Sound Blaster Recon3Di Defect Discussion Thread - Questions/Solutions Here [M18x R2, M17x R4 Audio]

This is a known issue... I merged your new thread with the one already established for the same problem. There are some things that work pretty well near the start of the thread. In the worse case scenario, a motherboard replacement will be necessary. I rarely ever have the issue. I have sleep functionality disabled on my system and power my system off when not in use. That might have some bearing on the fact that I rarely ever encounter an issue. For those that have it frequently, putting the system to sleep and waking it after waiting a bit causes sound to begin working again.

 

Thanks Fox

 

Hi All,

I'm lloking for some help! I just recieved my M18x R2 from the outlet store today and the sound is really bad. It sounds like all of the sound is coming out of the one speaker under the laptop? which I assumed was the subwoofer? no matter what I do with the sound balance it always comes out that speaker? I'm not even sure were the other speakers are meant to be?

Any help would be much appreciated

Cheers

 

Damn this thread still Alive, well sound issue is complicate.
Dogmatic6, If sub-woofer workin fine then there is issue with speaker connection, i mean wiring as may be it disconnected. Did you try to uninstall driver and reinstall it? additionally you can try to install Windows 8 driver which is stable compare to old one. please Right click on Audio tray icon > Playback Device, right click on Speakers Sound Blaster Recon3DI then select Set as default device. Hope it helps

 

Hey thanks for the reply! I brought this thread back from the dead...lol Ok I took the laptop apart and checked the connections....all ok but still only subwoofer playing sound I've checked default device and re installed driver. Will try windows 8 driver next. I've opened a ticket with dell so will see what happens.

Cheers

 

Forgot to say. When I boot up into diagnostics and try the sound test. I don't hear any of the tones. I guess this points to a physical problem with the front speakers?

Cheers

 

Well it sounds like hardware problem, additionally i think you can test speakers from HDMI input, just connect external player or console to HDMI input (right side near eSata).

 

Thanks for the tip. I plugged my xbox into hdmi in and there was no sound so does look like a physical problem with the speakers. headphones work as expected. looks like a call to dell for me.

Cheers

 

Finally you found what holdin your beast back Just call Dell they will replace it next day (most cases) and update outcome here

 

Well I have an update! The Dell engineer came out and replaced my motherboard and speakers so now when you go into diagnostics the sound test works

the bad news is I'm now experiencing what everyone else has in this thread...lol once in windows it doesn't even see my soundcard!! I've managed to get sound working once when I booted using internal graphics. Also I left the battery out for a while and it booted up with dual graphics and sound! everything worked until I rebooted and sound disappeared again...lol

I have a call with dell support tonight. I will also try all the resolutions in this thread although nothing has worked yet. I've rebooted my system over 30 times and restored from recovery partition 3 times got sound working twice!

cheers

 

Glad that speakers are workin fine.
haha Actually Dell did release Bios update to fix sound card issue long time back, but it was just useless. Sound card issue overcome (Randomly) with most of system which were launched last year, there is none fix yet. So dont worry your not alone Yes better to call they again, i know they will replace your MB again. cosz they aware of this issue. Honestly speakin even if they replace MB, if your lucky sound card will work fine for some time then again you got to face same sound issue. I still dont understand why dont they bother about to fix this sound problem as it is related to bios, beside just replace MB. Now i dont think they will ever release bios update for older revision anyway. So your gtg within warranty period.

If sound card wont detect on restart then try to put laptop on Sleep mode, wait for 1-2min wake up, it will work on most cases.

 

I have the same problem audio card not detected, or detected with yellowmark error, and I put the laptop in sleep 3-4 times to restore the audio. I have installed the latest audio driver .2040. Its very annoying , It usually happens from cold boot. I have warranty until april 2014. I am thinking to call dell and tell them about the problem but as I am reading here they will replace my motherboard and the problem will still exists. So you are telling me guys that I must learn to live with it?

 

Hi,

I have a feeling the problem is a lot worse with particular motherboards. I spent an hour online with Dell last night. got sound working and it would work after every restart but as soon as you shutdown then start backup the audio card disappeared. I tried all the fixes on this forum with the same drivers ect and again as soon as I shutdown/startup the card disappears. Only thing that gets it back is to suspend a few times.

