Updated Desktop - No Audio

Channel Hopper

Channel Hopper

Suffering fools, so you don't have to.
Staff member
My Satellite Setup
A little less analogue, and a lot more crap.
My Location
UK
The Optiplex 745 has been relegated (I think) , with the exception of the hard-drive, which has been slipped into the replacement Gx620 that has been sitting in the corner for the past three years.

The Dell motherboard has happily accepted the changeover, and the machine is probably three times faster, with the exception of audio, which is non existent.

The 620 appears to be Vista era, meaning the XP o/s is not happy at accepting the drivers I have found that are supposedly the correct ones for this audio chipset.

Has anyone used this Dell case before now on an WinXP, or will I finally have to take the plunge into the 21st century with a new operating system?
 
Found the dell site, for GX620 support:
Code: 
http://www.dell.com/support/home/uk/en/ukbsdt1/product-support/product/optiplex-gx620/drivers
Are you running Windows Vista on it, or a different operating system?
What does it say in Device Manager? Is there a driver listed?
 
Been there a number of times. The audio chipset is analogue and different to that of the 745. Dell only started with the motherboard post XP and so they did not provide backward compatibility, as far as I have checked.

All the data I use daily is locked in the hard drive , including all the office programming stuff. Moving up from the current operating system is going to be more trouble than not getting sound, but it would be good to know if it can be done.

I recall trying a fresh XP install in the machine when I first got her, but cannot remember if I tried the audio side of things.
 
The audio isnt disabled in the bios is it?

Stick an old pci audio card in it.
 
Can you please post the motherboard make/model number, you usually get the information, on boot up, but as Analoguesat stated you should be able to get a cheap, or free, audio PCI card.
 
Analoguesat said:
The audio isnt disabled in the bios is it?

Stick an old pci audio card in it.
Click to expand...

First thing I checked, integrated audio is enabled, The driver is missing/not installed (Code 28 I think). System shows exclamation mark next to multimedia audio and I was going to remove the device next and see if it kicks into operation.

It would be difficult to add anything else since both slots are taken up , wifi card and video.
 
Did you try Slimdrivers ? i sometimes have a bit of luck when nothing else works .

If all else fails you can get a usb audio plug .
 
Do you know the R number of the drivers, I have a tower Optiplex GX 620 on XP but am unsure what bit of the drivers you need, what ever bit it is is there somewhere to upload it to as they are all 80meg plus

E.g. R218712 is dated 2011 but contains many chipset drivers for sound and vision but within that there is an HD audio sub folder which even when zipped up is nearly 5mb which I am unable to load here
 
Have just revisited this from another angle CH, my sound is working on my GX 620 on XP, it is using Soundmax driver, which is R 97809 again this is 10Mb but I could email if you give me an address
 
I'll have a look with Belarc in a few minutes to see exactly what is on the motherboard.

I had tried three drivers that Dell suggest are compatible, but only with Vista.

It is somewhat problematic when Dell also have a 'service code' GX620 that relates to an entirely different desktop , meaning search engines get bogged down.
 
I usually go to the motherboard manufacturers website, for any onboard drivers.
If you can stop yourt PC, by hitting the pause key, on boot up, you ahould see the motherboard number, on the bottom left of the screen, if you don't already have that information.
 
Mickha said:
I usually go to the motherboard manufacturers website, for any onboard drivers.
If you can stop yourt PC, by hitting the pause key, on boot up, you ahould see the motherboard number, on the bottom left of the screen, if you don't already have that information.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but I'm a bit deeper into the problem.

Topper is correct, the Dell audio files for the particular model, R97809, which I have tried yesterday (as well as R55144 and 98241).

There is an additional folder within this for XP installs - SMAXWDM, however it will not install automatically, and even if pointed at specifically in the 'prefer to install from advanced location' it won't. Error occurred during install, insufficient resources.

Unless I am in safe mode , in which case it will, and the speaker icon is now in the lower right , with the SoundMax drivers where they should be, no exclamation marks.

But still no audio ........
 
I guess you don't have the hardware install disks that came with that PC?

If not then I have had good luck with a program called "Driver Doctor" it will detect your OS and download what may be missing.

Code: 
http://www.driverupdate.net/lp/1/?p2=^SW2^xdm056&gclid=Cj0KEQiA-MPCBRCZ0q23tPGm6_8BEiQAgw_bAnGZzX3jB_-mUKsgrtT5mNM19KHvjY9QMlIAkbry4YcaAsUx8P8HAQ
 
Channel Hopper said:
I'll have a look with Belarc in a few minutes to see exactly what is on the motherboard.
Click to expand...
Or you could just look up the Device Instance Id in Device Manager.
Code: 
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-find-unknown-device-drivers-by-their-vendor-device-id/
 
battenfan said:
Or you could just look up the Device Instance Id in Device Manager.
Code: 
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-find-unknown-device-drivers-by-their-vendor-device-id/
Click to expand...

Not if the device is invisible to the operating system.
 
Still no luck. I'm now wondering if the audio part of the motherboard is u/s. It might explain why it was in the skip.
 
I now have audio circuit within the list and no exclamation mark, so the drivers are also happy, but no sound from anywhere,
 
If XP I assume you have SP 3 installed?
 
I have experienced this problem before, if you load the wrong drivers, even though they're similar, it will show up as installed but the audio driver wont work.
I would still try the motherboard manufacturers website, to see if they have an archive, of old drivers.
 
Back
Top