Windows vista audio not working -sigmatel sound card

Master0

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Shorthand of Problem: My sound card is no longer working I have a Sigmatel High Definition Audio Codec. Every driver I try doesn't seem to help.


Long Version: My computer is a dell inspiron E1505 which came with windows xp, after a while I reformatted and updated to vista. Later I tried updating my sound card driver. That's when the problem occurred. Sound stop altogether. I believe one of two things occurred I screwed up while trying to download from dell (i.e. I got an xp driver instead of vista) or their is an error in vista.

Here's the link for the dell driver site for my laptop
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?os=WLH&osl=EN&catid=-1&impid=-1&servicetag=&SystemID=INSPIRONI6400%2FE1505&hidos=WW1&hidlang=en


While googling it I came across this site, and I'm hoping somebody will know something. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Z
 
Did you have sound before you tried to install this driver? Have you tried to roll back the driver from the Device Manager?
 
Yes it did have sound, and rolling back the driver did nothing. I also tried uninstalling and reinstalling but still not sound.
 
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Well, if you had sound before, it's not a Vista error/bug.

Go into the device manager delete it, and manually reinstall the drive - press "I will choose the driver" instead of "Windows will search and find...."

There should be two drivers, one is the original one you downloaded.
Try one then the other, one of them has to work.
 
Yeah if rolling back did nothign that means that you tried to isntall the drivers more than once. Which caused that problem. :S

Also try to use Google for the driver...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Sigmatel+Vista+Driver

The ones on the Dell site are definately bunk. I tried their drivers for many things but they always turn out bad. I use the driver right from the manufacturer's site over Dell's site any day.
 
The drivers on most computer vendors (verses part manufacturers and OEMs) are worthless.

Hell, ASUS is hotlinking the proper Windows Vista SoundMAX drivers off of our site! :lol:
 
I have tried manual installing the driver before as well, and still I seem to have no affect (tried both drivers). I'll try your link as well although I didn't have to much luck before. I'll edit this response a bit and thanks for all the help, and yes dell drivers are horrible.

I'm a bit unsure which driver is the right one for my card but I did find this link
SigmaTel Drivers Anything Goes Discussions

which recommends "Realtek AC’97 XP drivers" even though its for xp. I'm unsure if this is the best move. Thanks for all the help.
 
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Many XP drivers (that were cleanly written) will work on Vista. If they say it work,s give it a shot.
 
IF anything you should be able to install them in compatability mode. Then they should work.
 
the realtek drivers didn't install must not work for my card. I'll see what else i can dig up. Any advice?
 
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Are you installing via the Installer, or are you extracting the drivers to a folder and installing them with Device Manager?

The latter is the only way to go for most drivers.
 
Taht is true. Use WinRar to extract them to a folder then go via the devie manager and point it toward that folder. That works more times than not.

But right clicking on the executable>compatibility tab>XP SP2 mode and Run as admin checked might also help.
 
I'm using their installers, but I'm concerned I'm not getting the correct drivers. Especially the one shown on the dell site, it doesn't seem to match my card. I'd use the original driver from the cd but I can't get to it. Does anyone know the driver's name or where to look? I'm guessing an xp version might be better as well.
 
You can't know your not getting the right drivers if they're not even installing in the first place.

You need to manually ensure they are installed before you blame it on the wrong driver distribution.
 
I'm retrying the drivers (including the dell one) and installing manually.
here the site where i got the realtek drivers
Realtek

Should I also try the vista version?

Dell driver didn't work with manual install, and the realtec drivers are installed when I attempt to manually install. It says my driver is up to date. Perhaps it just better to wait til I can get the original drive of the disk instead. Still it should be online or an adequate update should be available. Thanks for all the help, it's been enlightening.
 
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Yeah I just find it highly annoying that I can't get a proper driver at the dell main site. Not to mention graphic card drivers yuck. Thanks if there is still in issue I'll post here again.
 
That is why it is always suggested to get the drivers from the manufacturers site. Not of the PC but of the part. Like Creative for sound card or nVidia for GFX.

The Dell sites are not updated as much as the drivers are. :wink:
 
Yeah I know but sigmatel doesn't actually have drivers on their site, the just tell you to go to your distributor. While my graphics card does have a good site dell forces them to make their drivers not supported(it's a laptop and companies do this for some reason), and go to dell's site instead (which means it never gets updated). So I'll just blame dell and be happily pissed.
 
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