The previous motherboard I had did not have any issue's with detecting the sound card although I've only had the laptop 6 days..lol and the motherboard got replaced 2 days ago.

Anyway Dell are replacing the motherboard again tomorrow. If the problem is still there then I'm rejecting the laptop and asking for a refund. I've put this in writing to Customer Services as I'm still within my 7 day return period I believe.

Watch this space. Its a shame because the laptop is great otherwise. Also I'm not sure if this is just an issue with the Dell build? I'm not sure how common it is for people who do a fresh windows install using the advice for audio drivers in this thread.

cheers

 

Today the sound card of my laptop , died completly. Doesnt show anymore in control panel whatever I do (restart, remove battery, reflash bios, reset bios etc.) So I called dell and they will send a technician to replace my motherboard I hope this will fix the problem completly but as I read here I have fears to happen again

 

Good luck with your motherboard replacement

Unfortunately for me the dell engineer didn't show up when promised so as I was still within my seven day return period I refused the laptop. Dell are coming to pick it up today.

In the meantime I ordered another M18x R2 from outlet only with more memory and a better processor...lol lets see if I have any issues with the new one. It gets delivered on Monday

 

finally my motherboard replaced and now seems to work everytime I startup the laptop. No signs of failure yet The motherboard came with A08 bios and I updated to A10. Maybe dell has fixed the problem in the new motherboards? They also left here my old motherboard, I dont know if they will send someone to pick it up or not but a friend of mine who is engineer told me that he want to try a reflow on the audio chip to see if this is the problem. (pins diconnecting from the board).

 

That motherboard will need to go back to Alienware. Otherwise, you will get billed for it. If it did not come with a return shipping label, you should call them and have one emailed to you.

If the new motherboard was installed for you by an Alienware dispatched technician, he/she left it with you by mistake. They will need to get it back from you, so you may want to give them a call.

 

Hello!

After a reboot, my Audio device on my M18x-R2 just vanished. I didn't change anything about my system. It isn't present in the device manager anymore. I tried to reinstall the drivers which didn't help. I tried a system restore but that didn't help either.

 

Hm, I fixed it by pulling the batteries, unplugging the laptop and holding the power button for 30 seconds. How I loathe this UEFI BIOS. Now the audio is working fine again.

 

It's a very common problem in Alienwares, and it's power related. You can minimize the risk of this happening by switching the laptop on and letting it load to the desktop while on battery - don't switch it on plugged in. When I do this, the problem never occurs, but when I do switch it on plugged in, it's quite likely that my audio vanishes. A quick fix for when that happens is to close the lid, wait for it to sleep, and re-open it - the audio should then be back. I tried everything from different driver versions to formats - nothing worked

 

Hm. Not good. It's happened the first time to me, but I hope it won't repeat itself. Which BIOS version are you on? I wonder if newer or older ones would help with the problem.

 

We already have a thread for this issue. I will merge it with the other one.

Radi324 is right, it definitely seems to be power related. This happens with varying frequency. I see if maybe once a month, and I use sleep from the start menu, give it one or two seconds, then wake it up. It works every time for me, so I find it to be a fairly minor nuisance rather than a big deal. I have my lid set to do nothing when closed and apart from using it to awaken the audio device I otherwise never use sleep for any reason and have the automatic sleep timer disabled. I turn it off completely all the time when I am not using it, so that may be why I see it less that some folks do.

 

Just my 2 pennies here..i had the same issue as everyone (17r4 multiple restarts to fix audio issue).What i began noticing after trying several variations of previous thread replies is that at least on mine it has something to do with the wireless.Not a clue what it might be but if i close the wireless before shuting down then 100% my laptop will have its audio when windows start+windows start faster.It might be just luck but so far ive got it tested for 5 days with 100% success.Will get back on that if i get more info.

 

That's interesting and may prove useful for folks that are frequently experiencing this issue. Thanks for sharing the tip, and welcome to the NBR Alienware Community.

 

Modded http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...blaster-recon3di-drivers-win8-1-solution.html

 

Thanks for sharing the tip!

