Inspiron 8200 chronic audio problems

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I am having an ongoing problem with the audio on my Inspiron 8200.

Some time ago, I noticed lack of sound upon reboot. After searching around I
found that the there was a problem installing the audio driver. I found some
references to this issue and that it might be solved by uninstalling the
Crystal WDM Audio Codec driver and then re-scanning for hardware changes.
Although inconvenient (since it needed to be repeated after each reboot)
this worked for me for awhile.

More recently, I began experiencing intermittent complete system lockup
(system unresponsive to mouse movement or keyboard interaction, display not
updating, no disk activity) which required powering the system down and
bringing it back up to make it usable again. Sometimes, however, the system
would lock up while booting windows (XP service pack 2). After many days of
struggling with this problem, I found that the only way to boot my system
and keep it running was to boot into safe mode, disable the audio driver,
and then boot normally. If I try to enable the audio driver, the system will
eventually lock up (usually within a few minutes after enabling it).

The driver I am using is 6.13.10.4159 dated 8/5/2002. When installed
properly (and when the system isn't locked up), the sound seems to work
perfectly fine. Can this be a hardware problem? If so, do I have to replace
the whole system board?

Is it worth trying the Intel driver? If so, how do I get back to it now that
the Crystal driver is installed? XP doesn't seem to find it on my system
even though it was originally used when I re-installed the OS upon getting a
new disk drive.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Sister Gerdes" <mart1914@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:YAMEe.21894$Wt3.14107@bignews3.bellsouth.net...
>I am having an ongoing problem with the audio on my Inspiron 8200.
>
> Some time ago, I noticed lack of sound upon reboot. After searching around
> I found that the there was a problem installing the audio driver. I found
> some references to this issue and that it might be solved by uninstalling
> the Crystal WDM Audio Codec driver and then re-scanning for hardware
> changes. Although inconvenient (since it needed to be repeated after each
> reboot) this worked for me for awhile.
>
> More recently, I began experiencing intermittent complete system lockup
> (system unresponsive to mouse movement or keyboard interaction, display
> not updating, no disk activity) which required powering the system down
> and bringing it back up to make it usable again. Sometimes, however, the
> system would lock up while booting windows (XP service pack 2). After many
> days of struggling with this problem, I found that the only way to boot my
> system and keep it running was to boot into safe mode, disable the audio
> driver, and then boot normally. If I try to enable the audio driver, the
> system will eventually lock up (usually within a few minutes after
> enabling it).
>
> The driver I am using is 6.13.10.4159 dated 8/5/2002. When installed
> properly (and when the system isn't locked up), the sound seems to work
> perfectly fine. Can this be a hardware problem? If so, do I have to
> replace the whole system board?
>
> Is it worth trying the Intel driver? If so, how do I get back to it now
> that the Crystal driver is installed? XP doesn't seem to find it on my
> system even though it was originally used when I re-installed the OS upon
> getting a new disk drive.
>
>
>

It could be either a software or hardware problem. I'm not sure about your
reference to the "Intel driver". While your system may indeed have need of
an Intel chipset driver, that shouldn't be responsible for ultimately either
installing the Crystal audio driver from Dell or from Windows Update. (I'd
recommend that you use and stay with the Dell version of that driver.)

Since this began occuring "some time ago", it's probably hard to remember
what (if any) software changes may have been made to the system that could
be directly or indirectly causing the lockup. (Hardware changes as well
PCMCIA cards or externals).

Additionally, yes, it *could* be that the onboard sound is going bad, which
would mean a system board replacement.

BUT - before I reached that conclusion, I'd want to back up all of my data
and try a fresh Windows install , Intel chipset driver install (if needed)
and then the (Dell) Crystal drivers to see if the symptom persists *before*
any number of applications are added.

The idea being that if the symptom(s) persist on a clean install of Windows,
then the problem is almost surely hardware in nature.....

Not sure that helps....


Stew

 

[therogon]

I've been having the same problem with my inspiron for years with almost no luck. Sometimes the sound comes back by itself but most of the time its gone. So far I've found no good solution. I removed my dial up modem because it was causing problems with conflicting IRQ assignments, so you might try this too, when the card is working look in your hardware manager and sort devices by resource, and find your audio controller under IRQ and check it's number, then see if something else is using it when it isn't working, because some people have said that might be the problem. When my sound DOES work, though, it is using the intel drivers, I know what you are talking about, even if the other person doesn't, so track those down, though I'm pretty sure they are automatically installed by Windows or from your driver disk if you even have that still. If you haven't scrapped the laptop, this link looks promising: Intel Reinstall. Good luck. I'm still fighting this thing.