New
#11
The High Definition Audio Device should not be there and could be causing the problem. Disable that in the Device Manager then restart the PC and see if anything changes.
Realtek HD Audio not recognizing speakers.
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New #12
I did that and the other HDMI device disappeared. (which I believe is the graphics card?)
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New #13
The graphics card should have drivers from the card vendor, not use the generic Windows drivers. If you have a ATI Radeon card, get the drivers from AMD. If its an NVIDIA card get them from NVIDIA.
The Realtek "HDMI" is still a problem. I suspect there is more problems than just the sound problem.
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New #14
What other problems would there be? I haven't noticed any other problems.
The Realtek HDMI out is obviously the onboard sound going through the motherboard's HDMI out port. I don't think this is transferred through the Graphics card but I could be wrong.
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New #15
That could be since this has a motherboard HDMI output. Are you actually using that connection? Generally, if there is a cable plugged into the HDMI it automatically becomes the Default audio playback device. However, usually you can manually switch the audio to the "speakers".
Although it should work OK with Windows 7, since Dell does not officially support Win 7 on this, there could be some driver issues. There could also be a Windows issue that is causing your problem and not the actual hardware.
Whether a separate sound card would fix the problem ??? If you install a separate sound card, you will have to disable the Integrated (RealTek) audio in the BIOS (F2 - Setup) and that will apparently also disable your HDMI audio (if you are using this). If the RealTek was not disabled in the BIOS it could (and many times does) conflict with the other audio device and neither works.
If it worked OK at one time, I see two possibilites to fix it and both are not pretty. #1 is to buy a sound card (although you could buy an inexpensive one and have as good a quality audio as the integrated and if it didn't work you wouldn't be out much). #2 is a complete, clean reinstall (but no guarantee that this will fix it if the RealTek audio has a hardware problem).
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New #16
No I don't use the MB HDMI. I use the one on the Graphics card for my second monitor but not for sound.
It seems odd that it would be a Windows issue since I've had Windows 7 on here since the day it came out and it's worked swimmingly. I'm leaning toward solution #1 right now. The onboard sound has always been just adequate, but never stellar, so it may be time for an upgrade. I have no real interest in doing a reinstall if I can't guarantee that would fix the issue. I've had hardware issues with this computer before; Dell's semi-cheap parts tend to fail quicker than they should.
Any good soundcards for good prices these days? :)
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New #17
You can use a PCI or a PCIexpress sound card.
Depends on what price range you are in. A nice PCI sound card is the HT Omega "Striker 7.1" that is available from www.newegg.com and probably others. HT Omega also makes PCIex cards. Then there are the SoundBlaster Xfi cards and there is ASUS Xonar sound card that seems to be popular.
I think you are OK with the front panel headphone/mic connection. It looks like a standard connector in the Studio 540 that you have.
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New #18
Really I want to spend as little as possible without getting something crappy. I'm a musician so sound quality is important, but I don't really do sound production with this computer. I also only use 2.1 speakers so I don't need to overkill on surround sound. I'll do some research and find a good one.
Thanks for your help fireberd!
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New #19
I'm also a musician and have a recording studio using Sonar X1 software.
In my old DAW PC, I used a Striker 7.1 sound card as it worked great and didn't interfere with my studio recording interface equipment. I had a SoundBlaster and it did interfere (the Striker 7.1 replaced the SoundBlaster).
I don't know what is available in the "under $50" range for sound cards that are fully Windows 7 compatible.
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