[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

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.