Hi guys,

Just got my Dell back this minute from being repaired. It required a motherboard replacement as expected. At least sound is working again, and I don't have to buy myself an external sound card (not that i wouldn't mind one though). I just like things working properly...

Yes but what happens when it fails in a couple of months time when it's out of warranty? I've read posts of people where it the 2nd time it's happened......My box should arrive today from dell, then off to the workbench it is!!

I know. That must suck. I'd be more interested to know what has caused the problem. Might give them a call and see if they've figured out what causes it.

Can't imagine they'll be saying its a manufacturers fault too quickly though...

I think it's a satic zap problem. A lot of people noted it happened shortly after plugging in speakers or a headset to their speaker jack on the laptop. I think this is zapping the onboard sound chip. By the way I am by no means a computer expert, it's just a guess!!

Its definately possible as I had my laptop plugged in to my external amp and speakers when it happened.

I was watching a movie on real player with my headfones on and suddenly the audio got cut off and it never came back. Will it need a motherboard replacement ?

I'd imagine so. My warranty runs out in Sep this year. If it happens again outside of warranty, I'm thinking I might just upgrade and get a Creative 6 channel audio PCI card to slide into the side of the laptop. Otherwise there's plenty of usb audio 'cards' the size of a usb memory stick.

We have had this happen 3 times in a month. We have two 5150's here at work. Mine went about about a month ago and we had to send it back to Dell where they had to replace the whole board. We got it back a couple of weeks ago and it just happened again 10 minutes ago. The other 5150 lost it's sound about a week ago but hasn't been sent in for repair yet.

We bought both almost exactly a year before it started happening (12-13 months). It sounds like this is a very common problem and pattern. Three times in 4 weeks (twice on the same laptop with 2 different boards) can't be a coincidence.

I've just sent off my 5160 to dell, and left a note on it mentioning this thread and another one on the US Dell community forum. Interesting to see what they say.

Glad (I guess?) to see that this problem is widespread. I went ahead and bought a Creative Sound Blaster external, since I'm studying abroad in Italy and can't afford to send out my laptop anywhere.

The problem for me happened when I plugged my headphones in and heard a popping noise. Then, I tried to play some music and nothing. This was February 28th...I purchased my laptop on December 1, 2004.

Just an FYI for everybody. Since my soundcard failed for the second time last week (as I posted above) I haven't had chance to get it sent in for repair. (It's a work laptop and things are busy.) I tried the headphones again yesterday and amazingly it worked. The speaker still doesn't have any output though, and the headphone jack was definitely broken last week (almost nothing came out - just a very low volume heavily distorted version of whatver I was playing). I checked and another colleague had something similar happend with a Dell Precision M60. It stopped working one night and the next day it started working. For me it was more like a week.

I don't know what could cause it to self-repair. Either Dell puts nanobots in their laptop or this problem seems related to a flakey connection that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. I still can't get anything out the speakers so it still isn't completely fixed.

Has this problem something to do with amplifiers? Because when i plugged in speakers at max volume into my Dell I could clearly hear audio.
I think the static charge destroys the amplifying transistors because they are designed for very low current.
And so we think that we cant get any audio output but infact the output is there just that its not getting amplified.
Please tell me if you are able to get audio output thru speakers...

no, definately not the case with me. I have cranked my amp up full and nothing... if the soundboard is not working generally your builtin Broadcom modem will not work with it.

Just plug in an analogue phone socket, and test with any dialup connection to see if it can detect a dialtone. If it cant detect a dialtone or even dial itself (if you listen on another reciever), my bet is that your audio chipset is faulty. At this stage, the only option is a motherboard replacement... correct me if I'm wrong if you've managed to fix the audio back after having these symptoms.

I have a wireless card for internet.. and I dont have a land fone so I cant check what you suggested..
You said that you got ur laptop fixed... you still cant hear any audio when u plug in the best amplifying external speakers you can find?
My PC speakers/Headfones give no output and my external speakers give a clear (but feeble) output when i turn up the volume so i thought that its an amplification issue..
So my sound card is definitely faulty because apparently its amplifiying transistors got burnt..

As yet another followup to my failed - then fixed - then failed - then self-fixed sound, it has failed again. This time I'm absolutely sure it was ESD. I had been listening to music on my headphones then paused it for a minute and took off the headphones. When I touched the headphones to pick them up I got an ESD shock from the earpiece. When I put them on it had a high-pitch hum (as it did before) and the sound wouldn't play again.

On the upside, a few days later my laptop was stolen so I'm getting a new one, probably a D810. (It's a work laptop.) Hopefully it's got a different sound system. On the downside, I'm using my colleague's old 5150 with the busted sound until my D810 comes in.

Also FYI, the only thing that Dell could do to get the 5150 to work was replace the motherboard.

"Stolen", how convenient!! What a stroke of luck to get a new laptop by insurance! LOL! My 5160 has gone back to the depot twice since October 04. If it happens any more mine might get "stolen" as well! Just kidding man......

Incidently, can anyone help me here. If I buy either a USB sound card or PCI sound card for my laptop, do the laptop speakers still work, or are those devices only good for external sound speakers/headfones?

only good for external speakers. only the on board sound will link up to the builtin speakers.

I bought my 5150 in June of 2004. I had the sound go out in Feb or 2005. I ran Dell Diagnostics and sent the results to Dell. They indicated the mother board would need to be replaced to correct the problem. I use my 5150 for work so I can't send it in for repair.

I plan to look at getting an external audio card since it sounds like the replacement mother board is likely to go out as well.

My modem has continued to work fine.

bought my 5160 in october 04, and it kindly waited until i was just out of warranty before the same thing happened - the sound first went muffled then only played in one speaker, then totally died.
Spent a long time, and probably a lot of money, on the phone to a Dell customer service advisor who went through all the audio settings variables before he came to the same conclusion as me, ie. that something was broken and needed replacing.
Since it appears that it's a common problem, and one which may happen again if i were to get a new motherboard, i'm tempted to get an external soundcard, especially as i'd like to get some music software and midi connections up and running.
firstly, i'd like to know if anyone who resorted to the external soundcard option found that it was a solution, and that it works even though the computer's own motherboard may be broken.
secondly, anyone got any preferences/suggestions as to which soundcard to get?

I did not go to an external card since my laptop was (luckily) stolen.

However, I have used a Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro (http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/audioadvantage/) and found it phenominal. It just plugs into a USB port and you can plug headphones into it. It's small only $30. I would recommend it.