Hi Mintywhite forum people,

I have what seems to be an un-fixable "no sound" problem on a Windows Vista computer, a Dell Inspiron 531 that my mom has had since 2007.

I'm a Mac person, and I'm trying to at least just bring the sound back on this machine because that is one of the only things my old mom enjoys anymore. I've been at this computer on a so-called vacation while visiting my mom for one month today... the sound disappeared on 8/29/2010.

As a Mac user in the graphic arts industry, I never thought I'd have to become a PC IT guy on four different Windows forums, browsing Microsoft tech websites, but here I am.

I have run a successful Dell PSA diagnostic test built in to this computer that tests the sound board and the speakers... it plays the analog test song in both channels on both speakers perfectly... I heard it with my own ears... so I know the sound board and the speakers are working well... so the hardware is not an issue.

I updated the BIOS early on after in this safari when the problem started to see if that was an issue, instructed by one of the Microsoft techs who spent so much time on the phone with me while mounted to my desktop... that did not fix it.

I've run the "sfc /scannow" command quite a few times, and a couple of times it said it fixed a few things but most of the time it says, "no problems found"... ha!

The In-place upgrade attempts, 2 of them, failed both times... the 2nd time it seemed to finish in the 4th stage and then bombed and went into a comma that took everything, including paramedics, CPR, defibulator, the "fix my computer" process from the Vista installation disk, start-up repairs, restore points, and then some... somehow it finally came back, but still with no sound.

This computer has a sound card built in, but something in the Vista system software is keeping the motherboard from recognizing the sound board... that is what one of the MS techs was able to tell from a CBS.log that I created and sent to him.

One of the MS techs said they had the Microsoft lab techs in Seattle working on this case to try to resolve it... it is like lab scientists working on a faulty lawnmower.

This problem, I believe, has something to do with an auto update installation the day before the problems started... this computer lost the function of 3 different drivers that day after a CAPICOM update, and failed multiple driver updates that Vista did in the background while my mom was just reading filtered emails... no viruses or malware are on this machine, it has had several complete scans, one of them just last night... it is as clean as a bio lab from viruses or malware.

By the time I discovered the Restore Point function a week after this started in early September, it was too many days beyond the day that the problem started to go back that far... this could have been the first thing MS techs suggested, but they did not.

This machine lost the function of the NVIDIA Display Adapter driver, showing as corrupt and now is disabled to avoid start-up conflicts, so if my mom played video games on this machine, it would be screwed up, but otherwise, it only affects the screensaver... she doesn't play any games.

It has lost the sound function which is the Realtek HD Audio driver... that is the main thing I've been trying to get fixed... all audio driver versions have been attempted, failed, succeeded, removed, un-installed, re-installed and that still did nothing. The Realtek driver now shows as okay, with no yellow corruption road sign, but says, "no drivers are installed for this device" in the properties panel.

I've tried every version of the audio driver installer, 3 from Dell, 3 from Realtek, re-installing through the device properties panel, rollback is grayed out, and through the "add hardware process" in the control panel.

Also the Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator driver is corrupt too... that is not affecting my mom's use... she just wants her sound back.

This is a Dell Inspiron 531 with a 2 GHZ processor, 1 GB of RAM and a "Nvidia integrated video (DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.9 Graphics Processing Unit)". I don't know how to tell what kind of sound card it has in it... it is not published in the instruction manual or by entering the tag number on the Dell website... only the info above is what I can find.

But like I said above, I have run a successful Dell PSA diagnostic test built in to this computer's firmware that tests everything, including the sound board and the speakers... it plays the analog test song in both channels on both speakers perfectly.

This machine is schizophrenic from one day to the next with random error messages, service failures notices and Internet Explorer 7 has now stopped working all together so I installed Firefox 3.6, which seems to be far superior and much faster than IE 7 anyway.

I always get "superfetch has stopped" messages over and over when it will boot, along with other random service failure messages... one day it won't start up at all and it seems to be a goner, then will run "start-up fix", and maybe start, maybe not until the 7th or 8th try... then it'll run for 12 hours without even a hick-up.

