XPS 420 front panel audio issues

Hello there, Glad to here you are liking your XPS 420. If there are no audio devices found then the drivers are not installed or are corrupted. I would check in the Device Manager and see which audio device you have. If it is not working you will see and yellow mark in the front of the device. After you determine what device you have, since there can be more than one available, go to the Dell support site and find the latest drivers, download and install them and see if everything works as it should. Hope this helps.

thanks guys ill check this out tomorrow and get back at ya

Thanks Rafael, For the heads up about the drivers. Microsoft updates showed I needed an audio driver update, so who am I to question MS, so I downloaded and updated my audio device driver only to find I had no audio afterwards. I checked the Device Manager and found that the driver I downloaded was not even the same manufacturer as the device I was using, which is the onboard audio device. I rolled back the driver and got the audio back but the next time I rebooted the other driver was loaded and no sound. I then went to the Dell site and downloaded the Dell audio drivers for my onboard device and now all is back to normal. I only mention this so others may be aware of it. Not a big issue but it did take me a while to get it back to normal. Yet another MS error. There are many and will continue. We just have to be aware of them and adjust accordingly. I clicked on the link you provided just for informational purposes and got an error, page forbidden. Thanks anyway.

Also, be sure to read this thread:

Fail to install IDT High Def. Audio CODEC on XPS420

 

People are reporting incompatibilities with newer drivers, so probably stick to the Dell ones as Boyd recomends for the time being.

 

Rafa.

same happend to me earlier today it was strange... i downloaded the drivers installed them... my sound went off and had a cross on the speaker icon i then restarted it was still the same didnt think of rolling back the drivers so i did a system restore and i then had my sound back... my sound is fine like i said before its just my mic port it doesnt seem to be recognised so im going to dell site tomorrow to try resolving the problem anyway after i restored my machine and my sound was back the drivers i had downloaded which took my sound off was still there when i checked only this time my sound worked lol

ok i just downloaded the driver from dell but unfortunately its the same... still no recordings menu or anything... so i have another question... if i was to buy a USB mic would that work? i mean its usb not a pink jack into the soundcard lol just a thought

---

@boyd B wrote:
...I clicked on the link you provided just for informational purposes and got an error, page forbidden. Thanks anyway.

---

Thanks for the heads up, I don't know what happened, for some reason it made the link a relative location.  Now its working for me, hope its fixed for other users also.  By the way, the link was to the wrong thread, now it points to the correct one! :)

 

Rafa.

I ran into this issue several days ago and tried to roll back to the Dell Sigmatel drivers and was not succesful. The only way I could solve this problem was to download and reinstall the Dell Sigmatel drivers and reinstall them. This method worked for me but the rollback option may work fine for others.

If you recently ran Windows Update or it was run for you and you had the Sigmatel HD Audio drivers installed, they may have been replaced by the new IDT HD Audio drivers. This, for some reason, shuts down your audio and no amount of rebooting will fix it. I'd suggest to check to see your update history to see if the IDT drivers were installed as an optional update. If so, start device manager, choose the audio driver, right-click on the IDT driver and choose Properties. Click the driver tab and choose Roll Back Driver. This will re-install the Sigmatel driver and your audeo should work again.

i had a problem at first with the new drivers... i clicked roll back drivers and its crazy because it didnt roll them back.... it seemed to of fied the new drivers because its still named as IDT....etc... now what im wanting to know about is to do with my mic i just cant get my computer to pick my mic up... the port is in the front panel of my pc... not the back... i have my speakers connected to the back of my pc and when i go to insert my mic into the front... theres nothing.. i created two screenshots of my speaker options and my recordings.... in the recordings tab there should be something relating to my mic but theres now it just says no audio devices are installed.... as for drivers ive being to dell and reinstalled the sigmatel drivers a few times... still the same thanks for help guys hope somebody can work this out for me i need my mic to be working.... another alternative i was thinking about was... would it be worth buying a USB mic? would that work?.... here are my screenshots anyway thanks again all

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f74/darthbirch/speakers.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f74/darthbirch/mic.jpg

anybody know what i can do?

hey thanks for that .... that makes sence im going to try it tomorrow i wish i could tonight but im working until 7am lol unfortunately but hey thanks ill get back at you when i do this

This seems to be the same issue I had. I uninstalled the Audio Device from within the Control Panel/Device manager and  rebooted. Make sure you have the Dell Sigmatel drivers downloaded and know where they are on your hard drive. Then after the reboot Vista will advise new device found and offer to locate the drivers for you. Do not choose this options because it will find the other drivers that you don't want, but choose the option to load from a different location, or something to that order, can't remember exactly. Then when you search for the location where the Dell drivers are, choose this and Vista will find and install the Dell Sigmatel drivers and the audio and mic. options should be available. This is how I had to do it and it worked for me. Hope this helps.

 

Edit: I also should mention that although there is a mic. port on the rear of the Audio Card, the mic. is not recogonized from there. I had to insert it into the front mic. port in order to get it to work. I am using a Dell mic. from an older 10 year old system. Works beautifully.

hey boyd i just read your edit section.... i dont think i have a mic port in the rear soundcard .....i have.... green, blue, black, orange and grey ports in the back so im guessing because theres no pink port theres nowhere for my mic?? or can i connect my mic to one of these ? and in the front panel i have two jacks both black but under them each 1 has the pic picture the other has the headphones picture when i insert my mic into the mic port i get nothing and have tried it in the headphone one aswel

BOYD THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!! i just tried what you mentioned  lastnight about keeping the dell sigmatel drivers on my hardrive and uninstalling the audio device... i just did it and rebooted and now i have my mic :smileyvery-happy: thanks for sharing your experience with me mate i appreciate it and now know who to come to for help lol finally after 4 days of from getting my new pc im now problem free lol