sigmatel audio problems

Question

I just loaded Vista on my 'Windows Vista Compatible' Inspiron 9400. I tried the HDD fix and the latest Vista driver from Dell, but my audio still sounds like . It works great in XP with my audigy stuff loaded, but in Vista it crackles, skips, pops, and generally sounds like . Anyone else having this problem? Anyone find a fix?   oh ya, I've got the actual 'released' version of Vista (via MSDN) so its not 'beta' can't use that excuse anymore.   disabling wireless does fix it, but I kinda need my wireless so that won't really help lol Message Edited by mindouglas on 12-27-200604:51 PM

mindouglas · Answer

I asked Dell about the issue in chat but they won't provide support since Vista is onyl RTM and has not made its public debut. So I guess I'm stuck with this issue till the end of Jan. But come Jan 29th I will be opening a chat/case/phone call with Dell, I suggest everyone else with this issue do that same.

mindouglas · Answer

I rebuilt the laptop with Vista, did not install the Dell audio driver, and when I disable the wireless it works great, no skipping or popping. If the wireless is enabled it does skip and pop tho.

JuRJuR_SPAIN · Answer

Hi friend, this is the same that happens to my Inspiron 6400. I didn't try on Windows XP because when the laptop arrived I just installed Windows Vista. I also haven't tried disabling WIFI because I always need it, and it is not a solution for me.   So, have you tried any other driver instead of the Microsoft one ?   Please if you find a solution for this post here... Thanks!

akrueger_043962 · Answer

Also having Sigmatel issues in Vista.   Running Dell Lattitude D620 Core Duo 1.6 w/ 2Gig RAM.   Under Vista Business (Final) running Media Player 11, tracks take about 20 seconds to start playing, another 20 seconds between tracks if you skip forward/back. About 3/4 of the way through EVERY track played, 5 seconds of stuttering. iTunes does not experience this problem.   Same system (dual booting) running XP Pro SP2 running Media Player 11, no problems what so ever.   Under Vista, I removed the Dell/Sigmatel Audio drivers and when using the built-in Microsoft drivers and the problem goes away...no delays, no stutters...also, no sound out of Headphone jack on Docking station. From laptop itself sound is fine. Have to add the Dell/Sigmatel driver to get the sound through the docking station and then the problems persist.   Once Vista is publicly available and Microsoft/Dell begin official support for it I'll be expecting a new set of drivers that corrects this issue.   If anyone knows a resolution, please post.

mindouglas · Answer

Sorry, this was on here before, but apparently I violated the TOS. I guess because my post contained some info from Sigmatel's website, they saw it as an ad. oh well, here is the post w/o that info

On WinXP it will work great with the standard Dell drivers. The only solution I have found for Vista is what I did above. So far it works flawlessly and fortunately I have not needed my wireless very much. I'm wired at work and home so it works nicely.

I'm guessing that when Vista is actually released to the general public, Dell will address the issue. I'm not sure why they have not already. Vista is RTM, they are a manufacturer ... "released to manufacturer" ... ?

akrueger_043962 · Answer

What are you saying you found as the resolution, disabling your wireless card?   I've tried disabling the device in device manager and that didn't seem to yield any different results for me.   Can you do a quote from the info @ Sigmatel or post a link? Message Edited by akrueger on 01-08-200708:20 AM

mindouglas · Answer

I can't quote sigmatel, Dell will delete my post. If u look on their site it just says that they don't support drivers, u have to get them from the manufacturer. Exactly, my resolution is disabling the wireless card. But the catch is that I am NOT using the Dell driver, I just left it on the default Vista driver and it seems to work good. Games still crack though, especially WoW, in fact I have to crank down the graphics a lot in WoW to get it to 30fps, where as in XP I could crank it all the way up and always sit nicely at 60fps. I think that is most likely a video driver issue, but I'm not sure since HL2 runs great.

akrueger_043962 · Answer

Gotcha.   I play WoW too and the graphics driver is a whole other battle. The Vista driver is just junk. I can play and get good fps and resolution but every 5-10 minutes the screen will go black for a second and back in windows there is a message that the almxxx.sys stopped responding.   The graphics problem was the reason I loaded XP dual-boot.   Between the graphics, audio and the Exchange admin tools not running on Vista I'm still not sure why I even bother with Vista, I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.

JuRJuR_SPAIN · Answer

I installed the Sigmatel driver for Windows Vista and I still get the same problem, so I think that we need to update the wireless driver. Which one do you have installed ?

mindouglas · Answer

no, DO NOT install the sigmatel driver, just let Vista handle it.   I keep using Vista because work wants to, and they could care less about my games lol, but it really is a neat OS, and its fun to have something new. albeit I am not in the mood to troubleshoot either. I get a lot of random game crashing too. which really when I've got a bunch of city built in Simcity and all of a suddent he game crashes and I loose it all ... nothing like wasting an hour only to have to waste it again lol   I'm using the standard Vista wireless-N driver too, I couldn't find any other. Message Edited by mindouglas on 01-08-200710:44 AM

akrueger_043962 · Answer

I'm running the Broadcom 802.11g Vista driver from Microsoft on my D620.   date: 6/21/2006 version: 4.82.28.56

mindouglas · Answer

You can uninstall it, but XP won't grab the driver by default. Vista has it included, but XP needs the driver.

rjhollan · Answer

Is it possible to un-install the Sigmatel driver once it's installed? I've got a 9400 with XP as delivered from the factory in December(?) last year. It skips horribly in both Media Player 11 and iTunes 7; I can't rip CD's or even listen to audio for very long without getting frustrated. I've tried everything I could think of and just stumbled across this post.

So I tried disabling the wireless (Fcn-F2) and presto no more skipping or jitter. As soon as I enable it, the skipping's back!

So my question is, under XP can I just de-install the Sigmatel driver? I tried patching it to the latest level, but no love....

Thanks!
Rich

rjhollan · Answer

Is there a way to force XP to grab the device without using the Sigmatel driver, e.g. downloading something from MS manually? Thanks, Rich

mindouglas · Answer

no, u need the driver for XP to use the device, no way around that, sorry. I'm running XP now with the Audigy MB software and its working great, no skips, I can even use my wireless. I'll use Vista when Dell releases all the drivers and has everything fixed. Message Edited by mindouglas on 01-25-200706:50 PM

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sigmatel audio problems

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