I own 2 Dells as present (XPS 410, and Dimension E520) both running Vista Ultimate, both with the same internal audio chipset (Sigmatel HD).. None of the solutions here are capable of enabling “stereo mix” Quite frustrating indeed. Needless to say, this and other decisions will likely steer me away from Dell for future purposes.

The “What U Hear” feature for Sound Blaster Audigy SE/LS/Live!24 bit cards had changed since the latest driver update. The previous version of Windows Vista driver (SB24_VTDRV_LB_1_04_0065A.exe) for Sound Blaster Audigy SE/LS/Live!24 bit has an option for recording with “What U Hear”;

The latest version (SB24_VTDRV_LB_1_04_0077.exe) no longer has the option for “What U Hear” recording with Sound Blaster Audigy SE/LS/Live!24bit.

Both drivers are currently available for download. The only way to get the “What U Hear” back is to reinstall the previous drivers, or roll back drivers.

Actually, you could even pick up a cheaper used G4 Powerbook if you wanted to, and still run the iLife ‘08 apps with very little performance difference from running them on a shiny new MacBook or MacBook Pro.

Add in the fact that you can dual or triple boot between Windows, Linux and MacOSX on a MacBook, or even run Parallels and run Mac and Windows at the same time, and the reasons to get a Mac laptop over a PC laptop become more compelling.

Like the other guy, I am not trying to argue the merits of one OS over the other, just that you have a more complete out of the box solution for this kind of content creation with a Mac.

Cheers, great article.

Thanks for the comment. As nice as it sounds, I don’t need “lush” sound. I am running a blog, not editing audio for a feature film. The term “pro” is relative.

In terms of perspective, I do not find it unreasonable to expect a card to perform as it was intended to by the manufacturer.

The card is working now and I am happy with it. It may not be on par with that of an external card, but that was not the nature of my complaint in the first place.

Chad-

I’m surprised you’re not also complaining, for instance, about the quality of the DACs, or about the lack of lush bass on the built-in speakers, etc… There are reasonable expectations, and then there are unreasonable ones. Try to keep things in perspective.

If you’re doing any kind of professional audio production on a laptop, you’ll want an external soundcard. Any pro or hobbyist grade outboard interface will offer you a feature to record what other applications play.

“My company bought a bunch of Dell optiplex desktops with realtek HD integrated sound a year ago and they’ve all got the stereo mix disabled. I did some searching on google for a solution and found what you need to do.

1. Download the SoundMax driver from Dell’s website and extract it somewhere. Then open up ADIHDAUD.INF located in SMAXWDM folder in the driver folder.
2. Find the line HKR,AD1984\\Disable, OutR, 1, 01 ;; Disable Stereo Mix Capture Node
3. Change the “01″ to 00 and save it
4. Run “setup” and select “uninstall” existing driver - reboot
5. Run “setup” and select “install” new driver - ignore the Windows XP auto install setting and ignore the “non certified” driver warning - reboot
6. Go to start menu > run > type: “regedit” [enter] (without quotes)
7. Click on “edit > search” and look for AD1984.
8. For each registry key/folder of AD1984, find the subfolder/key that says MicBP and OutR and change their associated binary values from 01 to 00. For some people, re-installing the driver in this fashion already produces a 00 while for others, the change must be made manually.
9. Reboot

That should allow you to use Stereo Mix like normal.”

I just wanted to stop by and let you know that we *are* listening. We are currently working through a few details and will be able to share more information about this issue shortly. =)

Regards,
Chris Byrd
Dell Digital Life Liaison

Apparently sale related calls go smoother when you speak to someone you can understand, and support calls end faster if you are forced to speak to someone you can’t.

I bought a E520 desktop (and downgraded to XP pro) about a year ago and the lack of “what-u-hear” has annoyed me since. I even paid for the “SoundBlaster HD Sound” option (which I thought was a hardware thing, but turn out to be just a different driver). I tried messing with different types of drivers and almost went as far as to buy an old sound card, but I ran out of pci slots.

I have used freecorder with some success to grab from sites like myspace. But I’d still like to have the option of the wave out. What do you suggest for Desktops with the SigmaTel chips?

