Problems with ny New Inspiron 1520

Buyed a new Inspiron 1520 with Vista on it, and sadly, i have some software to run that doesn't run on Vista so far.

So i've installed XP on it, but i have problem finding the drivers for the sound card

sound card is: Integraded Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software Edition

(i didn't even find them on the sould blaster site)

Also, as a side note, i had to disable de AHCI SATA fonction for XP setup to find the HDD to install on. I haven't been able to restore that fonction yet (whatever it does for XP)

Can someone give me a quick link to the good drivers for my sound problem?

Thank you

 

That's not a sound card--it's software. You'll have to download the XP version from the drivers section on Dell's site. Your card is a Sigmatel card, for which you will have to install the drivers before the Sound Blaster software will work.

 

This really needs to be PINNED because I post this same exact thing (written by me) at least once a day here...

That problem is because the OS can't see the drive, but it does because you installed it...right? Typically, you assign RAID drivers and stuff so you can install on that drive because it doesn't see it...but this gets confusing, because it actually sees it. When it asks you where to install, you'll see an option to load drivers - you want to go to support.dell.com and download the Intel Matrix Storage Manager and load the drivers in there prior to installing. The problem is you need a special AHCI driver, and not the generic Microsoft one. Yes, this is really frustrating and I was the first person to post about this in the forums - I called Dell and they had no idea what I was talking about, I had to figure all of this out on my own...

If you don't know how to do this, or anything like that...and don't mind taking a *small* performance increase for ease just go into your BIOS and see the HDD operation mode from AHCI to ATA and then you can install Vista using ANY disk!

The direct download link for Intel Matrix Storage Driver is here:

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=41&fileid=205611

Oh, and this applies to the 1420, 1520, 1720, m1330, and I assume the m1730 as well

 

ok so does this also need to be done for installing a different version of vista as well???

 

For installing XP - the easiest method is to disable AHCI temporarily, then install XP, then load the AHCI drivers for XP and then enable AHCI from the BIOS.... For installing Vista I think the supplied Vista Restore Disc from DELL will be able to detect the hard drive without any hassles...