Ah-HA!! As I suspected!
I explain next (under
PROBLEM EXPLANATION) if you’re curious to know (and for the benefit of anyone else reading this thread who may have found it because of similar symptoms.). And, of course, we still need
to prove we can solve the problem! For that, look under
NEXT THINGS TO DO below)
PROBLEM EXPLANATIONHi Def Audio vs. AC’97 sound cards
You have a
Hi Definition Audio sound card installed on your Dell
==> Hi Def Audio is the newest standard for sound cards. It uses digital technology
==> AC’97 was the name of the original standard for sound cards. It used analog technology
Hi Def Audio vs AC’97 Drivers
- AC’97 sound cards require a sound card driver and that’s exactly what we all got used to looking for
- Hi Def Audio sound cards require TWO drivers (by definition of the Hi Def Audio standard!) The standard requires:
- A driver for the sound card (when looking in Device Manager, it still looks like the one we’re used to installing and seeing there) PLUS
- A driver for a new device called the “sound card bus controller”. You may also see it refered to as the “Hi Def Audio controller” or a some similar name. (When looking in Device Manager you'll find it listed with other controllers)
Installing Drivers for Hi Def Audio
Microsoft decided to include a default Windows driver for the Audio bus controller. They thought sound card vendors then had a choice:
==> a) Use the Windows default driver for the Hi Def Audio controller and only provide their own sound card driver, or
==> b) Write their own Hi Def Audio controller. They would include both drivers, controller and sound card, in the driver install file the user runs.
Vista was released with the default driver already included in its driver library. However, established versions of Windows (like XP) requires a user to install Microsoft update
==> KB835221 to add the default driver to XP SP1
==> KB888111 to add the default driver to XP SP2. KB888111 should be installed
after KB835221 has been installed
==> XP SP3: No updates required. The default driver comes included in XP SP3's driver library
My current best guess: Your problem is related to the bus controller driver on your computer
NEXT THINGS TO DO
- I’d like a snapshot of all your drivers and version numbers
==> Install and run DriverView
==> Once it opens Edit->Select All, Edit->Copy then paste it into a Notepad file .txt file and attach it to your next post
- Uninstall things in this order:
- First off, you should open Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs, look for any sound devices and, if found, click the Remove button to uninstall
- Next uninstall using Device Manager. Look for the sound card and audio bus controller drivers. Click View->Devices by connection. Expand ACPI PC and sub-components until you see PCI Bus then expand PCI bus as well. You can find both devices under PCI Bus
- Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio among the items directly under PCI bus and
- Expand the Hi Hi Def Audio controller to see your sound card.
- Check each device to see if a device driver is loaded. Rt click to select the driver then Uninstall.
- Try installing the Dell driver again. Once installed, repeat above to find both of the two drivers. Find them? Rt click on each driver, select Properties. On the General tab, look for Device Status. Does it indicate it's running or a problem?
Note: I downloaded then opened the Dell driver file and looked at what the installer was doing. It first installs Micorsoft KB835221 only (not the other MS KB). If you still have a problem, let me know as there's still other things to do