But today it started the first time and has not showed one error message... it does seem that using Firefox is far more trouble free than the much slower and quirkier IE 7... go figure!

This machine failed an SP1 update months ago according to the auto update history log. My mom just drives it to the store on Sundays and hardly uses it... meanwhile it is self destructing in the background while an unsuspecting novice user is just listening to music, though not anymore, and checking emails... her internet provider has a junk mail filter that quarantines all suspected viruses and junk mail so it never ever reaches her inbox.

I've tried the little "Fix it" programs for sound and the diagnostic program that Microsoft has for download... those won't even finish installing Powershell before they stop and give a failure notice. Nothing with the Microsoft name seems to install successfully on this computer.

Yet I've installed the Google Maps browser plug in, Malwarebytes, Adobe Acrobat and Flash updates and the ESET NOD32 online virus scanner, all successfully and they work perfectly... it is just Microsoft updates and anything with their name on it that seems to fail or make things worse.

The experts with Microsoft have given up and one of the MS tech managers in India that I was dealing with on the phone took pity on me and has sent a Windows 7 ULT full install disk, so at least I don't have to start all over with a Vista nightmare... so a clean install is what I'm looking at... but that concerns me too if it fails.

My mom will have no computer at all and I'll just have to put out the cash for a new Mac... a more trouble free machine and OS, but just the thought of the cost and the additional set-up time is daunting.

Over the past month I have collected over a hundred different screenshots of error messages, crash panels, failed installation windows, etc. and I made a collage of all of them and sent it to the techs in India and China that I've been dealing with... I think I'll try to put it up on ebay to try to recoup some cash for all the time, over 40 hours in the last month, trying to resolve just the sound issue.

I believe Microsoft spends more money paying people to write error message phrases than they pay their software programmers.

I was just trying to find out if there were any last ditch things I could do to save this OS, get the sound back, and not have to start from scratch with a clean install, since it would be with Windows 7, that is somewhat uncharted territory for anyone, let alone a Mac user like me, or my mom who just drives her computer to the store on Sundays and never hardly uses it but for email and a little music, which is now gone.

I did at least find a nice starters guide manual on Mintywhite.com that is quite extensive in showing Windows 7 installation procedures, but I can't read this PDF while I'm installing the software on the computer. Microsoft should offer these kinds of instruction manual e-book downloads, but that makes too much sense.

I considered Norton Tools, but someone on their forum doubted that it would fix these problems.

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks,

numetro

pretty much interesting , well 1st of all what i do recommend is a clean format for your machine , or a recovery , save your data on an external hard drive and make a recovery , from dell recovery discs , they should come along with the package !

The solution for your problem is :

1-Download Combofix from http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/anti-virus/combofix
2-Run combofix on your machine (32 Bit Only)
3-This software should remove and clean and recheck everything !!! and is totally guaranteed , tested by myself and many other people !
4-Go to the Dell website and download the sound drivers ! i already saved you from looking up which sound driver you have and i made the research here is the Link : http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?os=WLH&catid=3&dateid=-1&impid=-1&osl=EN&typeid=-1&formatid=-1&servicetag=&SystemID=INSP_DSKTP_D531&hidos=WLH&hidlang=en&TabIndex=&scanSupported=False&scanConsent=False and the sound driver's name is "ALC 888 HD AUDIO".

this will fix your issue for the moment ! cheers my friend !

Hi XXbizxX,

I guess since I wrote so much information, it is easy to have missed some of what I wrote.

Installing the driver from Dell was one of the first things I tried... Dell actually has 4 different versions of the Realtek HD audio driver available on their website for download... 2 of them have 2007 publish dates, and the 2 newest ones have 2008 publish dates... all are ALC888 HD drivers.

The Realtek website has several available with very new publish dates.

