Dell Precision Workstation 360, No Sound Issue

[jaugu...@verizon.net]

Hi,

A friend gave me a Dell Precision Workstation 360 desktop PC.
Mfg 06-22-04.

He had Linux installed. I replaced that OS with WinXP Pro SP3.

NO SOUND:

I downloaded "R56339.EXE" from the Dell web site for this and
other models (WinXP driver), but I got an error installing it. I tried
more than once to install it.

I searched for an alternative Audio driver. I tried "WDM-A406.EXE"
(Realtek AC97) that someone in a forum said "might work", but
it did NOT.

ALTERNATIVE IDEA (Can't find Usable Audio Driver):

Is it possible for me to buy a Sound Card (this PC has several
available slots) and use that instead of the on board sound chip?

Thank You in advance, John

[Paul]

The "RealTek Trick" so-called, involves HDAudio hardware (yours is AC97),
and also requires editing the INF so that the driver will not complain
that it can't find any RealTek chip.

The .3538 driver you downloaded as R56339.EXE, that might
have been closer. AC'97 drivers work with (group-of-Southbridges)+ADI198x.
That means that not every 198x driver is going to work. Analog Devices might
have two or three files on the go, and one of them supported "Intel and VIA"
for Southbridges. I would guess the R56339.EXE was likely selected
as a "best match" to your motherboard. There's no reason to suspect
this is the wrong one. Merely something to watch for, if randomly
stealing drivers from other sites for your ADI chip. That's
how I got drivers for my ADI1985 :-)

My Asus P4C800-e, which has ADI198x on it, there was a BIOS setting in
"Onboard Devices" BIOS tab, that allowed the chip to be turned off. You
would turn off the chip, if using a separate PCI sound card and you
wanted no confusion about where the sound was going to go.

*******

Summary: Could be a BIOS setting, but knowing Dell, not an option with them.
Almost no reason for it not to work (barring wrong driver, and that's
not at all likely). I think at one time, I was using R56339 here,
on my Asus board, because I think I may have run that vintage 3538
driver at first. The most modern one I ran, might have been around
version 6000 or so. Still didn't really fix my "clicking" problem.
In all cases, I had audio, just every ten minutes a "click" would
come out of the speakers on its own.

Paul

[VanguardLH]

Presumably you already checked the volume level is something more than
zero, like mid-way, or higher. When you click on the sound icon in the
taskbar tray area, what it the volume set at? Is the device unmuted?
When you go into Sound properties, which device is selected for Play?
When you run C:\Windows\System32\mmsys.cpl, under the Playback tab,
which device is selected? There may be several listed. Pick the one
labelled Speakers if you are plugging them into the audio minijack
backpanel or frontpanel audio ports.

Since this is a desktop PC, how do you know the external speakers work?
Have you plugged them into an alternate sound source, like your stereo
system (where you have tested the same plug using a pair of headphones
to make sure you hear something from the stereo)? If the external
speakers work with a different sound source, use the headphones that
worked with the stereo to use those on the audio ports on the PC (rear
and front).

Since you have have external speakers, do they have their own volume
control? If so, make sure the volume control on the speakers is about
mid-way, or higher, and make sure a mute control on the speakers isn't
engaged.

When you got the error installing the driver, was this for a fresh
install of Windows XP? Or had you since modified it, like install
anti-malware software, or you restored from a backup image? "Replaced"
doesn't say how you got Windows XP onto the old Dell. "Error" doesn't
say what the error message said.

After an error trying to install the audio driver, did you redownload
the .exe file and try again just in case the first download was
corrupted?

Instead of using Dell's driver, did you uninstall the audio device in
Device Manager and either reboot or do a hardware rescan to use the
embedded drivers that are included in Windows? Even if the embedded
drivers work, check Device Manager again to make sure there are no
yellow exclamation marks.

Into which backpanel port (by color) did you plug the external speakers?
It is possible to use software to change the port assignments on the
backpanel. Did you try the front panel audio jack?

[jaugu...@verizon.net]

<SNIP>

Hi,

Again Thanks to you and Paul for that information.

UPDATE (solution for now):

My friend, who gave me this PC (had Linux on it), told me I could buy a
USB Sound Card on Amazon (cheap). I ordered one (Creative Labs)
which cost more, but had good reviews.

Later, I will try some of those suggestion.

John

[jaugu...@verizon.net]

<SNIP>

>>After an error trying to install the audio driver, did you redownload
>>the .exe file and try again just in case the first download was
>>corrupted?
>>
>>Instead of using Dell's driver, did you uninstall the audio device in
>>Device Manager and either reboot or do a hardware rescan to use the
>>embedded drivers that are included in Windows? Even if the embedded
>>drivers work, check Device Manager again to make sure there are no
>>yellow exclamation marks.
>>
>>Into which backpanel port (by color) did you plug the external speakers?
>>It is possible to use software to change the port assignments on the
>>backpanel. Did you try the front panel audio jack?
>
>Hi,
>
> Again Thanks to you and Paul for that information.
>
> UPDATE (solution for now):
>
> My friend, who gave me this PC (had Linux on it), told me I could buy a
>USB Sound Card on Amazon (cheap). I ordered one (Creative Labs)
>which cost more, but had good reviews.

