know the problem is in the software, either Windows or the drivers.
If you get mixed results (clean sound during the test followed by clean sound in windows) you might have to perform the test multiple times.
Jim