Dell VGA driver missing

When I installed the dell driver you gave me, nothing happened. It installed and it appeared to be the same as before - all the drivers still seem to be installed but no audio. When I try the driver form the second link, a pop-up just tells me that it's not the correct driver, cannot install it. I am lost, the only thing I know is that the DirectX sound test is failing at step 3, I'm searching on the internet but I still don't know how to fix it. :(

Here's some more info: The Sounds and Audio Devices Properties states that there is "No Audio Device" and when I try to open a file in Windows Media Player, a pop-up appears, stating, "Windows Media Player cannot play the file because there is a problem with your sound device. There may not be a sound device installed on your computer, it may be in use by another program, or it may not be functioning properly."
 
Last edited:
Okay, I uninstalled the audio driver, but there is another program, "High Definition Audio Driver Package - KB835221", when I try to uninstall this, is gives me this message: "This program removes Windows XP KB835221WXP and restores your previous configuration". Should I uninstall this as well?

I will leave it alone for now and try to install the driver you suggested.

*Okay, I installed the driver you suggested, it went through the installation, but it's like it makes no difference, I click finish at the end and it's like nothing happened - still no sound. During installation, a box comes up saying "found new hardware" and then I gives me two options, I forget what they are (something like "search for file automatically", and "get files from CD" - I don't really know, I just select the first one), it searches for some files, finds it, and then continues and finishes.
 
Last edited:
The kb835221 is the driver for the microsoft uaa bus driver for high definition audio. That must be installed before you can install the actual sound driver or it won't work properly. However, there are some drivers installs that will do both the uaa driver and the actual sound driver. Maybe you are having some sort of corruption. Try uninstalling the whole package and then reinstalling the last driver i linked you too.
 
Okay, I uninstalled everything and then tried to installed the driver from the last link you gave me, it gives me the "has not passed Windows Logo testing" pop-up and I click continue. Then right before it finished a pop-up comes up and says "Please insert the Compact Disc labeled 'SigmaTel High Definition Audio WDM Driver Disk' into your CD-ROM drive(F:) and then click OK". I click OK anyways even though I don't have any disk. Another window pops up saying "Files Needed" and gives me the option to search for them, specifically it says search for the file "sthda.sys" on the disk. I do a search for this file and it finds 7 of them all in different locations on the (C:) drive. What am I supposed to do, just select one of them and continue the installation? Thanks!

* I will upload some screen-shots in a second
>http://arkdesigns.ca/p1.jpg
>http://arkdesigns.ca/p2.jpg
 
Last edited:
i mean on the file if you select properties it will tell you the day and time the file was downloaded, then you will be able to choose from you most recent download,
id imagine 2008 is the last driver release from dell
but you will want to choose the most recent downloaded file that johnb suggested

you can also right click and choose view then details it will also show the date and time of the download that way
 
Last edited:
Okay, I finished the installation with the most recent file (there was 3 of them from today, so I just looked at the time and picked the most recent one). I restarted the computer too, device manager shows all drivers are installed but still no sound. I tried safe mode too to see if it made any difference but it didn't.
I'm starting to think there is some hardware issue or corrupt files somewhere that we can't locate.

I was thinking of just reformatting the HDD and installing all the files and drivers on it - if it still doesn't work then it's probably a hardware issue, the laptop is about 3 years old I think, so it's a possibility.

* I found this article on the web, I tried doing what it suggested (with the system.ini file), but the system.ini file on the laptop didn't have some of the tags (like [boot]). I tried it anyways but it didn't do anything, could it be the system.ini file? Or should I just reformat the HDD?

I think I'm (and probably you too) done trying to troubleshoot/ solve this problem. Thanks for all the help though!
 
Last edited:
Well, hopefully you can get it working. Like I said before, I put XP on a 1521 a few years ago so i know it works, just have to find the right driver.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top