Dell Studio 17 Absolutely No Sound from factory

Hello folks,

I've been a DELL customer for a long time and own Inspiron notebook and several Dimension PCs and my latest purchase is a P2.4GHz Studio 17 with 4GB RAM, Vista Home Premium, 1920 x 1200 WLED, 250GB HD, etc. The laptop arrived with absolutely NO SOUND.

I'm very experienced with Windows XP PRO troubleshooting and tweaking and this is my very first Vista experience. All the eye candy and no sound and no amount of XP experience is able to fix this - very frustrating!

I have tried removing sound drivers and have it re-installed to no avail. I have also Googled and searched this forum and so far only found users with sound problems - not completely no sound. Has anyone else had encountered this before and had it fixed without having to return to DELL? I have also tried plugging in a head set and no sound either. No automatic pop-up whatsoever with either one of the "headphone" socket.

Jan Shim

 

Hey Shim,

Is it just your laptop speakers? Have you tried plugging in some headphones and seeing if those work? If so, try going to "control panel" > "sound" > and then make sure that your desired device (speakers) is enabled by looking for the green check mark next to it. If it is not, click the "properties" button and enable it.

 

Hi David,

There's no sound from both the laptop speakers and headset jacks. Everywhere I checked that's sound related seems "OK" and the green tick is also visible. I have also unchecked "exclusive mode" and that has changed nothing. Volume is enabled and at 70% .. "Speakers/Headphones is checked as default - IDT High Definition Audio CODEC Working"

Windows Media Player plays all my MP3 "properly" .. just no sound at all. The entire laptop is quiet.

 

I asked a much more knowledgable family member about this and he said to check the following: check "device manager" and make sure that Vista recognizes your "IDT High Definition CODEC" and is ENABLED, install all necessary drivers, and then simply make sure that the volume isn't accidently muted by looking in the sound mixer.

But it sounds like you really know your stuff and have probably done all this and more. Consequently, you might have to come to the realization that the problem is hardware related and you need to call tech support to try and get this resolved.

On a side note, I recently received my Studio 1735 and had sound straight out of the box. Sorry to hear about your problems and hope that this gets resolved ASAP for you.

 

I have the Studio 17 too. Did you check and see if you have the "speaker symbol" in the right lower toolbar? If you do it should have the green curved bars coming off of it too which indicates sound volume.

 

I had no sound coming from my Studio 17 at all either. I fixed it by downloading the "latest" IDT drivers from the Dell Support web site.

The URL I used was:

http://support.dell.com/support/top...plash?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~mode=popup&file=261629

Hope this helps.

NicB

 

Just purchased a Dell Studio 1735 - same issue. No luck with Dell Support

 

Hey, I am experiencing the same problem with my 1535. Dell installed new drivers, updated BIOS, and had me do a factory reset. No go, unfortunately.

I was on hold with Dell for 45 minutes, and when I finally got a hold of someone, they hung up on me! I got online with their tech support chat (about a 20 minute wait) and they finally told me that the motherboard needs to be replaced. I figured as much. So, long story short, I will hear from Dell in the next 2-3 business days to set up an appointment to have a technician come out with a new motherboard. There was definitely no way I was sending it back for repairs and be computer-less for another 3 weeks

Save yourself the trouble and go with the Dell chat. It was far easier to communicate with them, and to solve the problem.

Hope I've given you some insight into the problem!

 

I just received my Studio 17 yesterday and have the same issue... (I wonder if they got a bad batch of motherboards). Anyhow - after spending a long time with Dell through the online chat support while they tested everything, they also concluded that the motherboard would need to be replaced and will be sending out a technician.

 

Follow up:

The audio connectors weren't even plugged in when the technician opened up the laptop. One of the connectors was also broken on the motherboard... so he replaced the entire motherboard and audio add-in. Seems to work now.

 

I just got a Studio 17 and today is the first day I have used it. The sound seemed to be working fine at first, but I quickly learned that when I shut the lid, the sound would stop working and iTunes would not play any songs at all. Instead of sitting on the phone with Dell support for hours, I used this handy dandy "Dell Support Chat" feature, which is wonderful. I waited only about 10 minutes to talk to a technician and within 15 minutes, my problem was fixed. The technician was able to remotely access my computer and un-install then re-install the audio driver, which was causing the problem.

If anyone else has this problem, I highly recommend trying to Dell Support chat feature. It is very user-friendly and beats sitting on the phone forever

 

I'm having a similar problem with my Studio 1535. I got it, the sound worked ok - I noticed right out of the box it had a "tinny" sound when playing a CD.

I thought it was because the speakers are up toward the monitor, instead of pointing toward the listener like on the Inspirion models. Anyway, I'd try to adjust the volume to no effect. Very glitchy. For 2 days everything seemed ok - now NO SOUND. It suddenly the sound card stopped working yesterday. I haven't had this computer but for maybe 2 weeks. I went online and downloaded the new drivers but to no avail. Basically, I have a Studio on hand with no modem and no sound card.

Troubleshooting is a major pain on Vista, but I managed to tinker around enough to get a "corrupted sound card" message. I'm planning to send it back to Dell for a refund. The Studio has too many design flaws. On top of this, mine came with a Verizon wireless broadband card - guess what? No Verizon service in my area.

I am so disappointed in the Studio, and the thing is - I LOVE my Inspirion. I have an E1505 and it's built like a tank! The only reason I sprang for a new comp is because the ribbon cable is going out on the Inspirion. I thought I'd be doing myself a favor by going one up with Dell. (Inspirion is the lower end of their product line.) However, after the combined experience of the Dell + Vista, I do believe I'll be going straight out to get a MAC. At least until Windows admits Vista is a total joke and does one better.

 

I was told that hte Studios are the new models so they are still workign out all of the glitches.. sound being apparently a big one with a lot of people.. nto sure if that elps but it made me feel better to know that my machine isnt crap per say...lol it is just new and has to be put through the trials and tribulations to get the kinks out...