Uninstalling, removing, deleting, re-installing, disabling, and enabling this driver were the first things I tried and then the MS tech tried while mounted to my desktop... the driver kept coming back as corrupt.

Out of nowhere a few days ago, I tried uninstalling it again through Control Panel<Programs<Uninstall, then uninstalling it through the driver panel itself in Device Manager, then since it re-installs itself after restart, which always fails, I just installed it again with the newest Realtek ALC888 drive download before a restart, and it installed correctly, returned the "Sound video and game controllers" category that it was originally under, and showed up as okay, with no yellow corruption road sign. But the sound ability did not return and the device panel says, "No drivers are installed for this device." in the "Device Status" field in the "Driver" tab.

As for combofix, I'm not sure if you missed what I wrote about anti-virus, but this computer has NOD32 and has had several online scans as well through ESET's online scanner to make sure the anti-virus defs. are up to date while scanning... it has no viruses or malware.

Isn't a clean format process offered on a Windows 7 installation disk?... isn't that how it then does a clean install? That is one question you could answer for me that would be much appreciated.

No amount of driver installations have fixed the problem... like I said, those were the easiest and earliest things we tried, and the most recent things I tried again to no avail.

I know when I write a lot of information about this, moderators and techs tend to miss much of what I write, but if I leave anything out, then they write back asking about things that I left out so my post wouldn't be so long.

If you respond again, and I really do appreciate your responses and suggestions, please re-read my original post to go over everything that I have done, tried, failed with and been through.

This is the 4th forum that I am on, over the course of one 31 days, having spent 15 hours or more on the phone with MS techs, 8 or so hours with them mounted to my desktop, 80 or so emails sent, 80 or so received, and maybe 50 or so hours of total time trying to fix this.

I'm looking at re-formatting the hard drive and starting all over with everything backed up to the D drive, and clean installing Windows 7 fresh, which I'm trying to avoid for fear of unknown installation and operation issues that I've read about, and I still have level 5 and level 6 techs and moderators telling me to re-install the driver, like it is a new idea.

I appreciate your input, and I'm still looking for anything that will fix the sound on this computer.

Thanks,

numetro

I'm totally with you on this one... if you've tried uninstallation and installation (again), over and over again, and nothing and no one seems to help, a fresh install is definitely the way to go. Back up everything you want to keep to an external drive and make a note of which programs you have installed (that you'd like to keep), pop in your Windows 7 DVD, and have at it. Go through the setup steps and select "Custom", select your partition, and install a fresh copy of Windows 7. *This will format this partition before installing - Make sure you have your backups!*

I know it's a little scary, but I've done it quite a number of times and haven't lost anything I wanted to keep. And true, you may lose *some* functionality depending on the model of your PC, but it's definitely better than having no sound. My laptop (Sony VAIO VGN-N130G) lost the functionality of the brightness controls by using the "FN" button in combination with F4/F5, but that was it. So yeah, it sounds like this ghost has haunted you long enough. Time to exorcise it

Chances are that when installation is complete Windows will automatically find the correct drivers for all of your hardware and install them for you - connect to the net and let Windows Update do the rest. When you're all finished report back and let us know how it went.

EDIT: I just read your entire first post - sorry you had to learn Windows this way! This definitely isn't the norm, however, one OS problem usually leads to another. If it makes you feel any better, I'm just as useless on Mac OS as you were on Windows a month ago. For heaven's sake, I was helping a friend fix wireless printing on his Mac last week and I didn't even know how to use Expose to get to the right window. I know. Sad. Installing Windows 7 will solve many of the problems you've been having in my opinion. I have yet to have the system crash on me (since January of 2009 - when I installed Windows 7 Beta.) And one more thing; installing Firefox was a good idea. IE is out of favor on this forum, and Google Chrome is another great browser - maybe the most popular with our contributors. Good luck!

Thanks Mike,

It's good to know someone actually reads a post before responding... your advice is encouraging.

There are Mac people and there are PC people... just like there are Nikon people and Canon people, and one can not convince the other of superiority. I've had people get mad at me because I use Nikon and Apple because they use Canon and Microsoft.

