Speaker Issue - Dell E1505 Inspiron Laptop

[Kazen]

Dell E1505 - Inspiron core 2 duo


I'm not quite sure whats wrong with it but I wanted to ask here first before I considered sending it off for repairs (if needed).
For some reason the speakers wont play music, but if I plug headphones in it works, however windows XP still makes the startup sound using the speakers, but music wont play from them. The volume and everything is correct, speakers on, and I even checked the drivers for updates, so atm I cant figure out what else to do. (Oh and those fix it yourself steps on the help menu sucks, no problem like this was listed).

Atm it has a SigmaTel Audio card if that helps any.

[Cephius]

I have that exact model laptop from Dell. I had loads of problems with it (blue screened when you did pretty much anything, including using the front volume controls) but all went away when I wiped out Vista and installed XP. Have you tried redownloading the SigmaTel audio drivers from the Dell website? If that doesn't work then yeah, it's likely a hardware problem with your speakers. Back to Dell it goes

[Kazen]

Yeah, starting yesterday it starting doing bluescreen :/ should I back everything up before I send it off? Or do they send the same laptop back? I've never had to send it off before for repairs. Oh and its running XP atm.

I'll try reinstalling the drivers, atm I only tried doing "repair" and seeing if they needed updated which they didnt need either, so I guess I'll try a fresh install on them.

[Cephius]

Yeah, starting yesterday it starting doing bluescreen :/ should I back everything up before I send it off? Or do they send the same laptop back? I've never had to send it off before for repairs. Oh and its running XP atm.

I'll try reinstalling the drivers, atm I only tried doing "repair" and seeing if they needed updated which they didnt need either, so I guess I'll try a fresh install on them.

Assuming there's nothing else wrong with the laptop, they'll fix whatever the problem is and send it back. Of course, it's never a bad idea to backup your stuff anyway. If you have CompleteCare on the laptop they'll actually send a tech out to you, assuming its something they think they can repair onsite.

[Kazen]

Reinstalled all the drivers, plus installed a new one the dell support thing, its working good again now, but could that be a reason for the blue screen? It hasnt did the blue screen in a few startups since I put the new drivers on.

[Cephius]

It's possible, especially if you had an older BIOS version or a wrong chipset driver or something. Without knowing what the bluescreen errors were it's hard for me to say what the cause was, but installing the correct drivers can fix a lot of things. If it bluescreens again write down everything it says (minus the generic "Windows has encountered a problem..." stuff) and I'll try to help you with it.

[Kazen]

It was weird, the Dell Automatic updates had me change to Bios A15 but thats when the problems started, then today it informed me that was an error and had me change again to Bios A17. I'm not sure what the Bios mean, but apparantly A15 was for a lolceleron processor and I'm running a core 2 duo. It seems to be working now but I'll watch it closely for the next few days.

Oh and before it was running fine (before it changed me to A15) I was running A10 which the computer came with, I have no clue what the A10 or A15 or A17 means though lol.

[Cephius]

The number basically stands for the version of the BIOS. Each version supports more/different hardware, so it's entirely possible that the firmware you had loaded didn't support a Core Duo processor (which would create all kinds of problems when running applications) and could cause the BSOD. Hopefully you should be fine now with the correct BIOS.

[Kazen]

Back to doing it again after being restarted, I may have to send it off for repairs.

[Sigi]

Yeah, starting yesterday it starting doing bluescreen :/ should I back everything up before I send it off? Or do they send the same laptop back? I've never had to send it off before for repairs. Oh and its running XP atm.

I'll try reinstalling the drivers, atm I only tried doing "repair" and seeing if they needed updated which they didnt need either, so I guess I'll try a fresh install on them.

Assuming there's nothing else wrong with the laptop, they'll fix whatever the problem is and send it back. Of course, it's never a bad idea to backup your stuff anyway. If you have CompleteCare on the laptop they'll actually send a tech out to you, assuming its something they think they can repair onsite.

Complete Care is NOT onsite service
ONSITE service is Onsite

Complete Care is just accident protection (aka drop the 'top and they replace it)

Edit: 2.5 years of explaining that to sanctimonious business asstards tends to make one bitter

[Cephius]

Yeah, starting yesterday it starting doing bluescreen :/ should I back everything up before I send it off? Or do they send the same laptop back? I've never had to send it off before for repairs. Oh and its running XP atm.

I'll try reinstalling the drivers, atm I only tried doing "repair" and seeing if they needed updated which they didnt need either, so I guess I'll try a fresh install on them.

Assuming there's nothing else wrong with the laptop, they'll fix whatever the problem is and send it back. Of course, it's never a bad idea to backup your stuff anyway. If you have CompleteCare on the laptop they'll actually send a tech out to you, assuming its something they think they can repair onsite.

Complete Care is NOT onsite service
ONSITE service is Onsite

Complete Care is just accident protection (aka drop the 'top and they replace it)

Edit: 2.5 years of explaining that to sanctimonious business asstards tends to make one bitter

I go by what is on the Dell warranty site for the computers I service, it never says onsite anywhere. In cases where computers have broken and the laptops have CompleteCare, Dell has always offered to send a tech out to us. This was the case when my sister broke her LCD screen as well. Unless OnSite service is included but not specified? I don't know.

[Kazen]

They cant figure out whats wrong with it, in 3 days a tech guy is coming to replace the motherboard and speakers, I dont even have to send it off, he's coming to my home.

[Sigi]

NBD= Next Business Day or "Onsite"
RR= Rapid Response or Return to Depot

CC = Complete Care

for instance on my system:
Complete Care DELL 10/31/2003 10/30/2006 0
Next Business Day DELL 10/30/2004 10/30/2006

[Cephius]

NBD= Next Business Day or "Onsite"
RR= Rapid Response or Return to Depot

CC = Complete Care

for instance on my system:
Complete Care DELL 10/31/2003 10/30/2006 0
Next Business Day DELL 10/30/2004 10/30/2006

Ahhhh that makes more sense. How are we supposed to know Next Business Day isn't just the method they use to ship stuff to you