Here is my version information for reference. Are you using the same Control Panel version with Win8.1?

View attachment 102880

 

Version 1.02.26 http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...n3di-drivers-win8-1-solution.html#post9398714

M17xR4 _M18xR2_Sound_Blaster_Recon3Di_Drivers_Control_Panel_v6.0.100.2040

 

Hmmm, alothough my machine is a few months old now, I have just had this exact same issue. I switched on my machine and the soundcard wasn't detected. I did as someone advised and switched graphics cards and the sound came back on. But not happy to be honest as with my machine having worked fine up until now, I'm worried something is going wrong.

edit: just to clarify, if this continues (I'm using Windows 7 64 bit) then let windows update update the drivers, and then use the file posted by Mr Fox on the first page to get the full control panel back with the equaliser, THX settings etc? Thanks

 

would this thread be applicable to users of the R$ with SBR3di facing issues with their array microphones. For the life of me, i cannot understand why the mic will not work, the sound card works perfectly.... but try even running the test on the "CRYSTAL VOICE thingy" and i get no sound...meaning the microphone is enabled and all, but there is no output through either speakers or headphones connected

 

Hi IanC. Almost everyone encounters this once in a while with the Sound Blaster Recon3Di. This affects M17xR4 owners as well. It does not seem there is a solid fix for this problem. There is a special thread for this in the main Alienware forum.

I went for many months and never experienced it and now it is happening to me frequently. I applied some Windows Updates last week and it began happening to me with regularity, but nothing has changed with respect to my audio drivers. I am probably going to remove those Windows Updates and see if the problem goes away again.

 

Here is an audio driver update for Windows 8.1...

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Recon3Di CT9570 Driver for Win8.1

This package provides the driver for Creative Labs Sound Blaster Recon3Di CT9570 Driver and is supported on AW M14XR2/AW M17XR4/AW M18XR2 Notebook running the following Windows operating systems: Win8.1.

Release Date: 10/9/2013
Importance: Recommended​

More Windows 8.1 driver downloads can be seen on the Dell Support FTP Download page, some of which are not showing up a the normal support.Dell.com web resource.

Dell Support | Alienware FTP Downloads

 

Hmm...mine says that setup is unable to detect a supported product in your system. Dang. Using an M17x R4

 

I installed the 8.1 driver update on a clean install but now I don't have the control panel. Is there a stand alone download for the control panel?

 

No, but you can install the old driver, select the option to customize settings and uncheck the driver part of the installation to install only the Control Panel.

 

Great idea. Didn't think about that.

Thanks again.

 

Hi guys,

I have recently noticed a problem with my audio on my Alienware M17x R4, its on windows 7 64-bit. I haven't updated any drivers for a while, and can think of no change to let this problem happen. Last week i tried to use my laptop to play a movie on my TV but it would not play the audio thought the TV. Also the headphones are now working when I plug them in, the sound blaster come up, but it does not play the sound through them. I can not set the Digital output on the Playback devices from the volume mixer to default device.

Any help would be nice, Ireland1

 

Reinstall sound card drivers, I am currently going through the same issue

 

So is there no definitive fix for this? And I"m assuming Dell is just gonna let this slide.... they said they don't have any more new motherboards for the R4, and told me I can purchase a refurbished part, which I declined, as I have gone through 2 "refurb" boards and I still have this problems.

 

Like You, Ive had the same problems

I just uninstalled the creative drivers, and the second time I opened the computer, windows just installed default speakers and headphone drivers. Ive been a happy camper since

I've recently added a USB dac, and now after I removed the USB dac, I'm having the same problems again. and shutting down/ rebooting dosn't seem to discover the speakers


Just putting it out there.

It's disappointing that with so many people having this problem, dell has not even taken notice, nor do we have a general consensus on what's wrong.