Years ago I was at dinner with some PC friends who I co-existed with quite well, with the exception of one guest who just wanted to argue and argue about PC superiority over Mac to prove me wrong in front of his other PC friends... I finally just said, "okay, don't shoot, you're right, I'm wrong!"... he hated me for the rest of that evening.

Thanks for the tip about Google Chrome too... I remember that they are up and comers with desktop software besides their amazing search engine and mapping technology. I installed the Google maps browser plug-in in IE 7 and Firefox and it is amazing.

Thanks again,

numetro

lool , well i actually like to work on MAC , more than Win OS ! , it's more exiting and interesting ! , windows have too many ways out , while MAC Ways are unique !

and about : thing .
honestly i didnt fully readed your post cause i was solving different matters at the same time , i only took head lines from it ! and i hope that your gonna format your computer and get on a clean Site again ... cheers !

Thanks XxBizxX,

Tomorrow is the day for the Windows 7 disk format and clean installation.

Thanks for the encouragement... I hope I can spend as much time on Mac forums as I have on 4 different PC forums in 31 days... but I know I'll never have to spend 50 hours on the phone and emailing Mac techs... I like Mac better too.

PCs have some amazing abilities, but one needs a full time PC IT guy to keep them running... mom's aren't usually computer technicians... they just want to do email and listen to a little music.

It's funny how agitated and bossy some of the moderators and techs are on the MS Answers forum... they seem more obsessed with moving peoples posts around in to different threads, merging threads together and reprimanding people for talking about the wrong topic on the wrong thread... more than they are interested in answering questions... whatever.

Here's a nifty tip...

Since there was no one with MS able to tell me where to get any e-book/PDF instruction manuals for Windows 7, I made a post on the MS Answers Forum and one nice guy replied with this link to a website that has 7 manuals to download, including 3 that are at least basic guides for Vista and Windows 7.

http://mintywhite.com/books/

Microsoft themselves should publish a section on their website like this, but that would make too much sense.

There are a bunch of other tech and how-to links on this site that I haven't yet explored... I never thought I would be roaming Microsoft tech sites, but here I am.

By looking at a few links on this website I can see the market that feeds the need that people have to fix broken Microsoft software.

It looks like someone named Rich Robinson publishes this... I guess he is quite the expert and web developer... what a great little site. You can find his personal section on his background, resumes, etc.

It is a little complicated to register to get the free e-book/PDF manuals... you click on a link for a book, then on the next page you enter your email address, then you receive an email confirming your registration, by which you then get their email newsletter each day that contains a new password to download the e-books. If the newsletter has already been sent out for that day, you click on a 2nd link in that email in order to receive another email with the password... then by clicking on a link in that 2nd email, you get to the page where you actually enter the password... then you can download the e-books... as easy as 1-2-3... 4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11...

Hint, the password seems to be the same every day, or it has been for the last 2 days... it is "mintywhiteBooks"... very sneaky.

For a minute there I thought this website was some kind of a decoy because on the "subscribe/instructions" page, linked below, where you enter your email address, there are 2 jpeg images that look like password fields and links, but they are not... I'm not sure what these are for... but I figured it out and was able to download these nice manuals and help books. The one on Windows 7, for a "pocket guide" it is quite complete for installations and customizing.

http://mintywhite.com/books/instructions/


Thanks,

numetro

i think other guys helpd u

well i am glad that you made up your mind about formating it , the topic is theoretically solved by now ..!

OFF TOPIC as for :

well rich started this website/forum in 2008 , he is a talented guy and smart as well , he made too many efforts in order to keep his web running , all appreciated though . !

as for the microsoft forums , honestly i never went there , and i really dont want to get there , i have my self trust and my own self experience in order to solve everything related to the technologie , i am not being cocky though ! am just humble , but the fact that microsoft mod's are acting like that is all for business purpose , merging topics within another topics is just to save time ! after all time is money my friend , and doing a thing for a $ purpose is an issue , while loving it is something else ! thank you

Hello XxBizxX, Mike and Uvais,

Here is a copy of an email that I sent earlier today to the MS techs after finally getting going again with Windows 7.
________________________________________________________________________________________________

It has been a strange week after trying to finally install Windows 7 and having it fail, indicating it was a defective installation disk.

When I tried to install W7 a week ago today, and had been trying to fix all the spiraling problems in Windows Vista for the previous 33 days or so, since 8/29/2010, it was a great disappointment to get the installation disk and have it fail.

I had been trying to mainly fix the no sound problem in Vista, installing failed Realtek drivers from every Dell and Realtek download pages, I think 6 various installers with different publish dates in all, and nothing would work.

Even Alok and Ashish, my two main MS techs, gave up after two failed in-place upgrade attempts, multiple fix-it program tries, multiple corrupt drivers besides the audio driver, around 50 error messages collected in screenshots, multiple ongoing service failure messages popping up constantly, crashing, computer commas, start-up repairs, restore points, Vista system disk “fix my computer” processes and general disaster and mayhem when it came to my mom trying to use her computer, and me trying to fix it.

I had been on 5 different “answers forums” first trying to fix Vista, then trying to make sure W7 would work on this computer... contrary to Dell’s website information, I found that W7 should work on this Inspiron 531 model.

Ashish had finally took pity on me and ordered me a Windows 7 ULT installer disk... after it arrived I was gravely disappointed to have it fail as a “defective media installer”.

Last Thursday night, after the W7 installation failure, I tried in desperation to reach Alok by phone since the installation department with MS phone support had nothing else to say except, “uh, you have a bad installer disk”. I spoke to 2 different MS installation experts and 3 different customer service people and finally got a guy who was able to leave Alok a message on the support tech exchange and Alok called me back.

I had spent so much time on the phone and email with Alok previously, not to mention Frank Xu and Candice Wang on email, and Ashish calling me, that at that time I wanted Alok’s input on the failed W7 installation. Since I had blanked out this hard drive after backing up important files to the D drive and to a DVD, I was not able to email anyone because there was no operating system to do anything... just a blank C drive.

Alok said he would call me back the next day, on Friday to make sure it was just a bad installation disk, and I appreciated that, though I was upset about one more failure with Microsoft Software... remember I’m a Mac guy, I love Macs, and up until today, I’ve always disliked Windows anything and everything Microsoft... accept maybe Windows XP was okay if I just had to use Windows to check email and check webpage production on a Windows machine to see how a page that I produced would appear in a Windows browser.

The next day, October 1st, Alok called and we went through a process that ran from the W7 installer disk to get to the C prompt to run a lengthy test on this hard drive. The test proved there was no problem with this computer or it’s hard drive, so Alok ordered me another replacement W7 installation disk.

Since that was on a Friday, or course, the new disk wouldn’t be shipped until Monday or Tuesday and I knew I’d have to wait another week at least to try this W7 installation, since I had tried it 5 or 6 times and it would always fail in the second stage, “expanding files” somewhere between 20% and 60%.

So this Monday, October 4th, I called to see if the new W7 installation disk had been sent out from the MS replacement parts department and the guy told me it was being sent either that day or the next day, Tuesday. I called back Tuesday and found that it had been shipped out Monday... but no possibility of overnight shipping, and a strange process where the MS orders department sends their packages via FedEx and then FedEx takes it to my local post office... it meant I was in for another long wait.

When the disk didn’t arrive today, and the prospect of “3 to 10 business days” for shipping meant the disk would be here anywhere from tomorrow to a week in the future, I just couldn’t stand it anymore, so I tried the Windows 7 installer disk again, for the 7th time, just expecting it to fail again as it had the previous 6 times.

Remember, this is me fixing my mom's computer... not my Macs back home... all of this is to fix my mom's PC nightmares.

