XPS 13 9343 (2015) - Windows 7/8 Dual Boot Issues

Specs: I have the i5 FHD XPS 13 9343 with 8gb of ram and 256gb SSD.

I bought the computer for dual personal and business purposes. My company uses citrix to access virtual desktops and the security requirements are Windows 7/IE 9. Upon purchase, I partitioned part of the hard drive and installed Windows 7 alongside Windows 8.1.

Installing Windows 7 through UEFI mode to avoid having to wipe my Windows 8.1 install was challenging but I succeeded and installed all the Windows 7 drivers on Dells website. I got IE 9 and remote access up and running and thought I was good to go. The touchpad is a little rough in Windows 7, however when I am remote working I always have a mouse so it's not a big deal.

Then the issue began. I noticed that in Windows 8.1, when I put the computer to sleep, I would lose my audio device. When I restarted it would still be gone, only a full shutdown would bring it back. I also began to lose my audio device in Windows 7 either after sleep or entirely from a cold startup.

I have tried everything. Uninstalled and reinstalled the realtek drivers under windows 7 and 8.1 multiple times, tried to get microsoft HD audio drivers to install, even attempted a regedit fix I found on pcgamer.com. Nothing has gotten me to the point where I can consistently sleep the computer in both OSes and regain sound, or restart between OSes and keep the sound. Sometimes I can sleep the computer and keep sound, however once I lose it, I must shutdown and startup again to regain it.

The hard drive still has the original partitions from Dell. I don't know if this has any effect. My Windows 7 partition is 60 GB.

Anyone who has any idea what may be happening I would love some help. I really don't want to wipe the HD since my remote access is so finicky and I would rather not lose that Windows 7 install at this time.

 

Hello, i just created an account to tell you, I have the same behavior with the sound card on my new dell xps 13 2015, sometimes it's desappear and come back later after reboot or a shutdown.
I don't have dual boot, I deal with windows 8.1 for the moment.
When I have no sound, I can't ressucitate the realtek device playing with drivers (re)installation...

 

I am sorry to answer a question with another question but you said you installed Windows 7 through UEFI mode, can you tell me how to do that? Change the BIOS to UEFI from Legacy? Mine is stuck on Legacy mode ever since I changed it from UEFI to clean install Windows 10 because it wouldn't take USB boot disk in UEFI mode.

 

It's an audio driver issue.

Be sure to go on Dell's website and install all audio drivers and motherboard chipset drivers.

I'm sure you probably already tried that. But try different drivers. It is definitely a driver issue

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