Dell D820 No Audio

I have a Dell D820 Latitude Laptop, using XP Pro SP3. Several months ago my audio simply stopped working. The old Windows default system sounds are all that remain. Initially, there were no warnings or prompts. The machine booted normally, the audio simply did not work. When I finally realized I was hearing nothing but Windows default sounds I figured out that the installed audio system was not working. Everything “looked” normal, the volume control was present, just did nothing. The drivers listed in device manager gave no hint of problem, they just didn’t produce any sound. I could select various speaker configurations, but no sound still. I wasn’t even seeing any ! or ? at the device driver listing, it just didn’t work.

I did a little research and found out about and ran the hardware diagnostic procedure which tests the hardware before Windows bootup. The hardware diagnostics generates actual music out of the speakers and that functions correctly. I did not have a pair of headphones at that time so did not check to see if the headphone jack was functional in either diagnostic or normal mode.

I did attempt to go into the Device Manager under control panel, and remove and reinstall the audio driver, but no amount of installing and rebooting made any difference. I tried to reinstall the audio drivers from scratch from the provided CD’s that were provided with the laptop, no help. I tried to download updated drivers and install, did no good. From this time forward, I now get a yellow exclamation mark at the device manager beside “PCI Device” The details listed there are:
Device Type: System devices.
Manufacturer: Unknown
Location: PCI Bus 0, device 27, function 0

“Windows cannot load a device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing, (code 39).

If I click the Troubleshooter, and follow the instructions, I hit a wall when I’m prompted to provide a device name or manufacturer. I don’t know for certain what this device is, nor its manufacturer. Since I began removing and reinstalling the drivers, all audio system functions are now greyed out. If I select “Sounds and Audio Devices” under Control Panel, I now see “No Audio Device”.

I didn’t have the time to fool with it much at the time so have simply ignored it to date. I’m finally however, growing tired of having to stop the “Welcome to the Found New Hardware Wizard” which runs on every bootup, and to turn off the “Found New PCI Device” warning in the system tray, also at every bootup.

I began doing more research on the problem today and found quite a few references to conflicts between Logitech Cameras & Skype causing this exact problem. I do not have either of these installed.

I would greatly appreciate any assistance with solving this problem.

 

OK. Downloaded the pair of chipset & audio drivers recommended, and installed them per the instructions on the download page. The chipset driver went in with no problem. The audio driver has apparently done something weird... after the installation is started, a dialog box opens that states: "Welcome to the installshield wizard for Sigmatel Audio" then a small banner opens across the dialogue box that states: "Please wait while the system updates the audio hardware configuration". After about 15 seconds, a new dialogue box opens that states: "Welcome to the AVS Video Converter 6 setup wizard". That seems incorrect to me for what I'm attempting, but thinking that maybe it's some type of bundled or combination driver setup, I allow that to complete. I now have a new Video converter application in my system, and still NO audio driver installed. I tried the download and install a second time, thinking maybe I'd just mis-clicked a filename... but the same sequence of events occurs.
I went directly to my Device manager, and attempted to update the driver from there, pointing the driver search directly to the folder created when the audio driver was unzipped from the downloaded file. It can't find a driver, and simply reports "The hardware cannot be installed because the wizard cannot find the software".

Did I manage to download a faulty driver file?

DD

 

Hi,
Try uninstalling the realtek audio driver from device manager then install this older version of the sigmatel driver your system needs....

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...impid=-1&typecnt=0&vercnt=3&releaseid=R114075

post back to let us know how it goes

 

Per the suggestion in the last reply, I'm attempting to locate and uninstall the realtek audio driver, so I can install an older driver that should work better. Problem is, I can't locate a realtek driver anywhere under device manager. I created a report using Everest, and scanned thru it from top to bottom, to see what device it's connected to, and simply don't see any listing for Realtek anywhere.
Suggestions?

I have already downloaded the (older) Sigmatel driver recommended to replace the Realtek with.

