DV6500 vista --> windows 7 audio drivers

[BruceW6char]

I just finished upgrading a DV6500 AMD Turion TL 58 1.9, 2 GB memory from vista to windows 7 ultimate. I had a few problems, the most serious was getting sound to work off my front audio jack. I thought I'd post my results as it might help others.

First I flashed the bios. I've got tripte boot with XP, Vista and now Windows 7. I think I did the bios flash in Vista since that's the OS that HP installed on the DV 6500. After installing Windows 7 Ultimate 64, I attempted to update my drivers. I initially used the drivers the HP supplied for the DV6500 CTO Vista 64.

these drivers worked

sp36213 chipset - probably best to install this driver set first

sp36770 wireless assistant

sp37726 card reader

sp41966 synaptics touch pad

sp40139 quick launce keys

these drivers failed

sp42635 nvidia drivers for 8400m

sp37725 modem

sp41675 broadcom wireless

sp40170 conexant audio

For the nvidia drivers, I went to the nvidia site and downloaded their reference driver set.

At this point, in device manager, the only yellow flag on the drivers was for sound. I knew wireless

was working okay so I didn't check to see why the driver sp41675 failed. I also didn't check

why sp37725 modem failed and haven't tried to use the modem.

My audio worked with the built in speakers but not with the front panel jack. So after doing some

research and installing, uninstalling numerous drivers I found a solution that works. For the built in

speakers, I ended up using Microsoft Drivers date 4/21/2009 version 6.1.7100.0. I think this driver came from the

Windows 7 install.

I noticed that smart audio in control panel didn't look right. I found for sp35558 in swsetup, one of the drivers

that I had attempted to install but failed, there was a smartaudio folder. I ran the setup program in swsetup\sp35558\smartaudio

did an unistall and then an install. Now my front panel jack works. Control panel has a new entry smartaudio (32 bit) which looks

functional. Probbaly should have found a 64 bit equivelant of smart audio 35558 but I'm happy with what I've got.

However, if I click on the orignal smart audio in control panel, I get a BSOD, so be careful.

I got sp5558 from here

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp35501-36000/sp35558.exe

As I said, I'm happy for now and will wait to see if HP releases an official drivers set for Windows 7 64 on the dv6500. Maybe

this will help others and someone can refine some of the rough edges.

Bruce

[BruceW6char]

I recently did a W7 MS update, custom and there were optional drivers from conexant audio from 2008. I installed these and lost all sound. Then I went in device manager, uninstalled the driver and added back in the MS drivers from 4/2009. Sound worked and when I clicked on SmartAudio in control panel, it no longer did a BSOD. SmartAudio was still non functrional but SmartAudio(32 bit) worked. Wonder if W7 MS Update, custom will still ask me to install conexant drivers?   

[Nirisav]

I am having simialr problems with my DV6500.  have installed Win7 32bity and the audio drivers seem to have dissappeared.  I upgraded the HP Quick Play and the audio returned momentarily but only for 1 day.  I have been struggling to recover the audio and woudl be grateful for any advice.

Thanks Vikas

[BruceW6char]

I've got 64 bit, so this might not apply. My current sound driver is

Microsoft

7/13/2009

6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)

As I mentioned before, using windows optional updates gave me a bad sound driver

[roneian]

link download... ?

[BruceW6char]

I rebuilt the system back in April, 2011 and this time all the proper sound drviers came from Windows 7 after W7 had been updated. Any of the other drivers can be found be doing a google or searching the HP's web site.