Alienware m17x no hdmi sound

erichblas2005erichblas2005 Your Native TexanHouston,Texas Member
edited July 2012 in Hardware
I have been having issues with the hdmi port. When in use no sound comes from my tv. I have updated my IDT drivers and with no success.

Comments

  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    Um, some laptops route AUDIO via HDMI when it is plugged in. So, you need a TV with audio from HDMI capability rather than just analog audio. This is a "feature" of many laptops. See if your BIOS lets you turn HDMI sound off and analog sound always on.

    Yes, I am guessing what is happening, but have seen this with other laptops and some audio-limited TVs and monitors.
  • erichblas2005erichblas2005 Your Native Texan Houston,Texas Member
    I have a blu-ray player plugged in with no issues.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    In the case of the laptop based issues, the TV was unable to process the audio from the laptop due to the TV not supporting HDMI audio and the devices plugged in had to use analog audio cables and non-HDMI video. Can you try that??? Or, if the Blu-ray player has one cable to TV and no separate audio, can you plug the laptop into that cable and see if it works???

    I am having to guess, and you are helping me narrow down my thinking with info. Several things have gone wrong with laptops hooked to TVs, with no audio being the symptom and the problem cause traced to wrong cable (in some way wrong), older TV (with older HDMI video-only port or wrong subtype port for use with laptop technically), laptop hardware problem, or laptop BIOS problem.

    Some folks think DisplayPort is an HDMI type, and that is only loosely true, the pinouts are quite different. Ditto for difference between HDMI-I and HDMI-D.

    That is all I can help without LOTS more info, but hope this will let you experiment fruitfully (old use, meaning experiment with good results coming forth from experiments :) ) and figure it out.
  • JokkeJokke Bergen, Norway Icrontian
    edited July 2012
    I remember having this with my laptop. I went into control panel->Hardware and sound->sound. Under the playback tab I think i set HDMI to default or something. I'm sorry I can't remember the details, and I don't have that laptop available now so I can't check it. Try it and mess with some settings, see what happens.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    To clarify, you have an HDMI cable coming out from laptop, going to a known good HDMI port on the TV, have that port selected on the TV and are getting video but no sound. You also have set the HDMI audio under Playback Devices to default and then restarted whatever program you are using to play from (and it doesn't have any special audio output device selected that isn't default)
  • erichblas2005erichblas2005 Your Native Texan Houston,Texas Member
    hdmi isn't listed under sound properties at all. My tv supports audio via hdmi because I had my xbox 360 & my blu-ray hooked up. in order to get any audio to the tv I have both hdmi & rca jack plugged in to the tv.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited July 2012
    Go to sound properties, check show disabled devices and post results.
    image

    Also, I'm not sure if you can do it this way, but try getting latest driver from Nvidia directly (that laptop may be one of the "zomg we only can update from manufacturer from 3 years ago" ones though). If you can do Nvidia directly, do a clean install of all components (you can leave out 3D if that does not affect you)

    Post or PM service code (the 7 character, non-unique model identifier)
  • erichblas2005erichblas2005 Your Native Texan Houston,Texas Member
    my system has the latest drivers 301.45. i had to mod the driver so it would install. all disabled devices are showing.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    Right ... so post a screenie of your devices when the HDMI is plugged in and active and a dxdiag output
  • erichblas2005erichblas2005 Your Native Texan Houston,Texas Member
    image


  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    Um, the laptop is trying to send HDMI sound while the TV thinks it should be getting RCA sound.... RCA is off in laptop when laptop has a HDMI cable plugged in-- one sound circuit in laptop, it can send RCA OR HDMI and thinks it is sending HDMI sond when a HDMI cable is plugged in-- laptop has turned RCA ouptut off then. I THINK that is explanation.
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    edited July 2012
    Um, the laptop is trying to send HDMI sound while the TV thinks it should be getting RCA sound.... RCA is off in laptop when laptop has a HDMI cable plugged in-- one sound circuit in laptop, it can send RCA OR HDMI and thinks it is sending HDMI sond when a HDMI cable is plugged in-- laptop has turned RCA ouptut off then. I THINK that is explanation.
    The issue is that he isn't getting sound out of HDMI when he should have been. It should at least be visible, even if it is disabled etc.

    Try going to the latest official dell driver and seeing if that remedies it, then you can work from there on getting to a more recent driver.

    Also, is that screenshot when you have the laptop plugged in to HDMI with a video active and running? (I know the second isn't true). Same with dxdiag. You could also look in Device Manager to see what the overall sound device is, as a couple support sites cited that has the culprit. I would completely uninstall the IDT driver and reinstall it, perhaps using something like Driver Sweeper in between
  • erichblas2005erichblas2005 Your Native Texan Houston,Texas Member
    Device mgr list it as(HIGH DEF AUTIO DEV).
  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian
    What video card does this laptop have in it? Nvidia or AMD?
  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian
    nvidia 260m IIRC
  • erichblas2005erichblas2005 Your Native Texan Houston,Texas Member
    gf 260m sli
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