But I thought to myself, “why does it fail at different points in the “expanding files” process... like I said sometimes at 20% and other times at 60% ?”

So I booted to the boot menu, put in the defective W7 installer disk and started the installation process again... once more formatting/blanking the hard drive, and began the process... it got to 20%, then 50%, then 60%, then 70%, then 80%... further than it had ever got before... I just knew it was going to fail again, after all, it had failed 6 times before and everyone there at MS support agreed it must be a bad installation disk... then to 90%, then it finished the “expanding files” process! Could this be possible?

Then I was sure it would fail through the “installing files” process or the “installing updates” process, or even during the “completing installation” phase it would surely fail... but it didn’t... it finished and here I am.

Windows 7 seems like a dream after all the mind splitting problems that I went through with Vista, it’s inability to install it’s own major Service Pack #1 or #2 updates and it’s habit of destroying itself with other 3 party software updates... the Vista nightmare is over after only about 39 days of mind numbing problems and failures.

As for the replacement disk for the original replacement disk, it'll be here I'm sure, but will have the same product key number, so it'll just serve as a back-up.

I needed to download, install and configure Windows Live Mail because somehow W7 does not come with a built in email program, nor did it have any Adobe Acrobat reader installed... I needed to read some of the instruction manual that I had already downloaded for W7, also NOT supplied by Microsoft, that I had found elsewhere online.

How does an operating system come with no email program and no Adobe Acrobat reader?... good question!

Those two problems aside, I’m actually kind of liking Windows 7 as I set it up and prepare it for easy use for my mom.

I had pre-purchased ESET’s NOD32 antivirus software that I still have to install, but since it has a good reputation, industry expert recommendations, and it IS NOT made by Microsoft, I figure it’ll be okay... also, ESET automatically sends a 2nd back-up installer disk when you order a disk by phone, so I shouldn’t have to worry about another defective installation disk.

I had been told earlier in this 39 day ordeal not to install "free" versions of anitvirus software.

So why would the Windows 7 installation disk fail 6 times but work on the 7th try?... you tell me! When I was on the phone with the ISP service tech and he was giving me the few settings that I needed to make the new email program operational, he said he had had the same experience, where Windows installers would fail several times, then inexplicably install successfully out of nowhere.

After all the bad Vista experiences, I still have a habit of saving an email that I am writing every 8 or 9 words that I write for fear of crashing, but I can tell that this Windows 7 installation went well and I haven’t had even one failure message or crash so far in about 6 hours of working with setting things up... thankfully I have this W7 instruction manual that was NOT provided by Microsoft... I figure it should be correct.

Strangely, the Windows Update panel, that which I fear the most and caused all the problems on Vista, shows “44 Important Updates” and “39 Optional Updates” available for installation!... a dizzying array of W7 updates totaling 112.6 MB in the “Important Updates” category and 114.5 MB in the “Optional Updates” category recommended.

And in the “Optional Updates”, believe it or not, it is showing the “NVIDIA display adapter” driver update andYES, the “Realtek HD audio” driver update, both of which were corrupted by the auto updates that were performed in Vista...do you think I should install these?!... don’t even answer that... I know enough now not to trust Windows Auto Update and I have it set to only allow me to decide what to install.

Does it make sense for me to ask which of the 44 important updates to install and which to leave out?... and the optionals too?... that’s a tricky question.

Thanks to Alok and Ashish, plus Candice and Frank for all of your help, as frustrating as it was... and I’ll still be in touch with any other questions or problems that I have with W7 while breaking it in... knock on wood.

Thanks,

numetro

PS: All hardware tests run in the Dell PSA diagnostics and through the Windows C prompt interface, checked okay, so I knew this was all Vista problems... 7 seem great so far... ultimately, I want Macs and a PC in my arsenal at home now since this Windows 7 seems pretty slick. I've worked with mostly Macs and a few PCs in my work environments in art studios, photo retouching imagers, and a real estate marketing firm, but Windows has never worked so well or been so nice as this W7 ULT is.