I recently bought a Dell Vostro 410. I installed Windows 7 x64 and everything seems to be great...except for the audio. The volume icon on the taskbar has the red circle/white x on it. When I put my mouse over the icon, it says "no speakers or headphones are plugged in" and after right-click and then clicking on "playback devices" I get a screen that says "high definition audio device not plugged in." I went to the device manager and under sound it lists "high definition audio device" and says the device is working properly and has the most updated drivers. Even the headphone jack in the front of the pc doesn't work. I tried plugging a pair in and it just simply did nothing. This is extremely frustrating as the only reason for buying this pc was to play games. (I bought it off eBay) I've downloaded and installed tons of drivers. I've gotten them from the Dell website as well as Realtek. I don't even know that it is a Realtek device I just read a forum on here that said thats what they usually were. I even downloaded drivers from the Microsoft website. I did all this and the funny thing is...the device manager says the drivers are fine. The pc didn't come with a monitor or speakers so I'm using my old HP monitor that I used for 2 years on an old Dell I own. I'm so frustrated! PLEASE HELP!!
I suppose ebay = used. Have you opened the case to check to see if the wiring is loose? Will speakers work hooked into the rear ports? If the system is indeed used it may be that the onboard sound has failed. With the circle/X on the taskbar it may very well be a hardware problem. Do you have a sound card you could install to see what happens?
yeah ive opened it. everything seems to be fine. i stuck a sound blaster ct4790 sound card in it and there lies another problem. when windows loads it says installing drivers failed. under device manager the "new" sound card is listed only as "multimedia audio controller" and windows cant find the driver for it online. i tried downloading and installing the drivers for the sound card but when installing it says i dont have the hardware installed on my pc. i know im probably just being a tard...at least for the second issue, but im going nuts man.
neither the rear speaker port nor the front headphone jack work by the way.
Ok then. I would start from scratch. Remove the Soundblaster, uninstall the on board audio device from control panel. Reboot. Windows should reinstall the drivers.
If that doesn't work I would uninstall the audio drivers again - shut it down - install the Soundblaster again and reboot. Windows should be able to find basic drivers if it can "see" the card at all. Have you tried a different slot for the card?
You are looking at a lot of problems installing the 64 bit version of Windows 7. Dell ONLY supports XP and Vista 32 bit on this model. There are no Dell 64 bit drivers. You should consider a complete reinstall of Windows 7 and the 32 bit version as in most cases the Vista 32 bit drivers will work with Windows 7 32 bit.
There is also a required install sequence when installing and if that sequence is not followed there can (and will) be problems. THIS is the Dell Vista 32 bit driver downloads.
The correct and required install sequence is (1) Install Windows (2) Install Dell Desktop System Software (on applicable models) (3) Install Intel motherboard chipset drivers (4) Install device drivers including Sound, Video, Ethernet, etc. Do not skip the Intel Motherboard chipset drivers, they are key to a successful installation.
Windows 7 will install some device drivers however, we have found non-Dell sound drivers can be an issue and many times will either not work or not work correctly.
Fireberd - The only reason i installed the 64 bit version was because im using 4GB of ram. With the 32 bit XP that was installed when i got the pc, it only recognized 3.25 GB of ram. i did some searching and from what i found, i needed to install the 64 bit version to be able to use all 4 GB. is this correct? ive wondered if the x64 was the problem but i wasnt sure. is there a way to install windows x32 and still utilize all 4GB?
i found a forum somewhere and there were 2 or 3 people who had a vostro 410. they were talking about how they installed 8GB ram even though Dell claims only 4GB is supported. they claimed to be running windows 7 x64 and neither of them talked of any of these problems im having. thats what led me to install the 64 bit.
Jeff - i tried your suggestion and had no luck. i even installed another sound card (which made 2 cards plus the on-board) and had the same result.
Jeff Hoffman
881 Posts
0
September 26th, 2010 17:00
I suppose ebay = used. Have you opened the case to check to see if the wiring is loose? Will speakers work hooked into the rear ports? If the system is indeed used it may be that the onboard sound has failed. With the circle/X on the taskbar it may very well be a hardware problem. Do you have a sound card you could install to see what happens?
Let us know what happens.
Jeff :emotion-22:
Garrick Coalson
5 Posts
0
September 26th, 2010 17:00
yeah ive opened it. everything seems to be fine. i stuck a sound blaster ct4790 sound card in it and there lies another problem. when windows loads it says installing drivers failed. under device manager the "new" sound card is listed only as "multimedia audio controller" and windows cant find the driver for it online. i tried downloading and installing the drivers for the sound card but when installing it says i dont have the hardware installed on my pc. i know im probably just being a tard...at least for the second issue, but im going nuts man.
neither the rear speaker port nor the front headphone jack work by the way.
Jeff Hoffman
881 Posts
0
September 26th, 2010 17:00
Ok then. I would start from scratch. Remove the Soundblaster, uninstall the on board audio device from control panel. Reboot. Windows should reinstall the drivers.
If that doesn't work I would uninstall the audio drivers again - shut it down - install the Soundblaster again and reboot. Windows should be able to find basic drivers if it can "see" the card at all. Have you tried a different slot for the card?
You may just have a motherboard with problems.
Jeff :emotion-22:
fireberd
9 Legend
9 Legend
•
33.3K Posts
0
September 26th, 2010 17:00
You are looking at a lot of problems installing the 64 bit version of Windows 7. Dell ONLY supports XP and Vista 32 bit on this model. There are no Dell 64 bit drivers. You should consider a complete reinstall of Windows 7 and the 32 bit version as in most cases the Vista 32 bit drivers will work with Windows 7 32 bit.
There is also a required install sequence when installing and if that sequence is not followed there can (and will) be problems. THIS is the Dell Vista 32 bit driver downloads.
The correct and required install sequence is (1) Install Windows (2) Install Dell Desktop System Software (on applicable models) (3) Install Intel motherboard chipset drivers (4) Install device drivers including Sound, Video, Ethernet, etc. Do not skip the Intel Motherboard chipset drivers, they are key to a successful installation.
Windows 7 will install some device drivers however, we have found non-Dell sound drivers can be an issue and many times will either not work or not work correctly.
Garrick Coalson
5 Posts
0
September 26th, 2010 18:00
Fireberd - The only reason i installed the 64 bit version was because im using 4GB of ram. With the 32 bit XP that was installed when i got the pc, it only recognized 3.25 GB of ram. i did some searching and from what i found, i needed to install the 64 bit version to be able to use all 4 GB. is this correct? ive wondered if the x64 was the problem but i wasnt sure. is there a way to install windows x32 and still utilize all 4GB?
i found a forum somewhere and there were 2 or 3 people who had a vostro 410. they were talking about how they installed 8GB ram even though Dell claims only 4GB is supported. they claimed to be running windows 7 x64 and neither of them talked of any of these problems im having. thats what led me to install the 64 bit.
Jeff - i tried your suggestion and had no luck. i even installed another sound card (which made 2 cards plus the on-board) and had the same result.
Garrick Coalson
5 Posts
0
September 27th, 2010 10:00
i have since installed windows 7 x32 and windows xp x32, both with no luck. does this mean the onboard sound is messed up?
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
Community Manager
•
54.3K Posts
0
September 27th, 2010 12:00
Before adding a PCI sound card, you must go into the System Bios- Integrated Peripherals- Onboard Audio Controller and set it to Disabled.