Who's the alienware rep on this board? (or knows one personally)

EDIT: Putting the computer to sleep and waking up immediately fixed the problem. I would still like to know what causes this, now more out of curiosity than anything

 

Sleep cycling works for me too, but its so damn annoying, and even more frustrating that Dell simply ignores this problem, and now just supplies broken boards to fix broken boards.....
Researching the problem (apart from the Recon3di card), it seems the soundblaster Zx (which mysteriously has the same hardware and device ID's as our Recon3di cards), also report similar problems after power cycling or sleep cycling, remedied by reseating the card or cycling the power again. Unfortunately, they can RMA their cards or buy new cards. We can only buy refurbished motherboards. My guess is, its some sort of bug on the EEPROM or low level programming of the sound chip itself, which cannot be programmed with a BIOS reflash.

Not to mention, this isn't limited to the M17x R4. This is a huge problem, it spans M14x R2, M17x R4, and M18x R2 systems.

Alienware reps, your comments would be appreciated.

 

It is not even limited to Dell/Alienware products. Searching the web for solutions, I found that it seems to be a Creative Recon3Di problem for all machines that use this audio chipset. I saw a few reports of the same problems with owners of other laptop brands.

Based strictly on my own experience, it seems that putting the machine to sleep and resuming from sleep works 100% of the time, but rebooting does not always work for some reason. It is also interesting that the experience varies widely among users, and it is inconsistent on a specific machine. Some people have it happen constantly. I have sometimes gone for 2 or 3 months without it happening, then maybe it starts to occur once a week, sometimes more frequently, then the problem mysterious goes away again for a long time.

 

It has to be a bug in the EEPROM of the soundchip, i'm sure of it. I just don't have the technical know how to wire a dumper and dump the EEPROM, work through tons of proprietary code to find the problem. Its just too bad Alienware has done nothing about it, and offers absolutely no solution other than buying an entirely new laptop.

 

^ that is the closest to a diagnostic guess I have heard from anybody so far. Now if I only knew what an EEPROM is.

 

Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory.

It includes what we often call a "BIOS chip" in ordinary terms, but it can be any kind of firmware flash programmable electronics chip.

One that cannot be reprogrammed by flashing is an EPROM. The audio chipset likely includes an EPROM module.

 

I have the same bug with my m17x r4, I noticed it only appears if the laptop is in battery mode
(laptop is on power supply --> go to hibernation --> remove cable --> turn PC on --> sound card is gone)
if I go to standby mode and turn it on again, the Sound Blaster Recon3Di is shown again.
I also noticed if I have the bug and don't "restart", the m17x crashes after approximately 20 minutes.

Is the fault with you even just when the PC is in battery mode?
Does it also crash when you don't put the machine to sleep and resuming it from sleep?

 

Hello alex. Welcome to NBR. Glad to have you here in the Alienware Community.

I will have to pay closer attention the next time it happens. Now that you mention it, kind of seems like maybe when this happens to me it could have something to do with the AC adapter being accidentally disconnected at startup. I always disable my Windows system sound theme because I don't like receiving audible feedback about my system use. So, I often do not even notice that the audio has stopped working until I try to play a game, YouTube video or something like that. It is only then that I notice that the audio has stopped working.

I hardly ever use the machine in battery mode and I never use sleep or hibernation. The only reason I ever use sleep is specifically to correct this audio problem. That could be why I so seldom experience the problem. I have never experienced the crashing problem you mention. Your crashing issue is probably unrelated to the audio problem. Instability and malfunction is one of the reasons I don't use sleep or hibernation and simply turn my computers off when I am done using them.

 

FWIW, I'm 100% always hooked up to AC power, and I shut the lid everytime I don't use it, putting the laptop to sleep. 3 out of 4 times my soundcard disappears, and for some lovely reason, flash plugin crashes on EVERYTHING, so that forces a restart.....and after the restart, the soundcard still doesn't show up 9 out of 10 times, forcing me to sleep cycle. What a joke this chip is.

 

I am almost always connected to AC, too. I never run on battery other than when I am traveling without access to AC power or accidentally unplug it. I always turn off my system and the only time I ever use sleep is to revive the Recond3Di. I have disabled hibernation and all of my sleep settings are disabled (selected all "Do Nothing" options for sleep in my power profiles). The only way I can put my system to sleep is by using the option on the Programs Menu Start button. Maybe the fact that you are using sleep instead of shutting the system down is causing more problems with the Recon3Di for you. Have you tried not using sleep for a few weeks and shutting down/cold booting every time?