I found the driver for Sigma Tel Audio for Vista SP1

[robinb]

Ok someone on the dell forum actually found an updated driver on Dells
website and it is actually in the wrong place but it is for the E520, E521
and a bunch more.
This driver is R173209.exe
it is version 6.10.0.5515

to get it

http://support.us.dell.com/support/...eid=R173209&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=235508

When you go to install it- it will show you all the systems it can go on
If yours is NOT listed just cancel the install.

It works!
as soon as I installed it and rebooted about an hour later WU asked me to
install sp1

robin

 

[Bill Sanderson]

This is good!

I can report on my own issue with a relatively new Dell laptop, with Intel
video, and Service Pack 1.

I removed the existing Intel accelerator driver from the machine, and
restarted it. I then went to Windows Update, and was offered a video driver
from Intel, with, I think, a March 1 date. That driver installed fine, and
I've asked the user to report her experience (That whole process was done
remotely outside of business hours. RDP works real well for simple
maintenance, but one of the things it can't do is show you what the video
driver is doing on the hardware monitors!)

So far, no reports of disaster, anyway.

 

[robinb]

same here sp1 installed in about 45min (that was with downloading and
installing)
so far all is good
robin

 

[robinb]

i found she still is slow to boot up
but does shut down a bit faster
programs load a bit faster
other than that i see no difference with or without sp1
running vista home premium
got a good site where it actually shows you what it changed?
robin

 

[Bill Sanderson]

You may be able to attribute the slow startup to some caching information
which is lost in the SP install, but which will be built back up over a few
restarts--so this may improve over time.

I like the links here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/bb738089.aspx

under "product evaluation"

and "getting started."

 

[Robinb]

thanks bill have a good weekend
robin

You may be able to attribute the slow startup to some caching information
which is lost in the SP install, but which will be built back up over a
few restarts--so this may improve over time.

I like the links here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/bb738089.aspx

under "product evaluation"

and "getting started."

 

[E.P.]

Ok someone on the dell forum actually found an updated driver on Dells
website and it is actually in the wrong place but it is for the E520, E521
and a bunch more.
This driver is R173209.exe
it is version 6.10.0.5515

to get it

http://support.us.dell.com/support/...eid=R173209&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=235508

When you go to install it- it will show you all the systems it can go on
If yours is NOT listed just cancel the install.

It works!
as soon as I installed it and rebooted about an hour later WU asked me to
install sp1

robin

I believe the R173209.exe package is for mostly Dell desktops, robin. That
one didn't work for my mom's Dell Inspiron E1405 laptop but I found another
Sigmatel HD audio driver package from the Dell site that did work. It was
the sigmatel drivers from the R171788.exe file
that worked for my mom's Dell Inspiron notebook computer.

It would be nice if Dell would provide more Vista SP1 compatible
Sigmatel/IDT audio driver packages for just about all of their machines. It
might take some time before that will happen.

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I've got a laptop with a bad sound driver (based on manually checking the
driver names and versions against Microsoft's kb article.

I'll see which link works for me--start with Robin's.

The user has been on SP1 for many months and is not seeing issues, but the
file is there and has a bad version number.

 

[Robinb]

if you go to dell's support forums you might be able to find what you need
robin

 

[Bill Sanderson]

I think for my laptop, it is probably the one you posted. I've got 5 Dell
laptops with Vista SP1 on them--one is my own, which is old enough that I
haven't had any driver issues--an Inspiron 600M. The rest either came with
Vista or were ordered with free Vista upgrades, so they are newer.

One has the bad sound driver--no symptoms noted. Another has the
fingerprint reader driver in one of those directories that hold information
about each driver, but are not where the driver actually resides--I don't
think that machine has a fingerprint reader, but I'll check.

At least two have had the bad Intel video drivers, and those have definitely
caused symptoms, and been difficult to get straightened out. On the machine
I looked at today, the Intel driver was not in place, but there was a
Service associated with it which was running. I disabled that service using
the SC command, rebooted, fixed the screen resolution, and will see what
happens. User has mentioned getting regular "out of memory" messages.

 

[Georgehaze]

I've also got a Dell e520 and installed the driver package that you suggested
and ended up with no audio at all. Clearly, this is not a universal solution.

 

[E.P.]

I've also got a Dell e520 and installed the driver package that you suggested
and ended up with no audio at all. Clearly, this is not a universal solution.

Dell has released a new IDT/Sigmatel audio driver package on May 19 for Dell
Optiplex and some other Dell desktop computers. Get the
"SIGMATEL_STAC-92XX-C-Major-H_A06_R182475.exe" file here:

http://support.us.dell.com/support/...eid=R182475&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=248965

This new package has Sigmatel STAC 92XX Audio drivers version 6.10.0.5866
and are fully compatible with Vista SP1

And if you still have sound problems after installing this new driver under
Vista SP1, check out MS KB article 948481 for the solutions:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=948481

 

[robinb]

how do you know this new driver is for e520, e521 etc?
it doesn't say that on the download site
robin

 

[robinb]

this is for the optiplex 740 only

it doesn't say for the deminsion computers
it says under compatablity

OptiPlex 740
Microsoft Windows Vista 32-bit
Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit