Windows 7: [Dell] Realtek HD Audio won't work with Windows 7 x64 Pro

Just wanted to relay a little experince I had with a refurbished Dell unit here at work. I ordered a Dell Studio 540 refurb and when it arrived I noticed the analog inputs/outputs weren't recognized in the realtek audio manager. It wouldn't notice any devices plugged into either the front or the back panel. It did recognize the HDMI and Digital inputs.

I uninstalled drivers, installed three different drivers with out any luck. Each time, I uninstalled the device, rebooted, installed the drivers, and rebooted again. These drivers were the latest Dell drivers for Windows 7 x64, Realtek drivers for Windows 7 x64, and even the Realtek Vista x64 just in case. After using Dell tech support (they did exactly what I had already done), they sent out a tech to replace my motherboard.

The tech installs the moterboard, boots up the machine (after configuring the cmos) and we notice the analog jacks are now showing in the Realek Audio Manager. Ok we're making progress. We plug in the speakers in the rear jack, the little pop up says a device is plugged in. Seems to be working. We play some audio, and nothing. We plug in my earbuds into the front jack, pop up says they are plugged in, green audio jack is no longer greyed out in Audio Manager, but still no sound.

Now I'm pissed, this is a new motherboard. I start uninstalling the drivers, and install from a new download from Dell. After the reboot, the pop ups start going crazy, the system thinks there are audio devices plugged in all jacks. The tech leaves, since he can only install the hardware, and I have to wipe the drive and install fresh just in case there was a problem with the chipset talking to the old install of Windows 7.

Format, install new copy of Windows 7, install latest drivers, same results. Contact Dell support, they do the same things again, and determine that I need a new system. So now I have to wait 3-4 weeks without audio, which sucks.

Anyone want to chime in here and tell me I missed something?

System specs to the left obviously

Hollywood, how did you resolve this? Did the new system work? I'm seeing the exact same issues with my refurb (wonder if I got your old box, sigh).

Thanks,
Adam

I do a lot of support on the Dell users forum. Refurb's can be a returned system that a customer did not like, one with a problem that is supposed to be taken care of before resale or a new system that the order was cancelled.

The first thing, reinstall the Dell sound drivers, not drivers that Windows installs or even the sound chip manufacturers drivers.

If you are not getting ANY sound from either the front panel headset jack or the rear GREEN speaker jack, to to the Control Panel/Hardware and Sound/Sound Panel. In the playback panel make sure your speakers are set as the default playback device. If you have an HDMI output it could be set for the HDMI audio out which is not what you want for computer speakers or headphones.

Edit/Added, you can also try uninstalling the sound in the Device Manager (DO NOT also uninstall the drivers) then restart the PC and when Windows starts it will detect and reinstall the sound. If there was a status corruption with the sound this will fix that.

Nope the issue was never resolved, it just looks like that sound board will not work with Win 7 x64. They ended up sending me a newer Studio system with an i7 in it and 8GB of RAM, so I was very happy. Twice the value of my original purchase.

I tried every trick in the book to get this to work, and it just wouldn't.

I had done everything that Hollyw00d had gone though, reinstalled drivers directly from Dell website, used default drivers after removing the old drivers, installing drivers from Intel's website (also their HDMI drivers as well), as well as used the latest drivers directly from RealTek's website. And nothing helped -- I was preparing myself for hours of Dell support followed by motherboard replacement. For the longest time, the speakers and headphones were not even detected as being plugged in. Finally, I read somewhere to run "Windows Update", which I thought I had set up to run automatically. It found 2 recommended updates and 2 optional. One of the optional was for RealTek (not sure if it was for the network card or audio -- I think I use RealTek for both). Updates seemed to process without problem, but I don't remember it prompting me to reboot. I ended up rebooting for some other reason (perhaps one of the seemingly daily Adobe Acrobat updates, sigh), and noticed windows installing some updates during the shutdown process. Apparently, that did the trick, because as of this morning, I have sound coming out of the headphones and rear speakers (although speaker sound is configured to be muted when headphones are plugged in). So, all in all, it sounds like I'm okay now. I had tested HDMI audio, and that seemed to always work as expected, so I never had an issue with that as far as I can tell. My advice to anyone with audio issues on the Studio 540, make sure you have the latest drivers and latest Windows7 updates -- and reboot after updates are installed in case they are marked for "delayed install" at shutdown. Thanks fireberd and Hollyw00d for taking the time to respond.

Adam

Guess, I was premature in my previous update. After a subsequent reboot, the audio disappeared again. Called Dell tech support and after they tried re-installing the audio drivers themselves, they ordered a new motherboard and shipped it to a local installer who swapped it out this morning. So far, so good. It appears the motherboards that ship with the 540's are somewhat flaky.

Sounds like Dell took care of the problem. However, as many are going to the Integrated (on the motherboard) audio chip, if it has a problem the only option is to replace the motherboard. On the other hand if you have a separate sound card and it goes bad you only have to replace the sound card.

Hey guys, I wanted to let you know that I had this same problem and fixed it. I went to the Dell website and downloaded the latest Realtek Windows 7 drivers. Be careful, because the default is for Windows XP. Ran the installer, rebooted and now I have rear channels working perfectly.