I just tryed to play a game to see what would happen (Guild Wars) and it told me that it detected a hardware failure. Could this be something with my soundcard?
"Whenever I would play any audio or video, the audio would play ok for a little while, and then it would make a single popping noise and would play on one speaker or the other or would not play any noise at all."
When would it go back to playing normally, during the song, only when starting a new song, not until the next day, whenever re-booting?
If the problem usually lasts a fairly long time and doesn't clear up immediately upon rebooting, run Dell Diagnostics audio test. If the problem persists during the test then there definitely is a hardware problem.
To run Diagnostics restart the computer and as soon as it starts to boot up hold down f12. Select 'Diagnostic' from the boot menu. The computer will run its pre-boot assessment tests for 3 or 4 minutes before the Dell Diagnostic starts. These pre-boot tests play some beeps and tones through the system speaker but not the rest of the audio hardware, so you still need to run Dell Diagnostics.
When Dell Diagnostics opens, select 'custom', then the audio test. This will test your audio system independently of Windows and drivers, meaning it doesn't matter if they are working correctly or not.
[If you have ever reformatted your hard drive then the Diagnostics partition might have been wiped off. If the Dell Diagnostics option fails to open, run it from the Drivers and Utilities (Resource) CD if you have one. If you don't, you can download the Dell Diagnostics from your downloads page under 'Diagnostic Utilities'.]
Dell Diagnostics will play some audio and ask you whether you heard it. If you answer 'no' then the test generates an error code that means you indicated you did not hear the sounds it played. In your case you just want to listen to the audio for the symptoms you are having. Of course if you don't hear the symptoms, that could just be due to the intermittent nature of the problem.
It would do this during the song or video. It might play ok, for 10-20 seconds or so, but then would make a "pop" and audio would shift to the left or right speaker or stop. I then tryed to move to another part of the song or video and it would either be ok for a few seconds and then do it again, and then continue making a "pop" sound and doing the glitch or not make a sound at all. The pop only happens once before the glitch.
I'll run the diagnostic when I get home this afternoon. I did not have time to run it last night. I'll report back with any news.
I ran the diagnostic and it said something about needing a "Diagnostic Utility Partition". Can somebody help me with this? I currently do not have access to my dell cd, for I am at college.
If the message was that 'no diagnostic utility partition can be found' it means that it has been wiped from the hard drive and so must either be run from the cd or download it onto a cd and try to run it from that.
The only way to replace the integrated audio system is to replace the motherboard. The workaround solution is to get an external sound card. In your case you can use either a pcmcia card that goes in the Cardbus slot, or a usb card. In either case the audio must be listened to through headphones or external speakers.
cdurham
5 Posts
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August 23rd, 2007 00:00
Jim Coates
4 Operator
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13.6K Posts
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August 23rd, 2007 10:00
When would it go back to playing normally, during the song, only when starting a new song, not until the next day, whenever re-booting?
If the problem usually lasts a fairly long time and doesn't clear up immediately upon rebooting, run Dell Diagnostics audio test. If the problem persists during the test then there definitely is a hardware problem.
To run Diagnostics restart the computer and as soon as it starts to boot up hold down f12. Select 'Diagnostic' from the boot menu. The computer will run its pre-boot assessment tests for 3 or 4 minutes before the Dell Diagnostic starts. These pre-boot tests play some beeps and tones through the system speaker but not the rest of the audio hardware, so you still need to run Dell Diagnostics.
When Dell Diagnostics opens, select 'custom', then the audio test. This will test your audio system independently of Windows and drivers, meaning it doesn't matter if they are working correctly or not.
[If you have ever reformatted your hard drive then the Diagnostics partition might have been wiped off. If the Dell Diagnostics option fails to open, run it from the Drivers and Utilities (Resource) CD if you have one. If you don't, you can download the Dell Diagnostics from your downloads page under 'Diagnostic Utilities'.]
Dell Diagnostics will play some audio and ask you whether you heard it. If you answer 'no' then the test generates an error code that means you indicated you did not hear the sounds it played. In your case you just want to listen to the audio for the symptoms you are having. Of course if you don't hear the symptoms, that could just be due to the intermittent nature of the problem.
Jim
cdurham
5 Posts
0
August 23rd, 2007 12:00
Message Edited by cdurham on 08-23-2007 08:35 AM
cdurham
5 Posts
0
August 23rd, 2007 23:00
cdurham
5 Posts
0
August 24th, 2007 00:00
Jim Coates
4 Operator
•
13.6K Posts
0
August 24th, 2007 00:00
Jim
Jim Coates
4 Operator
•
13.6K Posts
0
August 24th, 2007 01:00
Jim