Audio problem on Sony laptop after WinXP reinstall

C

cam35pilot

Hi,
A few weeks ago a virus wiped out my sister's laptop, a Sony
BX-660P. We took it to a shop to reinstall Win XP, which they did, but
I don't think they checked it too much. It runs okay, a bit of a long
time to start windows.

The problem is that the sound gets garbled every minute or so, and
the Windows start-up sound (annoying already) is all garbled. I tried
updating the drivers, but I'm not sure what's going on. I'd rather not
take it back to the place, as we spent enough already.

In Device Manager (nothing was showing a yellow for anything
multimedia), it has "Audio Codecs, Legacy Audio Drivers, Legacy Video
Capture Devices, Media Control Devices, Realtek HIgh Definition Audio,
and Video Codecs". I tried updating the drivers (the place got the
original drivers folder off the HD before reinstalling Win XP) and the
Realtek one did update, but everything else said "no newer driver
available" or whatever that thing says when you try to update a
driver. All say "device is working properly", of course.

Can anyone give me an idea on what's causing this garbling of the
sound? It happens with WMP-11 playing DVDs or Itunes playing songs
also, so it seems to be the hardware problem. I did try resetting the
sounds and speakers to defaults through control panel. Everything else
seems to be okay with the laptop, except the sound and the black
screen after the XP splash screen and the status bar going when it
loads for like 30 seconds.

Thanks.
Rich
 
S

Shenan Stanley

cam35pilot said:
A few weeks ago a virus wiped out my sister's laptop, a Sony
BX-660P. We took it to a shop to reinstall Win XP, which they did,
but I don't think they checked it too much. It runs okay, a bit of
a long time to start windows.

The problem is that the sound gets garbled every minute or so, and
the Windows start-up sound (annoying already) is all garbled. I
tried updating the drivers, but I'm not sure what's going on. I'd
rather not take it back to the place, as we spent enough already.

In Device Manager (nothing was showing a yellow for anything
multimedia), it has "Audio Codecs, Legacy Audio Drivers, Legacy
Video Capture Devices, Media Control Devices, Realtek HIgh
Definition Audio, and Video Codecs". I tried updating the drivers
(the place got the original drivers folder off the HD before
reinstalling Win XP) and the Realtek one did update, but everything
else said "no newer driver available" or whatever that thing says
when you try to update a driver. All say "device is working
properly", of course.

Can anyone give me an idea on what's causing this garbling of the
sound? It happens with WMP-11 playing DVDs or Itunes playing songs
also, so it seems to be the hardware problem. I did try resetting
the sounds and speakers to defaults through control panel.
Everything else seems to be okay with the laptop, except the sound
and the black screen after the XP splash screen and the status bar
going when it loads for like 30 seconds.

Tried really updating the drivers from Sony's website support area?
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNBX660P

May/may not help - that is a 2+ year old laptop.
 
C

cam35pilot

Tried really updating the drivers from Sony's website support area?http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNBX660P

May/may not help - that is a 2+ year old laptop.

Thanks, I updated the driver through that link, but no difference
after the re-start. The "dee dee ddeeeee deee dee" windows annoying
noise is all garbled. Could it be something other than this Realtek
driver?

I did hook up USB external speakers, same deal, so it's not the
internal speakers creating the static and all.

Rich
 
S

Shenan Stanley

cam35pilot said:
Thanks, I updated the driver through that link, but no difference
after the re-start. The "dee dee ddeeeee deee dee" windows annoying
noise is all garbled. Could it be something other than this Realtek
driver?

I did hook up USB external speakers, same deal, so it's not the
internal speakers creating the static and all.

I meant all the drivers. Try at least the chipset (under motherboard)...

It could be the audio chip is damaged/dead (thus my comment about age.)
 
C

cam35pilot

I meant all the drivers.  Try at least the chipset (under motherboard)....

It could be the audio chip is damaged/dead (thus my comment about age.)

Thanks, but I reinstalled all the drivers, and no change. The laptop
is only about 14 months old. I guess I'll have to take it back to the
repair shop, dang. She's gonna hate that. I appreciate the help. I
just don't get why nothing is notifying of a problem, yet the sound is
all full of static. Never saw that before, and I'm no good with fixing
laptops.

Rich
 
S

Shenan Stanley

cam35pilot said:
Thanks, but I reinstalled all the drivers, and no change. The laptop
is only about 14 months old. I guess I'll have to take it back to
the repair shop, dang. She's gonna hate that. I appreciate the
help. I just don't get why nothing is notifying of a problem, yet
the sound is all full of static. Never saw that before, and I'm no
good with fixing laptops.

Really - only 14 months?

You must have gotten it from a store right before they called it a loss
and/or Sony has really dropped the ball on support. Some of the drivers
(latest Sony provides) are mid-2006, only a few are in the early part of
2007. It's 31 days until 2009. If it was a recent laptop - i would have
expected more drivers in the late 2007/2008 timeframe.

Hardware issues seldom have any way of notifying you other than things just
stop working correctly...

Avoid big-name stores (Circuit City, Best Buy, etc.) and find yourself a
nice little shop that wants your return business.
 

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