Windows 7: Sound trouble, could be a memory issue? (Dell Inspiron 1545)

Hello everyone,

Recently I've restored my Windows 7 installation using the original install image on the computer.
Since then my sound is not working properly - once every few seconds it jumps and makes weird noises.

I've tried updating the sound card drivers, and/or installing new codecs, but to no avail.
This happens with every music/video file on my computer and also when playing online content. The problem remains with any music/video player (tested WMP, Winamp, VLC, etc...), with speakers or headphones.



A few days ago a friend of mine suggested this might be caused due to a memory issue.
Something about memory paths getting rewired in the wrong way.
I've also noticed that when this happens my mouse pointer is sort of stuck.

If anyone has had this problem and/or knows how to fix it, I'd love to know about it...

Appreciate your help,
Gilad.

When you restored, did you do it with the "F8" Dell Recovery Partition on the hard drive? Or did you do it manually with discs?

One issue we see on the Dell user forum is that the Dell sound driver must be used for proper operation.

Outdated device drivers such as video can also cause this.

Check the Dell downloads HERE

restored with the recovery partition (it was called "X")

Indeed, I downloaded the up-to-date drivers from Dell's website in your link.

I will try downloading video drivers as well, and report back.

Thanks.

I don't know what the "x" is. F8 is used to access the Dell Recovery Partiton on Vista/Win 7 systems.

Well, I think 'x' is just the name of the partition (like the standard 'c' for the main partition)...

Anyway, regarding the video drivers:
First, I should note that when listing the files available for my specific service tag, there are no files in the video category.
For Inspiron 1545 in general, there are 4 available files. Two of them apply to 'Digital TV Receiver DVBT-01' (not relevant). There is also an ATI-driver which I tried to install, and it had no effect. And the last file is an Intel driver which applies to 'GM45 Video' and the its installation fails because 'I don't have the required hardware specifications'.

Meanwhile I also downloaded and installed the chipset and bios drivers listed there, but still there is no change.

What should I do next? (For now I'm avoiding re-restore, because it's quite a hassle to backup the files)

Windows Memory Diagnostics Tool hadn't detected any problems.

Posting on the Dell community forum/Laptop Audio would be the best place to post. There are people there that are more familiar with the Laptops. I do a lot of support on the Dell forum but mostly desktops.

Laptop - Dell Community

OK, thank you. If I ever find the solution I'll be sure to post it here for future reference.
Gilad.

Hi all,

After failing to find a solution to the sound problem, I resorted to restoring the original system image again.
This time the first thing I did after the restoration was to check the sound, and it worked!
That was about a week ago, and only today did I get around to installing some windows updates.
I installed just a few at a time, and after each update I rechecked the sound.
The last update (saving it to last because I suspected a memory issue) was: "Intel - Storage - Intel(R) ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller"
size: 6.8 MB
released in: June 2011
It installed something called "Intel Rapid Storage", and then the sound went rogue again.
So I restored the system to just before this update, and voilà, the sound is back to normal.

Hope this might help anyone suffering from the same problem.
Cheers,
Gilad.