 

Alright, following up on my own last post. I went ahead and downloaded the older Sigmatel driver, and ran it. (I never could actually find a Realtek driver to uninstall first) The first time the Sigmatel install utility ran, it stopped part-way thru and prompted me for a file that it couldn't find. I shut down and restarted, and it went all the way thru, apparently installing the driver where it should be.
I can now boot up with NO "Welcome to the Found new hardware wizard" or the "New PCI device found" warning in the system tray. So I thought to myself, that I'd made some progress. Went into the Device manager, and found NO items listed with !/? or yellow warnings at any location.
Problem is, I still have NO audio in Windows. If I open the "Sounds and Audio Devices" under Control Panel, it shows "No Audio Device". If I select the hardware tab at the upper right of the dialogue box, all the audio devices are listed, including the "Sigmatel High Definition Codec" and when highlighted, it says its working properly. Multiple reboots, no change. I'm going to try and run the install utility for the later Sigmatel driver that I downloaded per the first reply to my initial post.
Any advice appreciated.

DD

 

Hi DD,
are your windows audio services set to start and the settings are "auto"....

Start > Admin Tools> Services> scroll down to windows audio and right click > properties> make sure the service is started and set to auto > click "dependencies" tab and select all the resources that are listed in there and make sure that they are also started and set to auto!!... You could also check to make sure that audio/sound is enabled in your BIOS.

 

I had already checked to verify the audio system was enabled in the Bios, it is. I had not thought to go into the Windows Audio Services and check there. I'll do that asap, and post back.

Thanks

DD

 

Finally had a chance to boot up and check the Windows Audio services. Was already started, set to - auto.
Dependencies: "This service depends on the following system components: (Plug & Play, Remote Procedure Call). I could make no changes to those two listed.

 

Hi DD,
When was the last time you did any "deep" anti virus/malware scans ?? I ask this as I am starting to think that this may be virus/malware OR a failing audio chip, I would like for you to go through the malware removal steps here...

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

try to do all the scans in the order given for your OS and create a new thread in the malware forum....

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=35

and wait for one of the malware experts to guide you through your logs... hopefully they will come up clean

 

Quote:
Check that Windows Audio Service is started.
Go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Services
Scroll down the list of services until you find the Windows Audio service.
Right click on it and choose Properties.
Make sure it is set to Automatic and Start is checked. Done, and all correct.

Check: Control Panel>Sounds and Audio Devices: "No Audio Device" (Everything else under audio device properties is greyed out)
In the Control Panel>Sounds and Audio Devices, click the Volume tab.
Make sure the box for placing the volume icon in the task bar is checked.
Click Advanced in Device Volume area.
Make sure that you have Volume Control, Wave, SW Synth, and CD Player all listed in the Control. Make sure none are muted and the volumes are at a listenable level.
If not there, click Options>Properties and mark the boxes for them.
Click Advanced in the Speaker Settings area.
Make sure that the speaker type you use is selected.

Check the Audio tab.
See if your sound device is listed in the Sound Playback Default Device list. (No Devices listed at all, greyed out)
Check the Hardware tab.
See if sound device is listed in the list. If it is make sure it is enabled. (Sigmatel High Definition Audio CODEC is listed, Device Status: This device is working properly)
Check that your BIOS is set for onboard sound enabled. (Looking in BIOS, "AUDIO CONTROLLER: Sigmatel 9200" is listed under Device info. There is no capability of turning it off or on, simply a listing of what is there).

Goto Start>Control Panel> Sounds and Audio.
On the Volume tab, click Advanced in the Speaker Settings area. (All this is greyed out, due to NO Audio Device)That opens the Advanced Audio Properties window.
Click the Performance tab.
Now slide your Hardware Acceleration down a bit.

 

If the suggestion from gloozit does not work try this. There may be an issue with UAA and SP3.

In an admin account run regedit and go to this key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows

In CSDVersion Key change the hex value from 300 to 200. This fools Windows into thinking you have SP2 installed.

Download and install Microsoft UAA.

Change CSDVersion back to 300

Reinstall the driver. Good Luck.