M18x R1 HDMI in Audio Issue

Hello NBR brother,

Now before you go haywire thinking that this is a commonly solved issue things have been rather different on my end. I tried everything that I could to get the HDMI in working but the thing is that it just pops in for a moment and cuts out within a second of switching.

I tried "listening" to the HDMI in on the mixers, boosted levels to get a clear signal and worst of all, this problem is intermittent. There are times it works and is those times my control over the volume is lost so the speakers blast out audio at max volume. I tried plugging in headphones and routing the audio through them but that didn't help either.

I know that the thing works for a moment because when I press the HDMI in key, it switches to it and for a moment, there's audio and suddenly. Poof! It's gone.

Any suggestions? It's been a while I formatted my system and I do it religiously every 3 months anyway to keep my system in top shape. Perhaps I may have installed something problematic without realizing it?

Your help is highly appreciated.

 

Install Audio drivers from dell site. Had same problem.

 

Hello there Brother GodlikeRU, I have installed the following drivers for the audio system from here:

http://www.dell.com/support/home/ca/en/cadhs1/product-support/product/alienware-m18x/drivers

No joy. I tried removing drivers through safe mode and reinstalling them again.

Any further suggestions?

 

You are luck enough to have hdmi in video working. It seems that Alienware didn't implement this feature well. I have never got it to work. Tested with many different OS, drivers, bios, etc. and nothing and I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of us having issues with this.

 

^ My goodness.. That bad? Was this only the case with the R1 or do the R2's suffer from this as well?

 

There's a thread about video issues and you can read that there are a lot of us that never got it to work, even @Mr. Fox said that he only got it to work once a long time ago (or something like that)

 

Thats disheartening. I wish more laptops had the feature. So you're saying it's a big hit n' miss?

 

That's what it looks like, I even got my daughter board changed (thinking that it was faulty) but then the same thing.

 

Perhaps I have a faulty motherboard then? That's just so sad though. All that investing on something that failed to work to specifications.

 

Im using it often with my Xbox 360 and works fine, never had problem with it. Just needed to install audio drivers from dell site. I can do a video if you want.

My system is Windows 8.1 Enterprise x64
Driver idt_high_definition_audio_6_10_6495_0_driver.zip
HDMI cable from Xbox 360 out to Alienware M18xR1 HDMI in

And that's all, it just works. Audio is through laptop speakers or headphones if you connect it to headphones hole in laptop.

EDIT:: http://speedy.sh/F7am2/idt-high-definition-audio-6-10-6495-0-driver.zip

Ah and one thing. Xbox 360 is jailbroken (RGH). Don't know if it changes anything.

 

Brother GodLike,

Thank you so much for your rapid response. I have yet to try this yet but I will do so as soon as I am able. If it works, I owe you a beer. As a college student and.....well...... a gamer, having an HDMI In is very important feature to have.

I highly doubt the jailbroken status of your X360 has any effect on HDMI audio out from the console. IIRC the signals are all transported in one go anyway as per the HDMI standard. I'm sure the handshake protocols are the same.

You said that you didn't have to fiddle with any settings whatsoever. That is originally how I recall it was when I had my M17xR4. I just plugged in and everything was golden.

Would you recommend that I delete the drivers from safe mode or is a system reformat in order? I am honestly not worried about formatting operations as I do this every few months and all my important data is on another partition and my games/software are on C:

 

Try to safe remove driver and install this one I've gave you. If that wouldn't work then do a system reformat. I have Windows 8.1, don't know about 7.

 

Trying it now Brother GodLike, fingers crossed.

 

^ Actually, cant try it right away :-(. My PS3 is not on me. Darn it, I'll be getting it back in a few short hours. I'll let you know what happens.

Thank you again for your suggestions

 

Hello Brother @GodlikeRU ,

I just uninstalled the audio drivers but for some reason all my startup services on MSConfig mysteriously got stopped. It appears to be a viral infection in this case and I am hereby formatting the system and starting fresh. Boy isn't this going to be a fun day.

That being said though. The driver that you have given me looks like a collection of files that are installed by the installer into the registry. Do you have the original installer? I''m positive Win 8 drivers on Win 7 should work just fine. If not, i'll download the latest from Dell.com

Thoughts? Before I kill this system?

 

I did not used the original installer.

Device Manager -> Audio devices -> RMB on Audio device -> Update Driver Software -> Point to my files

If that doesn't work I have some installer files too http://speedy.sh/Y3HHj/audiohdmi.zip

It HAS to work, im using these files and it works.

 

Brother @GodlikeRU ,

It works! After the Format, I just installed your drivers, put up the levels and everything is just......perfect. Thank you so much for your help in the matter. If I may ask, where did you get these drivers anyway? The one's from Dell simply didn't work at all.

I'll keep you posted

 

Hey,

Glad to see that you got it working

I always download drivers from chipset manufacturer site, not the laptop manufacturer one. That way I can always have newest drivers available, keep that in mind when you will install drivers next time.

Regards

 

Yes, there are some lucky souls around here that got it working, but then there are some of us that never got it to work.

I'm not saying that the audio don't work, I'm saying that NOTHING works with the hdmi in. I have tried xbox 360, xbox one, ps3, ps4, other computers, smartphones, many different hdmi cables, Win 7 pro and ultimate, Win 8 regular and pro, Win 8.1 regular and pro, even Win 10 and nothing..... When I click FN + F8 I just get the message, please connect HDMI input device.

I tried troubleshooting and many different methods for a week and I just gave up. Sad thing since one of the things that make me choose the M18x was the HDMI in......

 

Try drivers I've provided

I thought that they're from dell at first but it seems I've downloaded them from chipset manufacturer.

 

Tried, same results... nothing. Which was kind of obvious because this is an audio driver.

 

Brother Rotary I'm afraid that sounds like a hardware issue altogether though. I could be wrong but thats what I am suspecting just now. That being said though, what happens when you try to switch to HDMI In? Does it just show up a black screen or does it say "Please Connect Valid HDMI In Device?"

 

Just the MessageBox "Please connect HDMI input device". I thought about a hardware issue, but what could be wrong? Everything in the daughter board works and this is the second daughter board that I try. Device manager detect the the hdmi in video and audio devices.

 

Ah you don't even have video input? You have to install all drivers from Dell site and dell software like OSD. Then video drivers and it should work.

 

If you're getting the "Please connect HDMI Input" Message then you probably have Alienware OSD installed just fine. It sounds like the HDMI Input connector appears to be faulty. Have you considered running a custom unlocked BIOS on the system? Perhaps it might have options that are dedicated to the daughter board.

 

Yes I do have all the drivers installed. Yes I also have tried with all the unlocked and OEM bios available, still nothing.

 

^ Wow. I'm stumped. Try using the iGFX & see if that makes a difference? I'm sorry if it's being bothersome, I'm just trying to eliminate culprits for now.

 

Tried that when I didn't have any gpu, then I thought that it didn't work because I nedeed a discrete gpu.

 

Hmm. That shouldn't be a problem at all, a discrete GPU has no connection to the HDMI In port. I'll get back to you on this

 

Perhaps someone could enlighten me a bit more on the subject. Does the HDMI Version matter in case of the HDMI Input? I recall having a setting like that on my PS3 and perhaps that could give some insight?