How To Fix Sound Not Working On Dell Laptop

Sound problems are common issue that can be fix even if you are unable to hear anything coming out of your speaker.

Speaker are naturally known for producing sounds, when a sound a speaker fails to produce sound, it means there is something wrong somewhere and doesn’t necessary means you have a bad Dell laptop speaker.

There are different ways I am going to show you to fix sound issues on your Dell laptop.

Firstly, you must make sure your Dell speakers are working perfectly fine.

You don’t want a case whereby you are trying to fix a software problem when you are dealing with a hardware problem.

Also make sure your Dell laptop is plugged in and charging before you begin to troubleshoot your sound system.

Before I begin, let me show you why your sound isn’t working on your Dell laptop

here’s why,

Why Is Sound Not Working on Dell Laptop

If your Dell laptop isn’t playing any sound, it means the problem could be related to hardware or software.

Hardware is referring to your Dell laptop speaker while the software is referring to errors that can lead to your Dell laptop speaker not to work. An error could be a driver problem, either your Dell audio driver is outdated and needs to updated or your Dell audio driver updated a driver that made your Dell laptop not to play any sound.

To know if your Dell laptop speaker is working perfectly, you must perform a self-diagnostic test.

Every method in this article is applicable to every windows version, i.e. you can use this method if your Dell laptop is running on windows 7, 8 and 10.

Here’s how,

Troubleshoot Sound Problem

1. Navigate to your bottom right-hand corner where your toolbar is located.
2. Now right-click on the sound ???? icon located among the tools in the toolbar.
3. Among the options given to you, select troubleshoot sound problem.
4. A pop up will be revealed on your screen showing you two options, Select No.
5. Hold on for your Dell laptop to detect your audio problem.
6. Your result will be displayed.
7. If there’s a minor error, you should see an option to help you automatically fix the problem. But if you get a message telling you it doesn’t test your speaker, then you might need the help of a computer engineer to fix it.

Now that you have troubleshot your Dell speaker to detect any sound problem, let’s proceed by testing your speaker if it will produce any sound.

Here’s how,

Test Dell Laptop Speaker Sound

1. Navigate to your bottom right-hand corner where your toolbar is located.
2. Now right-click on the sound ???? icon located among the tools in the toolbar.
3. Among the option, select open volume mixer.
4. Now select speakers/headphones highlighted in yellow to open the properties.
5. A small box will appear revealing your dell speakers/headphones properties.
6. Navigate to the advanced tab
7. Now click on test which is highlighted in yellow and make sure the two options are also checked.
8. After clicking on test, you should hear a sound letting you know your dell laptop speakers are completely working.
9. If you don’t hear any sound, there could be a chance your dell laptop speakers are still working.

How to Fix Sound Not Working on Dell Laptop

This fix is for both internal and external speakers.

Make sure you follow every instruction below to help resolve your sound problem.

1. Check Volume/Cable

Your sound volume is an important factor when you can hear any sound coming out of your Dell laptop speakers.

To check your sound volume on your Dell laptop speaker,

• Navigate to your bottom right-hand corner on your screen and Left click on the sound ???? icon.
• Now increase the volume to 100% if it is lower than that.
• If your volume is increased, go back to test your Dell laptop sound

Now for your cable,

If you are using an external speaker, make sure the cable is well plugged in and make your sound port is working.

To check speaker cable on your Dell laptop, I recommend you give your Dell laptop to a computer engineer for proper checkup.

2. Check Audio Drivers

Update Dell Audio Drivers

Here’s how to update your Dell laptop audio driver on your Dell laptop

1. Click on the Windows logo key and search for device manager.
2. Run device manager.
3. Once it opens, locate sound, video and game controller and click on the drop-down.
4. Depending on the number of drivers in the drop-down list, you will have to update everything.
5. Right-click on one the drivers and click update
6. A message will pop up asking you how you want to search for your drivers, select Search automatically for updated driver software.
7. Now let windows search for you drivers automatically.
8. If your drivers are not up to date, update your drivers and restart your laptop. If otherwise, Proceed to the next step.

Roll Back to Your Previous Dell Audio Driver

Here’s how to roll back to your previous audio driver on your Dell laptop.

1. Click on the Windows logo key and search for device manager.
2. Run device manager.
3. Once it opens, locate sound, video and game controller, and click on the drop-down.
4. Depending on the number of drivers in the drop-down list, you will have to update everything.
5. Right-click on one the drivers and click properties.
6. Navigate to the Driver tab.
7. Click on roll back driver among the option provided.

Download & Update Audio Drivers Directly from Dell Website

Dell recommends updating the device drivers and BIOS as part of your scheduled update cycle.

It is essential to update the following device drivers for optimal audio or sound playback performance and to resolve common audio or sound playback-related issues:

• BIOS
• Chipset
• Audio driver

Here’s how to download & update audio drivers directly from Dell website on your Dell laptop.

1. Go to Dell official website
2. Enter your Dell service tag ID or model of your Dell laptop and click enter.
3. Adjust the filter to your current Dell laptop settings and then look for and select audio, Intel chipset, and bios
4. Since you have marked all that is needed, click on download located by the right-hand side of the driver selected
5. Now install all the three drivers
6. Restart your Dell laptop
7. Test your sound

3. Reset Your Dell Computer

This should be a last resort.

If you have tried everything and nothing seems to work but you are sure your speakers are just fine, then you should consider resetting your Dell laptop.

By resetting your Dell laptop, this will convert your system back to factory default and you might lose all your installed files.

Conclusion

To wrap this up,

Remember to make sure your speakers are working before you proceed to learn how to fix sound issue.

To know if your speakers are working, test it with the guide I provided.

Check your connection port properly to see if there’s anything stuck in it.

Update your drivers

After doing all this and your Dell laptop speaker refuses to play any sound, you should consider giving a computer engineer for a proper checkup or you can just get an external Bluetooth device here