No sufficient fixes were ever offered by Dell, and there was speculation as to whether the issue was a driver or a hardware defect. After months of driver tweaking, most of us agreed that it was a sound card defect, and a few users claimed to have found a hardware fix involving a soldering iron.

I pestered Dell for a few weeks, they replaced my motherboard to no avail, and they eventually sent me a creative audigy2 PCMCIA sound card for free. Other users moved on to USB headset/microphones and USB audio dongles, and still others went the bluetooth headset route.

It’s sad to see that Dell still doesn’t care. I’m on a Macbook now, and I’d rather go without than switch back.

Here are a few threads concerning the 700m audio issue:
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_audio&thread.id=20526&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

http://www.tinyscreenfuls.com/2005/05/dell-inspiron-700m-sound-input-design-flaw/

http://www.tinyscreenfuls.com/2005/07/lots-of-people-hit-by-the-dell-inspiron-700m-sound-input-design-flaw/

I have a fairly new Dell XPS 1330 (came with Vista)

I removed Vista, formatted the drive and installed XP on it and then installed the standard Dell XP drivers (eg chipset, broadcom, but also including the one for the Sigmatel sound card - R158235).

Went to control panel/sounds - no Stereo Mix!

Downloaded the new audio Dell driver from the link above (driver R171789) and lo and behold I now have stereo mix

Thanks for the comment. I am actually considering the purchase of a Mac, however to be clear, this has nothing to do with the issues I experienced above.

Chad-

I have been using Windows (since 3.11) and Linux (since Slackware 2.4, which is ancient) but switched to Mac OS X (running on MacBook Pro) completely about a year ago.

No intention to start any kind of argument which platform is better - this topic is worthless - but having substantial experience with all three, I would suggest that you would keep your options open and take a closer look at Mac. Mac OS X is very stable, fast, secure, and overall very capable system.

Check it out :)

They probably figured that since you could hear sound, the sound card and related hardware must be functioning fine, ergo this would be a software problem/configuration error somewhere that you would need the advance DOC plan to fix.

Yeah, I agree it seems really sneaky, thats why I left the company.

For lees price, I think one can build a better computer than those “dell gaming” systems.

I tried loading a variety of non-Dell Sigma drivers and even attempted (unsuccessfully) some recommended registry edits, all to no avail (except for a cheesy headphone-out-to-Line-In hardware workaround).

We ended up having a local shop custom-build us a laptop, which worked flawlessly from the very get-go.

On paper, purchasing our systems from Dell would appear to be cost effective. But when we add in the hidden cost of performing this pointless “troubleshooting”, due in large part to the apparent influence of the RIAA’s and MPAA’a paranoid IP protection schemes, we’ve quickly learned to save money by either building them ourselves, or ordering from smaller, non-Dell companies.

Thanks LC for the link for ocz’s custom-built laptops. I’ll be checking that out for our next purchase.

The first ones are now available, it’s sorta bare bones laptop, you have to provide the cpu, memory, os.

http://www.buy.com/prod/ocz-barebone-gaming-notebook/q/loc/101/208111924.html

An interesting concept, one that I hope is successful and becomes a valued alternative to pre-built machines.

I fully support building pc’s (and laptops) yourself, you choose better quality components and generally do not have to deal with the hassle involved in buying cheap overpriced pre-built machines and all the crap that comes with them.

any way, check them out (ocz diy) and see if that may be an option for you.

What’s scary is that it’s now conceivable. To explain, it’s easy for some apologists to dismiss any accusation that the RIAA is perpetuating conspiracies, but the problem is that the RIAA (and its cousin the MPAA) has gotten so big and has been acting so evil in the recent past that it’s now a reasonable null position to assume the RIAA has its hands in every till.

Sounds like it’d be a good reason to just buy a third party sound card - if only it weren’t a laptop.

Big box manufacturers are doing more and more of this stuff. I don’t trust them anymore (as if I ever did).

The fact that your company now has a link to rectify the issue is great, however from what I have read this link does not work for all Dell computers that have had this feature disabled.

Furthermore, simply providing a link does not explain why the feature was disabled in the first place.

Any clarification you would be willing to offer would be much appreciated.

Best,
Chad