Hi,
UPDATE:

I forgot to mention there was NO speaker icon in the System tray (bottom
right).

This PC has two hard drives installed (C: & D:). I installed WinXP Pro
SP3 on both (dual boot)

On the D:, I don't know how it started, I saw a "New hardware detected"
(not exact words) when booted into D:. Note: This did NOT happen on C: (also
NO speaker icon).

After extracting (self extracts) Dell drivers from "R56339.EXE", I
copied the contents of a sub-folder, "W2K-XP", in "DELL" root folder,
to a USB flash drive (to much for a FD).

I did NOT write down the steps I took by the options I was presented
to install the driver from F: (USB flash drive). But by golly it worked!
Now there is a speaker icon in system tray and sound!

My next challenge is to have the OS detect "New hardware..." on the
C: drive. This time, I will write down the steps I take.

Again, thanks to Vanguard and Paul for your responses, John

[Paul]

I have had one case, involving two sound drivers. I had motherboard
audio and a PCI sound card. The motherboard audio driver had been installed
first. Months later, I added the PCI sound card and used the installer.
After that, *both* devices did not work, which I thought rather strange.

Some use with Process Monitor (sysinternals.com) showed, out of 100,000 lines
of log info, that a single registry entry had been overwritten or removed
by the second sound driver. I was able to trace the problem to registry
damage carried out by the second installer.

As an example of how obscure sound driver failures can be :-)

Good that you've had success with one system partition.
Now, maybe encouraged by that, the second system partition
will play along for you.

Paul

[jaugu...@verizon.net]

<SNIP>

> I forgot to mention there was NO speaker icon in the System tray (bottom
>right).
>
> This PC has two hard drives installed (C: & D:). I installed WinXP Pro
>SP3 on both (dual boot)
>
> On the D:, I don't know how it started, I saw a "New hardware detected"
>(not exact words) when booted into D:. Note: This did NOT happen on C: (also
>NO speaker icon).
>
> After extracting (self extracts) Dell drivers from "R56339.EXE", I
>copied the contents of a sub-folder, "W2K-XP", in "DELL" root folder,
>to a USB flash drive (to much for a FD).
>
> I did NOT write down the steps I took by the options I was presented
>to install the driver from F: (USB flash drive). But by golly it worked!
>Now there is a speaker icon in system tray and sound!
>
> My next challenge is to have the OS detect "New hardware..." on the
>C: drive. This time, I will write down the steps I take.
>

ANOTHER UPDATE (C: Drive Sound):

I was able to get sound on the C: drive too, but I never had to go
through all these "gyrations" to get sound on any of my other PCs over the
years.

It was such a "cumbersome" (ORDEAL) process, it is hard for me to
explain in a logical sequence, the steps I took.

First, by way of Control Panel, "Printers and Other Hardware", "Add
Hardware", New Hardware was detected, "Can Windows connect to
Windows Update", I selected "Yes, this time only". Next, I checked
"Install from a list...". I unchecked "Removable media..." and set
the location on the C: drive where I put the files from a "W2K-XP" sub-folder
in "DELL" root folder. I left checked, "Search for the best driver in these
locations". However, that did NOT work, but now when I reboot C: drive,
New Hardware is detected (just like in D:).

I remembered something I did on D: that I forgot to mention on the
previous UPDATE. I had also tried to install the driver from "WDM_A406.EXE".

During that install, a message indicated "Realtek AC'97 Audio".
Therefore, I tried to install that other driver (WDM....), but that did NOT
"work" at first. A reboot and another "New Hardware detected", I followed
prompts, and eventually, I selected "SoundMAX Intergrated Digital Audio" in
another window. Afterwards, the C: drive sound came to "life" (speaker icon
in System tray).

John

a logical sequence

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

Reading this thread, I thought I'd post this:

There are two (that I know of) reasons why the speaker icon might not be
in the tray:

1. The sound hardware/driver is not functioning properly;
2. the icon has been turned off in sound settings.

From reading the rest of this thread, it's fairly obvious that it has
been case 1. - and I presume Device Manager would show "unrecognised
hardware" (or some similar phrase), along with its warning triangle. I'm
glad you got it sorted!

I just thought I'd mention 2., as it has puzzled me more than once in
the past; there's a tickbox somewhere in the sound settings (I forget
exactly where - I'm on 7 now) called something like "display icon in
notification area", which is ticked by default when the sound hardware
is set up, but _can_ get unticked - and I'm fairly sure by other than
manually unticking it, i. e. other software (or maybe user actions) can
turn it off. When that happens, sound usually remains working - you just
don't get the tray icon. Quite why MS included the option to turn it
off, I have no idea.

(It's particularly frustrating - or, at least, I found it so - because,
if you realise [the second or subsequent time] that that's what's
happened, you have to find the route into sound settings, which of
course I usually did by right-clicking on the icon, that isn't there!)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"This is a one line proof... if we start sufficiently far to the left."
[Cambridge University Math Dept.]