Getting My Dell Speakers To Work With My New HP Desktop

[JamesRCowles]

I recently installed a new HP Pavilion desktop PC to replace my valiant old (but failing) Dell desktop PC.  The Dell PC came with Dell speakers, and because the speakers work fine, I kept the Dell speakers and connected them to the HP desktop.

Problem is, the Dell speakers don't work with the HP desktop.  That's to be expected, of course:  the only audio driver that came out of the box with the HP was the audio driver for RealTek speakers. 

Does anyone know if there would be a problem with going to support.dell.com, downloading a Windows 7 version of the Dell audio driver -- assuming a Windows 7 version exists, of course -- and using the Windows 7 audio driver to resurrect my Dell speakers?  I miss having sound on my HP, and will get new speakers if necessary, but would like to use the Dell hardware, if possible.

I assume the above is do-able, and just solicit any input / advice / caveats you all may have.

Thanks ...

JC

[Big_Dave]

James,

Just plug the speakers into the audio out port on the back of the PC.  What model HP PC did you buy?

It may just be setting in the Control Panel that needs to be changed.

[JamesRCowles]

Hmmm ... It's a Pavilion ... I'll have to check the paperwork / documentation for the specific model number.  The only audio driver I can find is for RealTek, but I may not be looking in the right place.

It does seem odd that my monitor, which is also a Dell, works flawlessly, but the speakers are silent. 

Thanks for the suggestion.  I'll check.

JC

[Big_Dave]

How to Find the HP Model Number

Your monitor has internal speakers?  How is the monitor cabled to the PC? (HDMI,DVI,VGA)

[JamesRCowles]

Yeah, my Dell monitor has internal / integral speakers.  I always elected to use the separate speakers, and used the monitor speakers seldom.  But they're still there because I kept the Dell monitor.

JC

[JamesRCowles]

OK ... I found my service tag number for the old Dell desktop and plugged it into the support.dell.com web site.  Yep!  There are several audio drivers there, but none of them have a Windows 7 version.  Not terribly surprising.

According to support.dell.com, there are some XP drivers that will play nicely with Windows 7.

But I dunno ... I looked on the HP web site and found several sets of HP speakers, all for $50 or under, that are "plug and play" with an HP Pavilion x6600 (I think the "x" business is my specific model number), so I expect I will just "brute force" the problem and buy new speakers.

Thanks for your help, everyone.

JC

PS -- I also updated the RealTek audio driver on the HP, restarted the computer, but no joy.  Still no sound.  I'm going to re-re-check the speaker connections before laying out any bread, just on general principles. 

[Big_Dave]

James,

What model HP PC are you using?

[JamesRCowles]

I have an HP Pavilion p6653w running the 64-bit version of Windows 7.

JC

[Big_Dave]

Try these articles.

You can also try PC Doctor (look under PC Help and Tools) to run an audio diagnostic.

The HP Support Assistasnt can also be used to troubleshoot the audio and sound issue.

If the above steps do not work then go to www.realtek.com  and download the Realtek HD audio driver and install it.